The Trump administration remains committed to finding a way to keep the largest coal plant in the West up and running beyond 2019, despite a setback on Thursday to find a new buyer for the plant.
“The Department remains committed to exploring options that stakeholders may present for an economically-viable option for the Navajo Generating Station,” Theresa Eisenman, chief spokeswoman for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, told the Washington Examiner on Friday.
“Interior will continue to support a path forward that meets this objective and recognizes the economic implications to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe, as well as Tribes and water users in central and southern Arizona,” said Eisenman.
The Bureau of Reclamation owns a 25 percent stake in the plant, which was designated by Congress to be built in the 1970s to power the pumps to supply water to a growing population in Arizona. In 2017, the other owners of the plant agreed to close it based on competition from other energy resources, specifically low-cost natural gas.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke stepped in to get them to agree to keep the plant open through 2019, while the coal company Peabody, which supplies the plant’s fuel, launched an initiative to find a new owner. Keeping the plant open through 2040 is seen as part of Trump’s commitment to the coal industry.
But on Thursday, Zinke’s plan suffered a setback when the capital venture firm Middle River Power announced it would not be moving forward with the purchase of the plant.
The Navajo Nation leases the land the plant resides on, and the power plant is a source of income and employment for both the Navajo and Hopi tribes.
Nevertheless, some members of the Navajo community want the plant closed, saying it costs too much to maintain, and should be replaced by renewable energy.
“Based on economics alone, this plant was never going to make it past 2019,” said Nadine Narindrankura of To Nizhoni Ani, representing the Navajo community, in a statement after the Middle River Power decision was announced.
“The future is in renewables, not in a dead coal market,” she added.
“The time and money spent over the last year to find someone to buy the costly coal plant distracted from a clean energy transition that our people desperately need,” Narindrankura said in a statement from community leaders. “Navajo leadership needs to seize this moment.”
