Large coal companies, miners, and tribes are suing to keep the giant Navajo Generating Station coal plant in Arizona from closing, while saying Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke needs to do more to save it.
Part of the reason the groups filed the lawsuit in Arizona’s federal district court on Tuesday is to coax the Interior Department, which owns a 25 percent stake in the plant, to come to its defense and keep it open.
The Hopi, the United Mine Workers, and coal giant Peabody sued the Central Arizona Water Conservation District for its plans to no longer buy power from the coal plant in favor of natural gas and renewable energy.
They say Zinke has become lax in defending the plant, when he has the clear legal authority to do so.
John Shadegg, former congressman and a lawyer for the mine workers, wants Zinke to understand that the government has huge authority over who uses the electricity the plant generates, so the plant’s customer base is not completely eroded.
The plaintiffs hope Zinke will read the lawsuit, see the role he plays, and act to save the plant.
“I believe the secretary of Interior needs to look very close at this issue, and I believe he has much greater legal authority to protect the Hopi and Navajo people, whose economy is linked to the plant, than he realizes,” Shadegg said.
The lawsuit argues that the Central Arizona Water Conservation District’s decision “is contrary to federal law,” because the law that sanctioned the creation of the coal plant directed Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation to enter into an agreement with the district to buy the plant’s power.
The plant was sanctioned by Congress to ship water from the Colorado River to water Arizona’s arid landscape through the bureau’s creation of the Central Arizona Project, which includes the power plant.
“For nearly 30 years, the Central Arizona Project has brought water from the Colorado River to Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties, greening the area and facilitating its economic growth,” the lawsuit says. “Moving all of that water requires significant electrical power,” which is where the 2,250-megawatt coal plant comes in.
By comparison, one of the largest coal plants in the East, the American Electric Power Cardinal coal plant on the Ohio River, has the ability to generate a little over 1,800 MW of electricity.
Zinke had facilitated negotiations for the plant to stay open last year. Most of its owners had wanted to close it by the end of 2019. Zinke managed to keep that ball from dropping, but he has been quiet about the plant’s customers’ plans to shut it.
The Interior Department did not reply to a request for comment.
The coal plant had been seen as a symbol of President Trump’s pledge to keep coal workers employed. Zinke’s early involvement was a testament to that. But now the administration’s commitment to the power plant may be failing, according to the plaintiffs in the case.
Some close to the case say Zinke doesn’t want to appear too supportive of coal, showing favor for a resource that he believes the government may not have a clear role in protecting.
One source speculated that Zinke’s principles as a staunch conservative mean he’s opposed to the government owning a power plant. He doesn’t want the government to solve the plant’s problems, and he wants the private owners and Peabody, which supplies the plant, to work it out, the source says.
