Obama hates red people

Navajo Tribe Eyes Coal Plant As Economic Savior

When the coal-fired, air-polluting Mohave Generating Station was forced to close in 2005, the Navajo tribe paid the price. The plant ran on coal mined by Peabody Energy (nyse: BTU - news - people ) from Navajo lands 270 miles away in Arizona. The closing wiped out $40 million from the Navajo's annual budget, a 25% slash. The unemployment rate today among the 200,000 Navajo is 50%. "Crime is up, drug use is up. I'm losing people every day," says Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr.

So the tribe, with help from New York power speculator Sithe Global, wants to build an ultraclean $3.5 billion power plant on tribal land in New Mexico near Four Corners. But putting up a coal plant these days involves a struggle, and if anything, federal oversight means it's even harder to build a power plant on a reservation than off it. The tribe's opponents: the Sierra Club and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, among others.
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The Environmental Protection Agency says the Desert Rock Energy Project, as the Navajo plant is dubbed, would be one of the cleanest coal plants in the nation. The 1.5-gigawatt monster would emit 0.26 grams of sulfur dioxide per kilowatt-hour generated, 20% as much as an average coal plant. Situated adjacent to a mine operated by bhp Billiton, it would bring the tribe at least $50 million a year in royalties and tax revenue while creating 1,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs.

EPA withdraws permit for massive Navajo coal plant

U.S. environmental regulators said they have withdrawn a permit for a massive coal-fired power plant that had been scheduled to be built on the Navajo Nation to send electricity to populated areas to the West.

The Environmental Protection Agency late on Monday withdrew the air permit that was issued last summer for the proposed 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock power plant. Sithe Global Power, LLC had planned to build the plant in northwestern New Mexico and send its power to rapidly-growing cities in Arizona and Nevada.

The regulators found the permit was issued before complete analysis of its emissions and impact on endangered species.

The move was another example of President Barack Obama's administration cracking down on coal

I'm thinking the land belongs to the Navajo and they should be able to build any damn thing they want. I don't recall them asking to be part of the United States but were subjected to it.

BTW as far as the red people comment my Great Great Grandmother on both sides was full blooded Cherokee so I am playing my own damn race card.