Navajo coal plant closure will allow cheaper options

PHOENIX — The impending closure of a coal-fired utility plant on the Navajo Nation will save millions of dollars by allowing the Central Arizona Project to buy power cheaper on the open market, officials said.

Experts expect rates and supplies will not be affected by the projected shutdown of the Navajo Generating Station in 2019, The Arizona Republic reported.

The Central Arizona Project spent $81.2 million last year on power from the facility and made $12 million selling the surplus.

Natural gas would have saved about $26.5 million.

“Twenty-six point five million really sticks in my craw,” said Terry Goddard, a project board member and former Phoenix mayor and state attorney general. “We are subsidizing or moving in a losing proposition. We should do something to stop that if we possibly can.

“Are we the dog or the tail, the windshield or the bug?”

Other board members were concerned about the volatility of natural gas prices.

Tribal officials have expressed concerns about what the shutdown will do to the area’s economy.