Navajo generator:
President Donald Trump’s new Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, attends a meeting in Washington, D.C., Wednesday and lends his backing to the troubled Navajo Generating Station coal plant near
Newly confirmed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke attended a Washington meeting Wednesday to lend his support to the troubled Navajo Generating Station coal plant near Page.
Although he offered no specific proposal for the facility, some stakeholders took it as a positive sign that President Donald Trump’s appointee to the agency is focused on the coal plant and nearby mine, both on tribal lands.
Four utility owners of the plant, led by Salt River Project, have said they will run the plant no longer than 2019 and could close it this year. They will assist in a transition of ownership, though, if a new buyer is found.
Zinke’s Interior Department owns a share of the plant through the Bureau of Reclamation, which uses its share of the power to pump Colorado River water in the Central Arizona Project canal.
CAP officials have said that like the utilities, they could save money by closing the plant and relying on cheaper natural-gas power. But the Bureau of Reclamation, like the Navajo and Hopi tribal leaders, is working to keep the plant open.
Zinke, a former Navy SEAL and Republican congressman from Montana who was confirmed to the Cabinet position last month, said the plant has his attention, according to meeting attendees.
Zinke also met with two utility regulators from Arizona, Boyd Dunn and Andy Tobin, who attended the meeting.
“Everyone is on the same page,” Dunn said. “Let’s look at the alternatives, look at these issues from a different point of view.”
Dunn said he encouraged Zinke to visit Arizona, and that Zinke pledged that the next monthly meeting on the power plant in May will take place in the state and that the secretary will attend if his schedule permits.
Other stakeholders were pleased the secretary was looking at the issue.
“All he did was acknowledge it was a big issue,” SRP Deputy General Manager Mike Hummel said. “We hope that points to a level of interest from the federal government.”
Keeping it open will require a new, extended lease for the power plant with the Navajo Nation. The current lease expires in 2019 and without an extension, decommissioning the plant will need to begin this year, SRP officials said.
“We are making good progress with the nation (on a lease),” Hummel said. “All of that said, there is still a lot of ground to cover. Everybody is committed to doing it. We want to, the Nation