Do Navajos want power plant jobs, or happiness?

Are we after jobs, or are we after happiness? When I reflect on happiness, what comes to mind is a sustainable, rejuvenated future — simply put, a future suitable for human living. It’s possible the next generation won’t be worried about jobs, as they’ll simply be trying to survive in an upside-down environment caused by our decisions.

And the future of the Navajo Generating Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in the western United States and the seventh-largest individual contributor to climate pollution in the country, is at the center of this threat. Interestingly, the assault to our environment is not the only attack happening.

Much is made of the NGS owners’ decision to shut down the plant by December, barring the Navajo Nation shuffling its cards to keep the plant open two more years or decades longer. The existing lease expires in December 2019, with an option to renew an additional 25 years now left on the table by Salt River Project.

The reason for the shutdown? Majority owner SRP stated it clearly in February: “The decision by the utility owners of NGS is based on the rapidly changing economics of the energy industry, which has seen natural gas prices sink to record lows and become a viable long-term and economical alternative to coal power.”

The heart of the issue is jobs. The lure of jobs for an economically starved region makes us especially subject to manipulation by devious actors, political and industrial. As such, we see attempts to strong-arm naturalresource extraction with ease and at cheap rates to maintain power and elaborate lifestyles hundreds of miles away. This is typical given decades of similar history.

These actors remind us of our 50 percent unemployment rate, essentially holding mirrors to our faces while painting a worse picture if the Navajo Nation fails to keep the industry alive. They “cry” our cries, only to disregard our needs virtually everywhere else. They create emergency scenarios by waiting until the eleventh hour to reveal pivotal decisions coupled with fast-approaching “hard deadlines,” forcing hurried decisions.

The result is Navajo and Hopi people suffering cultural, economic and environmental injustice. Yes, we still have Navajo and Hopi people awaiting basic amenities like running water or electricity, all while other Arizonans enjoy First World comforts supported by the NGS.

Navajo people now scramble to save the Navajo Generating Station and its supplier, Peabody Western Coal, in a market visibly running the opposite direction. Their arrangement has the Navajo Nation do this in five months, compared with the years it took to negotiate the last lease-renewal agreement that the Navajo Nation approved and SRP ultimately declined to sign.

Should the Navajo Nation courageously decline options designed to extend the plant’s operation beyond 2019 and champion intelligent forethought — rooted in indigenous responsibility and cutting-edge renewable-energy technology — we collectively stand to chart new paths poised for a just future where we can honestly look our children in the eyes and say we care.

Certainly, plant and mine workers blindsided by sudden job-loss possibilities deserve more time to transition. Never mind the selfish actors and those who say renewable energy is still premature. What we knew two years ago about renewable technology is not what we know now. We can do better. We have to do better.

Eric Descheenie is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, a resident of Chinle and a Democratic lawmaker representing Legislative District 7 in the Arizona Legislature. Email him at EDescheenie@azleg.gov.