We can do better than hydrogen

Despite receiving little to no community engagement from the Western Interstate Hydrogen Hub, or WISHH, participants (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming) and their private partners, more and more communities on Navajo Nation have passed resolutions against hydrogen development.

Of 110 Navajo chapters, 35 have passed resolutions opposing hydrogen produced from a methane source or blue/gray hydrogen. Chapter resolutions are voted on by communities members within a chapter boundary and reflect the will and democratic process of the Navajo people.

Ideally this process should guide Navajo leaders like Navajo Nation Council Delegates and President Buu Nygren in deciding whether to support a project. Regarding hydrogen, this means that almost a third of the Navajo Nation doesn’t agree with using land, their water and natural gas resources to support an endeavor that ultimately won’t benefit Navajo communities directly.

Yet, hydrogen developers have submitted their bid for funds from the Department of Energy, without giving Navajo communities the courtesy of understanding the full scope of projects that they will be hosting. Out of the eight hydrogen projects identified by WISHH, three would be in San Juan County, which overlaps the Navajo reservation.

Sure, WISHH has shared its hydrogen concept paper albeit a redacted version and yes, WISHH has done approximately two roundtables where questions were asked but never really answered. All of which indicates either a lack of understanding of what community engagement means or seemingly, WISHH and state leadership like New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and her whole administration don’t care about being good neighbors to Indigenous nations.

While New Mexico can claim it is addressing climate change with “green” projects like hydrogen development, Indigenous communities, yet again, are becoming the state’s trash bin and a means of hiding their addiction to fossil fuel. Because the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t have the resources to monitor greenhouse gas emissions and New Mexico won’t count upstream or imported emissions, tribal nations like the Navajo Nation become the perfect place to hide New Mexico’s dirty secrets and further a fossil fuel agenda.

If the Department of Energy funds WISHH, then it will be a part of the problem too, enabling a state that is doing the opposite of what the Biden administration says are its goals, funding projects that will harm already impacted communities.

There are better options such as investing funds in beneficial energy and economic solutions like cleaning up the hundreds of abandoned oil and gas wells, sustainable and regenerative farming and solar energy — not climate-damaging hydrogen or risky carbon sequestration in San Juan Basin geologic formations.

Jessica Keetso is a community organizer with Tó Nizhóní Ání (Sacred Water Speaks), on the Navajo Nation.