René O'Deay gBlog

Members of Dooda Desert Rock, the Navajo Protesters, Alice Gilmore, Elouise Brown, her son JC, her brother-in-law and her grandfather, Julius Gilmore, and the grandparents Alice and Julius who have lived their whole lives just down the hill from the proposed plant location. They would have to be relocated if the power plant is built.

Two other coal-burning power plants are also located within about ten miles, including the noxious Four Corners Plant, one of the largest coal-burning plants and the dirtiest polluters in the US that has operated without federal regulation since 1960.

The Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico emits 15 million tons of nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and mercury, an established neuro-toxin. The plant's annual emissions of nitrogren oxide, (NOx), are higher than any other US coal plant, totaling 40,742 tons; this amount is equivalent to the emissions released from approximately two million vehicles driven an average of 15,000 miles per year. Emissions from this plant are so extraordinarily high due to a startling and unacceptable lack of regulation. Located on a Navajo reservation, neither tribal, state nor federal emission restrictions have been placed on the plant. In 1999 the EPA recognized the need for a federal implementation plan, or FIP, to set air pollution emission limits for the Four Corners plant. However, for the past seven years the EPA has failed to finalize this vital plan. Sierra Club report

Now these people who have put up with that all these years are having to deal with the threat of another one located in their backyard.

At stake is $50 million a year income for the Navajos and 400 possible permanent jobs.

To meet the country's growing demand for energy, there are about 150 new coal-burning power plants on the drawing board.

But not everyone is thrilled about relying on coal as a future energy source.

The list of proposed new coal plants is chilling. There could be one planned for your neighborhood!

Documents about the proposed new plants on GLRC Public Radio Website.

The biggest problem I see here, is that not one seems to be aware of the new process developed by Purdue University Scientists that could make converting coal to energy or fuel completely carbon dioxide free, and possibly free of other pollutants.

I wrote about it last March Biofuels BreakThrough

Purdue reports they are pursuing patents on the process and developing equipment and other processes to make the conversion commercially feasible.

More on the Navajo Power Plants at Voices from the Earth