One Hurdle Surmounted
The Navajo Nation has approved the lease renewal on the Four Corners Power Plant that will be necessary for its operator and majority owner, Arizona Public Service, to go through with its plan to meet new pollution-control standards by closing the three older, less efficient units at the plant and buying out Southern California Edison‘s share of the other two units. As I mentioned before in discussing the proposed deal, this is just one of several steps that APS has to go through to make this work, but it’s an important one. Note that Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, a local environmental group, seems to approve of the renewal despite the fact that it means the plant will keep operating. This is a very big plant that has a big impact on the Navajo economy and the regional power grid, so closing it entirely is not really a plausible option, especially from the Tribe’s perspective. Eisenfeld does seem to imply that the plant will not in fact continue operating for the entire 25-year lease period given the probability that coal will become a less attractive option for energy generation in the coming years, which is certainly plausible enough and explains why environmental groups like SJCA may not see much point in trying to attack this deal now. The EPA, which is responsible for the new regulations to reduce haze from the plant that spurred APS to come up with this plan, is on board too.
