For more than 40 years, the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, powered the American west. Today, its lights are dim.
At its height, the coal plant produced enough annual energy to power more than 1.6 million homes, including many in the city of Los Angeles. It also acted as a lifeline for the tribe in the form of jobs and energy sales — but as more and more users turned toward alternate sources of energy, the plant became increasingly less viable.
When the Generating Station shuttered for good last November, the impact was devastating: more than 1,500 workers lost their jobs, and the tribe lost an estimated annual revenue of $30-$50 million.
Today, the future looks bright again. At the end of February, Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell proposed a new agreement with the Navajo Nation that would place solar and renewable energy sources on the tribe’s land for resale back to L.A. The plan is being touted as a measure of “environmental justice,” and if it works, it could act as a model for other coal communities nationwide.
“When the City of L.A. pulled out from the coal station a few years back, it did so abruptly, which caused the other partners to also back out,” O’Farrell said in a statement to Annenberg Media, referencing the city’s divestment from the Navajo Generating Station in 2016. (Los Angeles aims to be completely free of coal power by 2025.)
“When the city made its decision back then, it did so in an inequitable method,” O’Farrell said. “The needs of the tribe were ignored.”
Calling the proposal “mutually beneficial,” the city council voted in February to move it into an exploratory phase. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will conduct a study on the project’s feasibility and report back later this month, but transporting energy from one place — such as Arizona — to another city or state isn’t as straightforward as it sounds.
“The renewable energy project would generate electricity on tribal lands, and those electricity generators would be connected to the grid,” explained Kelly Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC.
Sanders said that buying energy is more akin to paying a water bill than it is to purchasing tangible goods, in that it’s more about access and quantity than specific electrons or molecules.
“You can think of these as offsets, rather than the Navajo actually sending electricity to Los Angeles,” Sanders said. “The electricity goes onto the grid to be used by anyone that is connected, but LADWP will get credit for the renewable electricity generation, regardless of whether those electrons get used in L.A.”
The concept is being explored in other parts of the country as well. In February, Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced that more than $170 million in federal funds will be granted to states and tribes for reclaiming and repurposing former coal lands. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more than 545 coal powered units have closed since 2010.
As for LADWP’s study, the agency is focusing on two metrics: the ability of the Navajo’s land to harvest solar, wind and hydro energy on site, and the cost/benefit impact on ratepayers. They are hopeful that it will prove to be viable.
“Navajo Nation presents an interesting opportunity for us, given their willingness to partner with us on clean energy projects on tribal lands,” said LADWP representative Ellen Cheng. “LADWP looks forward to continuing discussions with the Navajo Nation and identifying opportunities to work together to reach our mutual renewable goals.”
The tribe is hopeful, too.
“We have gone through some hardships.” said Navajo Nation president Jonathan Nez at the proposal meeting in Los Angeles. The Navajo Nation consists of 350,000 members and 27,000 square miles.
“We are resilient people,” Nez said. “We want to be leaders in renewable energy in Indian Country, and we are already moving forward on that path.”