Members of the Navajo Nation protested along Fifth Ave. Monday to urge a Midtown investment group to back out of a bid to buy an Arizona coal plant they said could hurt their community.
Coal is a dead end for the Navajo, and Avenue Capital’s interest in keeping the Navajo Generating Station operating threatens to derail tribal efforts to transition to a clean energy economy that would bring power to thousands of Navajos currently living in the dark.
“They will walk away with profits, but we will walk away with nothing, once more,” said Nicole Horseherder, 48, a member of the tribe who lives near the site of the coal-fired electricity plant.
The Navajo Generating Station, which sits on land owned by the Navajo Nation, is set to shut down in December 2019. The owner of its largest share, utility company Salt River Project, can get better electricity prices from natural-gas plants. Shutting down the plant would cause the closure of the Kayenta coal mine, run by Peabody Mine 80 miles away. But Peabody wants to keep its sole customer going, so it is looking for a buyer for the electricity plant. Enter Avenue Capital, which is being courted by Peabody to purchase the plant.
But Navajo tribe members said the coal mine and the power plant have drained local aquifers to the point that they need to travel up to 70 miles several times a week to buy water.
An Avenue Capital spokesman declined to comment.
