US: August 4, 2008


NEW YORK - The president of the Navajo Nation said that US environmental regulators approved a final air permit on Thursday for a proposed 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant in New Mexico, considered an important step in moving the US$3 billion to US$4 billion project forward.


Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley has waited more than four years for the permit for the Desert Rock plant from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

"We know that there will continue to be challenges, but hopefully at day's end we will prevail," Shirley said in a release.

Worries about greenhouse gas and other emissions and opposition from local groups helped lead to the delays.

Desert Rock is being developed jointly by the Navajos' Dine Power Authority and private company Sithe Global, a global developer of coal plants.

Shirley believes the plant would provide up to 400 long-term jobs for his people and pay more than US$50 million annually to the Navajos.

Opponents say the plant would add to pollution from two other massive coal plants in the region and would provide most of its power to rapidly growing Arizona and Nevada while many Navajos would go without power.

"EPA's irresponsible, inappropriate decision has failed Navajo communities and needlessly sacrificed our air, land and water," said Dailan Long of Dine CARE, a local group. "It is a devastating blow to tribal members who continually suffer from the large coal complex encroaching upon our land."

Earlier this year, the developers sued the EPA to act on the permit. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, editing by Matthew Lewis)


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