NewEnergyNews Coal Corner

GUEST LEAD POST – Let a thousand carbon taxes bloom!

2010-09-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

Ted Glick, September 16, 2010

Are you frustrated by the inaction in Washington, D.C. on the deepening climate crisis? Are you trying to figure out what more you could do, in addition to what you’re already doing, to advance a much-needed clean energy revolution in the USA?

Here’s an answer: work to enact a local tax on carbon polluters in your area. It can happen, and it doesn’t take forever! In May of this year, in Montgomery County, Md., the County Council became the first county government in the country to enact a carbon tax.
The owners of an 850 megawatt coal plant in the county, Mirant Corporation, will now have to pay approximately $15 million a year to the county for their pollution!

Mirant went to federal court soon after this decision and lost. They have appealed to the Court of Appeals.

You can find out more details about this successful campaign below.

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network urges you to discuss this with other activists in your area and then reach out to town, city or county council members who have done positive things on the environment. It just takes one council member to introduce carbon tax legislation. We have information that can help you with your local effort at this link (http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/detail/campaign.cfm?id=149) and here (http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/mem/berliner_r/pdfs/carbon_tax_information_packet.pdf).

Let’s cultivate the seeds, shoots and flowers of a thousand local carbon tax efforts around the country!

The Montgomery County Council campaign
The successful effort in Montgomery County was directed at Mirant Corporation’s coal plant in Dickerson, Md. The carbon tax legislation was written to apply to any entity in the county which emits more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, and Mirant is the only one that meets that criterion.

The $5 per ton tax will generate more than $15 million for the county at the same time that it creates an economic incentive for Mirant to reduce its emissions. At least half of the tax revenue will be used to fund county energy efficiency programs. The tax will have no discernible impact on local ratepayers, according to PEPCO, the local utility. PEPCO buys its power in an auction; if Mirant’s power is not competitive, it will not be purchased, and Mirant does not have enough “market power” to raise the price of power unilaterally.

This victory was not won easily. Mirant and the Electric Power Supply Association used all kinds of tactics against the proposal, obviously treating it as a national test case. And in a classic case of overkill tactics backfiring, they brought in rowdy and disruptive Tea party protesters to a council meeting where a key vote was taken. Their behavior ended up strengthening support for the measure, and it passed by a vote of 8-1.

It is gratifying that this carbon tax bill is now law. It is gratifying that polluter Mirant lost this round. It is gratifying that the Tea Party crowd was confronted and defeated. It will be even more gratifying if this victory in one county helps lead to similar efforts and victories in many other towns and counties this year and in coming years.

WANT CHANGE? THIS IS HOW – HARD, GRINDING, UNRELENTING WORK

2010-08-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

This incredible story of dedicated work leading to an important victory in the war against coal was picked up from the No New Coal Plants email group operated by the Energy Justice Network. Don't look for eloquent prose. These are just the facts. Reitman, a Sierra Club Field Organizer, is way too busy working to protect this good earth to polish the writing. NewEnergyNews could, of course, do so - but it seems more respectful to what happened in Cleveland to let Reitman's raw account stand.

A story of success
Matthew/Mattie Reitman, August 13, 2010

Background
The Medical Center Company, a non-profit district heating operation formed in 1932 to provide aggregated utility services to University Circle institutions in eastern Cleveland, burns 40,000 tons of coal/year to heat the city's leading institutions. After operating its ancient plant without a permit for 6 years running, this spring the Ohio EPA finally set a renewal process for their Title V air permit.

University Circle, formerly powered by coal (click to enlarge)

The plant is part of a hospital complex, a couple hundred feet from college apartments and commerce, and a few hundred feet from Case Western Reserve University, an emerging regional clean energy leader. University Circle has a history of sucking development money away from surrounding neighborhoods, which are predominantly Black, have high levels of poverty and abandonment, and generally feel disconnected from the University world.

The coal plant not to be (click to enlarge)

A few years ago, a Baltimore-based consultant recommended that MCC build a new coal-fired plant. Probably around the same time, their largest customer Case Western Reserve University signed the President's Climate Commitment. Hmmmm

A few months ago
Sierra coal campaign rep Nachy Kanfer asked the OEPA for a public hearing on this permit renewal, and one was granted (250 blocks away on the other side of town, but with a handful of angry phone calls we got that changed...). The hearing presented a fixed opportunity to bring attention to this issue, which is especially timely since the company has been planning to replace their aging facility.

We met with MCC President Mike Heise in July, who confirmed the company's desire to move beyond coal. Heise said their consultant's report from just a few years ago was no longer relevant, and the costs of coal have become prohibitive for them. He seems to understand that those costs will continue to rise because of fuel prices and coming regulations. We made it clear that our members will push on this issue, and that we want to see a specific date and public announcement from them.

Sierra Club Ohio protests (click to enlarge)

Organizing
We had two great contacts in East Cleveland who were total gatekeepers to the local community, local politicians, non-profits, and active University Circle types I met with them and the rest was something of a snowball effect.

Here's what I did:
-meet with representatives from the Social Justice Alliance and Sustainability Alliance faculty groups
-meet with each of the groups organizing environmental justice community groups nearby
-presentation at one of those group's meetings
-meet with the northeast Ohio Sierra Club coal committee
-door-to-door in East Cleveland (poor, Black, high abandonment, 1 mile from plant, right next to proposed site for new plant)
-door-to-door on Murray Hill (college neighborhood mere hundreds of feet from the stacks)
-meet with President of University Circle Inc which functions as the area CDC
-phone conversations with Council members from Cleveland and East Cleveland
-phone and email conversations with MCC President, emails with Board Chair
-Convio emails
-HELEN phone banking
-4 rounds of media pitches including developing a media advisory and press releases
-3 organizing trips to get it all done, for a total of 6 days on the road

click to enlarge

Coal Free!
The public hearing was scheduled for Tuesday August 10th. On Saturday I came into the office to finish up the phone bank, and saw an email from Bob Brown, who's the Treasurer at Case and Chair of the MCC (and also just so happens to be Sen. Sherrod Brown's brother). He said "MCCo has posted some new information on its web site, including a statement regarding coal." They even used our campaign language - "Medical Center Company Moving Beyond Coal"!

A Sierra Club Ohio human windmill at a protest against coal. (click to enlarge)

Uhhhh, we've still got this hearing... So I returned the email with congratulations, and finished the phone bank. Thankfully, a proactive journalist from the Plain Dealer (main Cleveland newspaper) followed this and ran a story the day before the hearing. On Monday I updated key allies, and on Tuesday we still had a packed room of 70+ for the hearing. Nobody spoke in favor of the plant, many people requested a renewal conditional on a specific plan to move away from coal.

Unfortunately, no television or newspapers attended the hearing (jerks!). Fortunately, we don't need them! Check out this powerful video compilation of citizen testimony that I made as soon as I got home from the hearing (love that flip cam!). Our friend at the Plain Dealer did run a follow-up story today as well.

click to enlarge

The Future
MCC will finish its coal-free strategic plan by the end of 2011. From what I hear, the company is likely to give up its existing facility in its own backyard in favor of a natural gas plant in, you guessed it, East Cleveland. Three steps forward, two steps back, no?

My main focus from here on will be working with a professor at Case to do a community dialogue project around the proposed site, and work with our lead volunteers and grasstops to maintain a level of public involvement in this planning process.

From mattiereitman via YouTube

Matthew/Mattie Reitman
Beyond Coal Field Organizer, Ohio
Sierra Club, 131 N High St #605, Columbus OH 43215

Union workers say they're being squeezed out of APS jobs.

2010-05-07T06:14:00.002-07:00

Kathy Helms (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

FARMINGTON – A group of Navajo carpenters, laborers and millwrights working at Four Corners Power Plant believe they are being eased out of jobs by contractors hired by Arizona Public Service Co.

Members of the Carpenters Union Local 1319, Labor Local 16, Operating Engineers Local 953, and Millwrights Local 1607 met Monday in Farmington to raise concerns about the purpose of the Navajo Preference in Employment Act and other issues associated with APS bringing in outside contractors.

“We realize that the entire country is in a recession and employment is scarce for all, but is it also necessary to forgo Navajo laws in order to provide for families we don't have any familial obligations to?” asked Leland Gray.

“These corporations are sent here to our land in search of our natural resources in order to provide power and energy to urban areas where we really don't have any cultural ties. Yet, Navajos continue to pay with their land and, now, livelihood to provide for millions who will never know or appreciate the source of their comfort and luxury,” he said.

Damon Gross of APS said there are approximately 150 workers on-site that APS has brought in from contract companies.

Lee Pierce, a carpenter, said he has been at Four Corners off and on for about 30 years. He now works for Day & Zimmermann, the designated contractor, and the nation's leader in power plant maintenance and modifications.

“Navajo Preference has been pretty much deleted, and so far, management service looks the other way. We're slowly being forced out of our position and our work as far as Navajo craftsmen is concerned,” Pierce said.

“Our livelihood depends on this. We've got families here. We buy our goods here, and services, so the money is recirculated in this area while the other contractors, it's pretty much take the money and leave. The businessmen of San Juan County should be concerned also.”

The union members question whether non-union workers are being imported and paid wages below union scale while Navajo union workers are laid off. APS permanent workers are not being laid off, according to Gross, however, that is not to say that APS contractors do not have layoffs from their pool of workers as the rebuild jobs are completed.

Harold Litzin, a carpenter from Tsaile-Wheatfields, has been on the job for more than seven years. Litzin builds scaffolding, he said, but on Monday he watched Safeway Services bring in two rigs of materials and a bunch of workers. “The majority, what I see, is they are Hispanic,” he said.

According to Gross , 30 of the 150 outside contract workers are from Safeway and are non-union.

“Unit 2 at the Four Corners Power Plant is undergoing a planned maintenance outage, so the unit gets shut down while we do the necessary work to keep it operating. As such, that requires bringing in contract work to help complete the job in a safe and expedient manner,” Gross said.

Safeway has been a leader in scaffolding services and access solutions in North America since 1936. In the past, Gross said, the contractor they used installed lumber scaffolding. This year, APS wanted to try something different. Safeway scaffolding “goes together like an erector set. It's safe, it's meant for this usage, and when the work is done it's simply disassembled and then used again,” he said.

Instead of lumber being put together, then taken down, and APS having to find a purpose for that lumber, Gross said they thought the Safeway system “presented an opportunity to make the workplace even safer for those there, but we also believe it will help complete the work faster, and there's no wasted materials.”

Part of APS' commitment to Four Corners is hiring members of the Navajo Nation and giving them preference for jobs at the plant site, according to Gross. “About 73 percent of our full-time employees are from the Navajo Nation,” he said. However, if APS hires a contractor and they bring in their own permanent employees, Navajo Preference is not stipulated.

“That is the case with Safeway. These are their own permanent employees. These aren't supplemental contract workers that they're bringing in. If a company has their own employees already in place, we can't stipulate that they have to replace those employees for this one very small job,” he said.

Gross said all of Safeway's Hispanic workers have Social Security numbers, their Green Cards have been verified, and they are on the job legally.

Stanley Tso, a laborer with Local 16, said D&Z employees are drug-tested at random and questioned whether other outside contractors follow the same standards. Tso said he recently smelled alcohol in the work area. “When we have a case like that, a family member has to be called to drive them home.”

Tso and Felipe Dawes of Operating Engineers Local 953 questioned whether outside workers have the same certifications they as union workers are required to have. “I've got rigging cards. In order to rig, we're supposed to have rigging cards. Even driving a man-lift around, we're supposed to have cards for that,” Tso said.

Dawes, a union member for 37 years, agreed. “I see a lot of equipment being operated by non-union people. I don't know whether they have certifications or not. When I run my crane or forklift or whatever, I'm certified. On Unit 4, I was running an overhead crane. We were certified through APS to run that overhead crane.

“But outside, like the forklift and the hydraulic cranes, it's different. You can hurt someone very seriously without thinking about it, like by lifting materials up into the units and going around the units. It's posted 5 miles per hour. Some of them don't obey. They just take off like a bat out of hell.”

The union workers want to see Navajo tribal officials need to take more of an interest in what's going on at Four Corners. “We need backup,” Pierce said. “We expect them to step up to the plate, but it's not happening.”

Gray said he is concerned for his fellow workers. “APS is their bread and butter. They've been working there for 10 or 15 years, and then all the sudden, these guys come in, and they're just taking food off their table. Navajo people are losing their jobs on their own land. I just don't agree with that.”

Jerry Huskay said, “We love what we do at Arizona Public Service. We just don't understand why we are being replaced by non-Navajos and non-union workers. Maybe the managers at corporate should look and see how these new contractors are working and check to see if they are doing it safely.”

Attempt to increase chapter role in mineral negotiations fails.

2010-05-07T06:14:00.001-07:00

Kathy Helms (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amos Johnson's attempt to pass legislation which would have given local chapters and residents a bigger voice in the Nation's mineral leasing was defeated, 19-45, Thursday during the close of Council's spring session.

Johnson, who represents the communities of Black Mesa, Forest Lake and Rough Rock, proposed amendments to Title 18 which would have strengthened the involvement of impacted chapters in the approval of mineral leases, prospecting permits and similar contractual agreements between the Navajo Nation and other entities.

“The amendments to Title 18 would give the local chapters and people an opportunity to voice their concerns on all mineral leases – gas, oil, coal, and so forth, and be part of the negotiation which is centered up here in Window Rock today,” Johnson said.

“The negotiating team is limited to five people and the legislation is to change who is going to be on that team and how leases and permits are going to be processed. This is an opportunity for the local people to have an input on those kinds of initiatives or proposals that move forward.”

Delegate Lorenzo Bates expressed concern that the legislation would create more bureaucracy in the negotiation process.

“Navajo bureaucracy is slow. If you add this layer and another layer it slows it down even more,” he said. “If this legislation existed at the chapter level the process to negotiate would be hard because it would remain at that level.”

Johnson's legislation would have opened the door to public involvement in issues such as the 10-year lease reopener agreement with Peabody Western Coal Co., which has failed to gain approval from Council despite several attempts, and has been hotly contested by some Black Mesa residents and Peabody workers.

“My feeling is the Nation should not engage in public negotiation of these coal leases because they are very, very complicated,” Attorney General Louis Denetsosie said earlier this month during a work session on the Peabody reopener.

Activists such as Norman Benally, who grew up on Black Mesa and whose parents' home is in the Black Mesa lease area, opposed the lease reopener.

“I believe it is time to purge Peabody from Black Mesa permanently. The Navajo Nation and the people of Black Mesa should take ownership of Peabody's operations,” he said.

“The proposed 12 percent royalty renewal does not appear to show any results of any rational negotiating skills. I can never understand the logic the Navajo Nation uses to make the same mistake over and over, and call it leadership. ... The Navajo Nation is its own worst enemy,” he said.

Benally and other residents say that since the Black Mesa Mine closed following the closure of Mohave Generating Station in December 2005, the air quality has improved somewhat but is still polluted because of the coal fires at the Kayenta open-pit strip mines.

“The mess that Peabody leaves behind will be exponentially more expensive to clean up compared to the current royalty rate the Navajo Nation receives,” Benally said.

Johnson recently told the Resources Committee that Black Mesa and Forest Lake chapters have asked to be part of negotiations of mineral leases.

“The only time the local people met with mining officials was before mining occurred,” he said. “They were promised infrastructure and other benefits, but those officials never came back.”

Though Johnson's legislation was defeated Thursday, he said, “This is a wake-up call for everyone who serves on the Council to see what is going on within their areas and to start working with people.”

RECA bill brings hopes for 'justice'.

2010-05-07T06:13:00.001-07:00

Kathy Helms (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – Ever since he became a member of Congress in 1999, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., has been fighting to bring justice to the issue of compensation for uranium workers and downwinders.

“My father had a 30 year crusade for justice in the case of the miners and the downwinders, and during the course of that 30 years, he probably involved most of our family. While I was in private practice I worked with him on many of these cases,” Udall said last week regarding his introduction of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Amendments of 2010.

Udall's father, Stewart Udall, who passed away last month at age 90, was a former Secretary of the Interior and a strong advocate of compensation for Navajo uranium miners. He was instrumental in getting the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990 passed and testified to its inadequacies at a June 5, 1993, congressional hearing in Shiprock.

“There have been a number of problems over the years from affidavits not being accepted to difficulties in terms of culture,” Udall said Tuesday. “Many of the things that were asked of Navajo Indians and other Native Americans, they weren't able to provide, and so their claims couldn't go in.

“Now, we've reached the point where there clearly are some additional problems. Post-1971 miners should be covered,” he said. “Uranium core drillers also should be covered and they weren't in the past.” With bipartisan support, Udall is hopeful they can bring the legislation up to date “and make sure justice is done in the long run.”

Liz Lucero and Linda Evers, president and vice president of the Post '71 Uranium Workers Committee, said Udall and co-sponsors of the legislation made history Monday for uranium workers everywhere.

“It's just amazing to me that it's gone on for so long,” Evers said, adding that she and Lucero have only been working for four years on getting support for Post-'71 uranium workers. “There are folks out there that have been working 10 to 15 years on this. Why does it take the government so long to come around and do the right thing?”

The women said they and all the other people that have helped along the way are very happy to see progress being made for the people that have suffered for so long. “This is the beginning of what should have been done for these workers a long time ago. We’re very hopeful that the legislators will see this amendment through to the end, and do the right thing for this group of people.”

The committee expressed their thanks and prayers that all of the co-sponsors of the bill – Sens. Jeff Bingaman, Mike Crapo, Mark Udall, James Risch, Michael Bennet and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan will have the strength to get the bill passed.

Gilbert Badoni, president of the Navajo Dependents of Uranium Workers Committee, will accompany 80-year-old Bettie Yazzie of Sweetwater to New York May 11 to testify about the impacts of uranium mining on the Navajo Nation and its people during the 18th session of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development.

“Bettie is an elder from Sweetwater. She had several miscarriages and lost her husband to lung cancer,” he said. “She has had numerous extended family members also diagnosed with cancer.”

Second-generation dependents of uranium workers who possibly have some form of health ailment associated with radiation exposure are now beginning to surface, Badoni says. His second-oldest daughter from his first marriage was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

“As you look at the mortality rate you begin to see the younger folks being diagnosed with cancer. Guess what? They all come from uranium-working families. We just need to somehow show that to the world.”

It's probably going to take a study specifically for the dependents to wake up the lawmakers, he said. “They know what uranium can do to a person, but that's still not enough for them. I think they're in denial. They're hoping it's going to go away. But guess what? It's not going to go away.”

Udall said that over the years he has been involved with RECA, one of the biggest questions has always been from the families in terms of whether they were contaminated:

“Are the diseases we are getting a result of our breadwinner coming into the house with dirty mining clothes which were contaminated by radiation? Did we bring water in and other things that were contaminated by radiation and use them in our homes, and has that had a health impact?”

The legislation would authorize $3 million for five years for epidemiological research on the impacts of uranium development on communities and families of uranium workers. The funds would be allocated to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to award grants to universities and non-profits to carry out the research.

“It may well be that we find out that the level of exposure wasn't too bad. But we should ask the questions and we should delve into this and find out,” Udall said.

Last fall, Badoni and a group of about 20 elders went to Washington to seek funding for health studies for the dependents of former uranium workers. They swamped Udall's office.

“He took the time out from the Senate floor, although he was busy, and went back to his office and met with us for about 30 minutes. That was really something else. That was a treat for us. In my statement I asked for a non-governmental entity, a university or medical research facility that was not affiliated with the government to do the studies.” Hearing that funding for those studies is in the bill “just made my day,” Badoni said.

It was the plight of the uranium miners and their families that brought Chris Shuey of Southwest Research and Information Center to Navajo back in the 1970s. Shuey first visited Red Valley about the same time Udall's father did. At that time, Shuey was a freelance journalist who wrote about the health and safety problems Navajos were facing.

“To get justice for people who worked in the uranium industry continues to take generations. This a great step that Udall and others have taken,” Shuey said. “But there's a lot of work to get this passed. Getting it introduced is one step. Getting the next round of RECA amendments passed is a huge step, but it's absolutely necessary. And it's necessary for the people who worked after 1971 because it looks like they're just as sick, and there's not actually enough study of their health status.”

Marguerito “Mag” Martinez worked in the mines for Kerr-McGee from 1949 to 1985. Though sick and elderly, he has been a staunch supporter for those who worked the mines and mills after 1971.

“We've had Post-71 miners that have died already of radiation. What did the country say, 'We didn't buy any uranium after 1971?' That's just a cheap-ass excuse not to pay. They left all the radiation right here and we're eating it up,” he said.

Preston J. Truman, long-time activist and advocate for downwinders, saw his first atom bomb test in 1955 from his home in southwestern Utah. At the age of 17, he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Truman said Udall's bill, filed on the 20th anniversary of the original final RECA bill, is probably even more significant than the first.

“It greatly helps fix the many loopholes that tragically let deserving Native Americans fall through the cracks in applying with no recourse. It also once and for all forces the government to accept and compensate the tens of thousands of other downwinders across the West who received as much, and often more radiation than those of us in the pitiful few rural counties covered in the original act.

“For years, many of us from those 'politically acceptable counties' have demanded something be done to expand RECA, calling loudly for JUSTICE, not JUST US! Finally that call has been heard.”

Peabody: 'Black is the new green'.

2010-04-19T07:37:00.001-07:00

Kathy Helms, (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – Peabody Energy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregory H. Boyce testified Wednesday before a federal committee that carbon technologies now under development are changing the color of coal, placing the nation on a path to achieve the ultimate green goal of near-zero emissions.

“Black is the new green,” Boyce told the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass.

Boyce, along with Steven F. Leer of Arch Coal Co., and Preston Chiaro of Rio Tinto went to Capitol Hill to answer questions on their positions on climate change, clean energy policy, and challenges facing their industry.

“Just as our national energy policy is at a crossroads, so, too, is the coal industry,” said Markey. “I believe Congress requires answers from the coal industry on their ability to be a part of our clean energy future.”

Boyce said Peabody shipped nearly a quarter billion tons of coal to customers in 23 countries on six continents last year – “nearly 75 pounds of coal for every man, woman and child in the world.” Peabody delivered the second best results in the company's history in 2009. Revenue totaled $6.01 billion on sales of 243.6 million tons.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has issued a call to accelerate global development of carbon capture and storage, or CCS, technologies with the goal of broad deployment in as little as eight to 10 years, and the Obama administration has charged a new Clean Coal Task Force of federal agencies with breaking down barriers to developing as many as 10 commercial demonstrations of CCS as quickly as 2016, Boyce said.

“The world has ample room for carbon storage. In the United States, for instance, we could sequester CO2 for the next century and wouldn’t even use up 10 percent of the potential geology that’s suitable for storage, based on an analysis by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,” he said.

Boyce did not mention the Navajo Nation or Peabody's failure to get a 10-year reopener agreement approved for the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines. Nor did he mention Black Mesa residents' lack of drinking water and electricity in his argument to the committee, focusing instead on China, India and Haiti.

Boyce told the committee that everyone in the room is a member of the so-called “golden billion,” enjoying a standard of living the rest of the world can only dream about. More than half the world’s population, or 3.6 billion people, lack adequate access to electricity, he said. Of that total, 1.6 billion – more than five times the population in the United States – have no electricity at all.

“They seek power for the most basic needs: clean drinking water, light and warmth. Coal is the only energy source with the scale and low cost to alleviate energy poverty.

“I urge the committee to look beyond the government halls where caps and carbon are under debate, and enter the huts of the hundreds of millions of people who live in poverty – the people who daily walk miles to gather firewood and waste to burn for the most basic of energy forms.”

Citing Haiti specifically, Boyce said, “Bringing those families out of severe and direct poverty-driven environmental harm must be priority number one, and electrification through large-scale coal generation is that solution.”

Meanwhile, on the Navajo Nation where unemployment hovers around 50 percent, Black Mesa residents mounted up Thursday for a five-day ride to Window Rock, where they hope to send a message to the Navajo Nation Council that the future of Black Mesa should be fully considered in current coal royalty “reopener” negotiations with Peabody.

“If the leaders who are negotiating on behalf of our water and homelands cannot come to our communities to explain to us what they are deciding, then we will come to them,” said Marshall Johnson of Tonizhoni Ani. Council kicks off its spring session April 19, when protesters will ride into Window Rock to greet them.

Residents have expressed increased concerns over the exclusion of community input regarding current coal royalty negotiations and have held community meetings to discuss the health of Black Mesa, a sacred mountain to Navajos known as Tadidiin Dzil or “corn pollen mountain.”

Peabody employees also met recently with the Resources Committee and voiced concerns that the company is not adhering to Navajo Preference, does not respecting cultural beliefs, and is not complying with environmental laws.

According to the lease agreement, the 1987 amendments provide for a reopener to negotiate increased royalty rates and royalty-tax caps for each successive 10-year period after 1987. The coal royalty rate for the Kayenta Mine is 12.5 percent, set in 1977, and 6.25 percent for the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area.

In 1993, the Navajo Nation initiated a lawsuit against the federal government for $600 million in damages from decades of below-market royalty rates. In April 2009, after years of conflicting decisions and appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Navajo Nation.

“For 14 years, the official position of the Navajo Nation was that it deserved at least a 20.5 percent royalty rate. Now, Navajo Nation leaders are trying to ram through another 10-year agreement with Peabody at the 12.5 percent rates,” said Nicole Horseherder of Tonizhoni Ani. “If the Navajo Nation is really concerned about economic prosperity, why are they negotiating at rock bottom rates?”

On April 1, Council held a work session on the reopener. Presenters included Peabody, United Mine Workers, the Division of Natural Resources and Black Mesa United.

“It's unfortunate that the reopener work session only had one group representing the views of some Black Mesa residents but excluded hundreds of voices of community members who are concerned about Peabody's coal mining operations and how it has impacted them,” said Marie Gladue of Voices of the People. “We need to be at the table because we are the ones who have to live with these consequences.”

Peabody's Boyce said coal advances energy security and provides low-cost electricity that powers the economy and helps people live longer and better.

“The real question isn’t: 'Will we use coal?' The U.S. has more coal than any other nation on Earth. We have hundreds of billions of tons of coal in the United States and trillions of tons of coal in the world. And we will use it all.

“The real question is: 'What is the proper path to move to what the presidents of China and the United States last year called '21st Century Coal'? That path is technology first ... deployment requirements second ... as we work together to accelerate the movement to green coal,” he said.

'Clean coal' a pipe dream for Four Corners?

2010-04-19T07:36:00.001-07:00

Kathy Helms, (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – Arizona Public Service Co. wants to be as transparent as possible in discussions with the Navajo Nation about the future of the 2,060-megawatt Four Corners Power Plant because at the end of the day, everyone expects APS to go off and do everything in its power to keep the facility alive.

“We've got almost 50 percent owners walking out the door. Someone's got to buy it. That's the reality,” Mark Schiavoni, senior vice president of Fossil Generation, told the Budget and Finance Committee this week.

The other reality is APS is best situated to buy out Southern California Edison's 48 percent share, but it can't move forward until it has locked in leases for the site, transmission and fuel, all of which are up in 2016. In addition, several other factors have the potential to impact Four Corners' future, including best available retrofit technology, or BART, for industrial facilities emitting air pollutants that reduce visibility.

On April 15, 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed amendments to its July 1999 regional haze rule. The BART requirements apply to facilities built between 1962 and 1977 that have the potential to emit more than 250 tons a year of visibility-impairing pollution. Four Corners' first three units were placed in service in 1963-64; units four and five in 1969-70.

EPA is expected to propose BART requirements for the plant later this year. APS estimates costs for Selective Catalytic Reduction to improve visibility at nearly $900 million. Also expected are new mercury rules which would require $250 million in upgrades.

Budget and Finance member Hoskie Kee had a number of questions for Schiavoni, such as whether BART is “clean coal” technology. “I hear a lot of that term from the news media and all over. Is that what it is?” He also questioned whether the quality of coal from BHP Billiton's Navajo Mine is down.

“It always interesting when I hear clean and coal in the same sentence,” said Schiavoni. “Clean coal technology, all it really means is, basically, the gasification process that takes place allows you the ability to extract the CO2, the carbon. That's what you read about in potential carbon capture, sequestration – pumping CO2 into the ground much like you do in oil fields.

“There are things you can do to enhance your emissions, but nothing that really burns clean coal,” he said.

It's not just the carbon that's being captured in the gasification process. There are other chemicals coming off the process that also have to be captured and shipped away, he said, and though the technology has been in the works for a few years, the problem today is that it is not available on a commercial scale.

“Tampa Electric has a project – IGCC – Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle, where they have gas running through a gas turbine to generate electricity. But it's not utility grade, commercially available. It's probably 15 to 20 years away from that. It's not something that's going to happen today or tomorrow.”

Pulverized coal and supercritical plants have different types of environmental profiles. Though more efficient, they still do not burn clean, he said.

The last thing he saw on the proposed 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock power plant was that they wanted the coal gasification process put on there, he said, adding that they would lose about 40 percent of their energy just in making it work. “They're very inefficient, process-wise.”

Still, the real problem lies in what to do with the carbon once it is captured, he said. “We have a lot of people that believe in the NIMBY – not in my back yard – syndrome. Whether it's from nuclear, transmission lines, or whatever it may be, no one wants it in their back yard.

“Now we're going to talk about sequestering CO2 in someone's back yard. Who's going to own it when it burps and goes up into the atmosphere? What happens? Where's the liability? There's still a lot of work to be done,” he said.

Also in response to Kee's question, Schiavoni said the coal quality and BTU content from BHP's Navajo coal is not where they would want it, and they are losing generation.

“We've had a lot of operational issues as a result of coal quality, especially on our small units – one, two and three. We've had discussions with BHP,” he added.

Kee asked whether it was economically feasible to retrofit the newer units at Four Corners with natural gas.

“Gas saves you like 45 to 50 percent of your carbon, so it's not clean like everybody believes,” Schiavoni said. “But we did look at retrofitting and it would be cost-prohibitive.”

Delegate Francis Redhouse, who once worked at Four Corners, sat in on the Budget and Finance meeting and asked to be allowed to make some comments regarding hazardous materials at the site, including the fly ash pond.

“When the wind blows at 90 miles an hour, it goes all the way down to Upper Fruitland Chapter and I'm sure that LoRenzo Bates (Budget and Finance chairman) breathes in some of that, unless you provide him with a respirator.

“The fly ash and those ponds are carcinogens, if you look at it in terms of breathing it in. Those are cancer-causing contaminants and those are very important to me from the standpoint of looking at it on behalf of the Navajo Nation,” Redhouse said.

EPA is considering whether to regulate fly ash as solid or hazardous waste. That would cost APS an additional $60 million a year. Currently, the plant's fly ash impoundments are in full compliance with state and federal laws and dam safety rules, according to APS. Approximately 13 to 22 percent of the fly ash is sold for other uses, such as in the manufacture of concrete products.

Schiavoni said the ash ponds and dust are the most prevalent safety issues. Four Corners has retained URS to look at the ponds and determine how best to remediate them. “We're not going to wait for decommissioning to go down that path, because we do understand the issue with dust, including at the site,” he said.

APS is hoping for a 25-year fuel agreement, through 2041, and an extension through 2065 on the site leases.

“We think the units can last that long,” Schiavoni said. “With technology, we can make anything last.”

'Attitude adjustment' recommended for APS, Peabody.

2010-04-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

Kathy Helms, (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – Representatives of Arizona Public Service Co. came before the Budget and Finance Committee Tuesday to discuss the fate of the Four Corners Power Plant and went away with a word of warning: The attitude of APS toward its Navajo workers has to change.

Committee Chairman LoRenzo Bates said he and Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur have been meeting with some of the employees of APS.

“In one of the meetings there was about an average of 25 to 28 years of service sitting in that room,” Bates said. However, only 74 percent of APS' workers are Native American.

“APS was built 47 years ago. I would say the Navajo Nation leaders at that time envisioned that some of those employees would be in management. And after 47 years, I don't see it. Forty-seven years ago, there were probably not that many educated Navajos in engineering and so on, but that has changed,” he said.

With APS' change in management, workers are being transferred or laid off or are taking early retirement, Bates said, “but the Navajos that are there are not filling those positions. Those vacant positions are being filled from outside, yet you have 28 years of experienced Navajos that could fill those positions. That's one of the issues that is being brought forth.”

The complaint was similar to one raised April 1 during a work session on a coal royalty “reopener” agreement with Peabody Western Coal Co.

Phil Russell, international representative for United Mine Workers of America, told the Navajo Nation Council that though they have a contractual agreement with Peabody, the company is bringing in outside contractors.

“We've got enough Navajo people on our panel to do those jobs. I've got hundreds of Navajos that are welders, carpenters, truck drivers; but for whatever reason, Peabody goes outside to bring in those contractors.”

He said some of the Navajo workers who actually live on Black Mesa are coming forth to talk to them.

“They're telling us that they have mom-and-pop operations up there that are laying them off and using their own family members to operate equipment. We don't represent them, but we wanted to bring that forth to you. Because they don't have protection, they don't say anything. But we, as United Mine Workers, we're willing to talk on their behalf,” Russell said.

When the lease with Peabody first came forth, it contained provisions stating that Navajos would be trained, he added. “But when our Navajo brothers and sisters were laid off from the Black Mesa complexes, in order for them to get a job when their seniority number comes up at Kayenta Mine, Peabody is saying they have to be tested.

“What we have here is we have individuals that did jobs for years at Black Mesa Mine, and for whatever reason, when they go to Kayenta Mine, they're not qualified. That doesn't make sense. So what we're saying is, 'If you're going to do this, you'd better train them, because that is in the original lease agreement.”

Bates told Mark Schiavoni, senior vice president of Fossil Generation at APS, that though Schiavoni mentioned “in the spirit of trying to work together,” that spirit appeared only to be coming from him. “That same attitude doesn't seem to be coming from upper management. That attitude has to change.”

He mentioned last week's meeting regarding the Peabody leases as an example. It would only take Northern Agency delegates to say, “We have a problem,” and probably everybody would take a step back from any lease agreements that APS might want to move forward, Bates said. “You don't want that. I'm saying, now, straighten it up. Fix it.”

Schiavoni, who has been at Four Corners Power Plant for only a year, said, “I'm not going to apologize and I'm not going to look backward. I'm not part of that legacy. I don't disagree with your comment, or Chairman Arthur also. We have not done a good job of developing people, and it goes beyond Native Americans.”

Schiavoni said he does not disagree that they need a change in attitude. “It's been a long process. I think we're starting to change that.”

For too long, workers were suppressed, figuratively speaking, and weren't allowed to speak their mind, he added. “It was not a part of our culture – not just there, but across all my facilities. So we're trying to encourage that type of communication.”

These days, he brings a group of employees together in a room and asks them what they think is going well, what they don't think is going well. “They all have opinions. They all think they have the right answer; they know what needs to be done – and they do.

“But we haven't trusted them to give them all of the information and give them the opportunity to be part of the system. So we're challenging them in ways they haven't been challenged before. It doesn't always come across positive, and for that I take the blame. I provide a sense of urgency to the problem,” he said.

APS has promoted three Native Americans in the last six months to senior management positions, he added.

Brad Brown of Peabody told Council last week that the company's workers are represented by the United Mine Workers. “They do have a formal process to process grievances and claims, and we do that on a regular basis. We feel that is very effective.”

Brown said that in 2000, the total Native American work force was 378 out of 413, or 92 percent The total number of Native managers, supervisors and officials at that time was 19 out of 45, or 42 percent.

“In 2010, the total Native American work force out of a total of 427 employees that we have are 401. We're at 94 percent. The total Native managers, supervisors and officials is 44 out of 62, for 71 percent,” Brown said.

Black Mesa 'reopener' must be renegotiated.

2010-04-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

Kathy Helms, (Dine Bureau/Gallup Independent)

WINDOW ROCK – The Navajo Nation Council spent nearly an entire day last week discussing the 10-year coal royalty rate “reopener” with Peabody Western Coal Co. for Black Mesa leases before it was determined that the deal is dead because the resolution was tabled by Council in December and an attempt to bring it back failed.

“Right now, we don't have a deal between the Navajo Nation and Peabody, with the exception that they will continue digging coal and if there is any revenue to be generated, it would basically be at the 12.5 percent royalty rate, period,” said Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur, sponsor of the resolution.

The bill came before Council the first week of November 2009 but was tabled with a directive that a work session be held within 30 days. The work session was held Dec. 21 and the resolution was tabled again Dec. 22 during a special session.

Another directive was made at that time to hold a work session within 90 days to review all leases since 1960 pertaining to Peabody and to possibly hold public hearings before presenting oral and written reports during spring session. Council has yet to see the leases and the public hearings haven't been held.

Approval of the “reopener” amendment would give the Nation 12.5 percent coal royalties until 2017 – the minimum set by Congress in 1977 – a signing bonus of $1.55 million for both leases, an annual bonus of $3.5 million a year for 10 years, and scholarship funding of $250,000, up from $186,000.

Peabody has operated the Kayenta and Black Mesa mines as two separate surface coal mining operations since the early 1970s. The Kayenta mining operation has supplied coal to Navajo Generating Station near Page since 1973, while Black Mesa supplied coal to Mohave Generating Station near Laughlin, Nev., from 1970 until December 2005.

Mohave and the Black Mesa mine closed in 2005 after utility company owners, led by Southern California Edison, could not reach agreement with the Navajo and Hopi tribes on coal and water supplies for the generating station.

Navajo gets full royalty of 12.5 percent under Lease 8580, which provides coal to Navajo Generating Station; both tribes get 6.25 percent each under Lease 9910, in the former Joint Use Area, which primarily provided coal to Mohave.

“The reopener, at the moment, is gone unless we agree to go back and renegotiate and reestablish an understanding that there is an agreement between the Navajo Nation and Peabody,” Arthur said, but added that the deal might not be the same.

Attorney General Louis Denetsosie said the consequences of not approving the 2007 royalty adjustment is the Navajo Nation would lose the $36.5 million that has been negotiated, compared to the $32.5 million negotiated in 1997.

“We have received $3.5 million already and we would have to return the $3.5 million to Peabody,” he said.

Britt Clapham, former deputy attorney general for the Navajo Nation who has been involved in reopener negotiations, told Council that rejecting the royalty rate adjustment has no impact on Peabody's operation. The company can continue to mine coal under its leases with the Navajo Nation until the coal runs out, whether Navajo approves the rate adjustment or not.

“The reopeners are relatively narrow. They are to adjust the royalty rate only if either party is dissatisfied. We have exercised that option in 1997-98 and again in 2007-2008. The question you have before you is to approve the revised royalty rate.

“The 10-year reopener does not reopen every aspect of the lease agreement. It merely reopens the royalty rate. That's what we can negotiate about. If the federal minimum increased, we would automatically go to that,” Clapham said, however, that has not come into play since the rate was set in 1977.

“The Navajo Nation can't give away under a Black Mesa lease what an administrative law judge vacated in a permit,” said Marsha Monestersky, program director for the Forgotten People. “They can't do anything with the Black Mesa lease. There is no Black Mesa Mine.”

An administrative law judge vacated a life-of-mine permit for the Black Mesa Complex in January, ruling that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement violated the National Environmental Policy Act, and remanded the permit to OSM for further action.

“All there is, is the Kayenta Mine, because what the judge vacated was actually the Black Mesa Complex. They were going to fold the Kayenta and the Black Mesa mines together in the Black Mesa Complex,” Monestersky said, adding that the Navajo Nation was trying to do in the lease reopener what couldn't be done in the vacated permit.

“You can't issue a permit or a lease for a mine that doesn't exist. If there's only one mine, why would they have two leases? They're running out of good coal. There's no permit for Black Mesa Mine and OSM didn't respond and file an appeal in a timely manner, so if they want to reopen the Black Mesa Mine, they have to issue a whole new Environmental Impact Statement,” she said.

Forgotten People has vowed to file suit, based on the same grounds, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if it issues a wastewater discharge permit for the Black Mesa/Kayenta mines. EPA held a meeting recently in Kayenta to discuss its plan to issue the wastewater permit.