by donshan » Fri 30 Dec 2005, 20:03:47
I almost passed this story by. Then after checking into it I decided to post it here as a story that needs much more publicity than it has received. This is the announced closing of the 1580 MWe Mojave coal fired generating plant feeding much needed electricity to California etc. and it is also a loss of jobs and income for the Hopi and Navajo Nations. However digging deeper I find a vision of solar power for the their future. This may be a new beginning of a solution to air pollution and the future of ending coal fired electricity in some locations!
As of December 31, 2005 the coal fired Mojave Generating Station will be shut down, along with the coal mine that was a major source of income for the Hopi and Navajo Indian Nations for the past 30 years. In a 1999 court decree the Utility was given until now, to either install expensive pollution controls or shut down. Many thought the pollution controls would be installed. Instead, the company has chosen PowerDown, closing the coal mine and laying off the workers!
http://www.laughlintimes.com/articles/2 ... ews02a.txt
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ednesday, December 14, 2005 9:42 AM PST
LAUGHLIN — As revelers ring in the New Year, Mohave Generating Station will flip the switch and stop generating power at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2006, according to Southern California Edison community affairs director Don Hendren.
The closure will be bittersweet for the Tri-state area, depending on which side of the issue a person is on.
For environmentalists and local residents who have fought hard for this day to come it is a victory. "I look forward to the installation of the pollution control equipment so we can celebrate the reopening of a much cleaner Mohave Generating Station," said Deborah Dauenhauer, who worked for the pollution control changes as part of a local citizens group in Laughlin.
From a business perspective the closure will result in an economic loss of about $300 million per year to the Tri-state area, according to Laughlin Chamber of Commerce executive director Jo Elle Hurns. Not to mention the numerous not-for-profit organizations, schools and community groups who have benefited from generous donations from the station and its employees.
This is a loss of 1580 Mw of electrical capacity for California, Nevada, and Arizona, and comes at a time of growing concern for electricity production from natural gas and the recent Calpine bankruptcy.
This is a description of the plant from SCE:
http://www.sce.com/PowerandEnvironment/ ... onStation/Background on the problems caused by this plant shutdown and a new vision for alternative energy are described in this 2004 background article:
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1092143633$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')LAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Hopi and Navajo tribal members told a utility commission in California that it is time to stop threatening Indian people with the loss of jobs and stop holding them hostage to economic deprivation by dependence on the destruction of natural resources.
"There is a way those jobs can be preserved. We are not that helpless; give us a chance to work this problem out. That is all we are asking for. Not gloom and doom. There are ways," said Vernon Masayesva, Black Mesa Trust executive director, as he urged a search for new energy alternatives.
Masayesva testified before the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco on July 9. The CPUC held evidentiary hearings June 14 - July 9 on the future disposition of the Mohave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nev. A California utility, Southern California Edison, is the majority owner of the Mohave plant.
The Hopi/Navajo efforts appear to be working out. A program is now under way towards placing a Solar plant on the Hopi/Navajo lands.
Black Mesa Trust is certain that the August 9 deal between a subsidiary of Southern California Electric (SCE) and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) to build up to 850 MW of solar generation in California will give the proposed Hopi-SES solar project a big boost. During the California Public Utility Commission’s proceeding to determine the fate of Mohave Generating Station, Black Mesa Trust, through Water & Energy Consulting (which represented Hopi and Navajo grassroots organizations), proposed that the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation each put a 500 MW solar power plant on Black Mesa using Stirling Energy’s innovative dish technology.
Some objected to that plan because the Stirling technology was commercially unproven. But the 20-year power purchase agreement between SCE and SES to build a 500 to 850 MW solar project 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles changes all that.
“Up until now, our tribal leaders have refused to look seriously at a commercial solar plant to replace the electricity and tribal revenues that will be lost when Mohave closes at the end of this year,” said Black Mesa Trust Executive Director Vernon Masayesva