Greens seek to resurrect power plant, Navajo mine dispute

摘要

Environmental groups are asking the Supreme Court to give them another shot at challenging a coal-fired power plant and adjacent strip mine in New Mexico. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year rebuffed the groups' plea to scrap an Interior Department permit for an expansion of the Four Corners power plant and mine on Navajo Nation land near Farmington, N.M. Judges for the 9th Circuit agreed with a lower court that the green groups could not sue over the permit allowing Arizona Public Service Co. to operate the facility through 2041 without the involvement of Navajo Transitional Energy Co. (NTEC). But because NTEC is an arm of the Navajo tribe, the court found that its sovereign immunity insulates it from the litigation and granted the company's request to dismiss the case (Greenwire, July 29, 2019). "That means that federal agencies can ignore requirements of environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act when approving activities on tribal land or undertaken by tribal entities — because such activities benefit Indian tribes or tribally owned businesses that cannot be joined because of tribal sovereign immunity," the coalition, led by Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, wrote in its request yesterday for Supreme Court review.