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“If I were on the other side, I’d probably be throwing in the towel.”
That’s the San Juan Citizen Alliance’s Mike Eisenfeld—and he’s referring to supporters of the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant.
Times sure have changed: When I was writing about Desert Rock late last year for the Santa Fe Reporter, I quoted Eisenfeld saying this:
Construction obviously didn’t begin in 2006—and right now, it looks as though grassroots activists just might come out on top in the battle over Desert Rock.
In early March, the project received a huge blow: The Interior Board of Land Appeals granted a request to reconsider the Bureau of Land Management’s previous approval of the Navajo Transmission Project. That 470-mile long line would have run from the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant to Laughlin, Nevada. According to Eisenfeld, at the very least, this means that proponents of the plant may need to draft an entirely new Environmental Impact Statement.
For those who haven’t been paying attention to what has been happening in the northwestern corner of the state, here’s the deal: In 2004, Sithe Global and the Navajo Nation officially proposed construction of a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant near Burnham, New Mexico.
The tribal government says the plant is an economic necessity for the tribe; it would mean 1,000 construction jobs, the re-opening of a coal mine on the reservation and about 200 jobs once the plant is up and running. Sithe Global has also promised the tribe $50 million in annual revenues.
Opponents, however, point out that Desert Rock will emit 12.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, things such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride that are responsible for altering our planet’s climate.
But the plant will also release mercury, ozone, sulfates, nitrates, carbon monoxide and both fine and large particulate matter. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter are associated with asthma, pulmonary disease, increased rates of heart attack and stroke, while elevated levels of mercury are associated with birth defects and developmental delays. The region is already home to two coal-fired power plants and tens of thousands of oil and gas wells; as a result of energy development, Farmington and its surrounding rural areas have air quality problems comparable to those in cities such as Houston and Los Angeles.
It’s true that the political climate has shifted in this country since January, prompting certain federal agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin again evaluating projects according to science and reality, rather than politics and cronyism. But vastly more relevant to the story of Desert Rock is the persistence of people who have dug their heels into the ground they call home—and who have refused to give up in the face of seemingly unstoppable forces.
Many New Mexicans have been involved in the fight against Desert Rock, but two grassroots activists in particular illustrate how effective incremental progress, full-time dedication and on-the-ground community organizing can be against flashy public relations campaigns, political inaction and something as seemingly indomitable as a $4 billion coal-fired power plant.
Elouise Brown has been running nonstop since October 2006, when she became president of Dooda Desert Rock, a group formed in resistance to the power plant. Brown is not a professional activist: She was volunteering to help when the president of the organization—her aunt, in fact—became spooked by legal threats from proponents of the project. Nobody else within the organization wanted the president’s position, so they voted Brown in as leader.
On the reservation, she has kept close watch on the construction site, helped maintain a protest camp that was originally set up as a blockade of the site and basically, been a thorn in the side of the tribal council and those tribal officials who support the project. She also dedicated herself to educating people on the reservation about the project; the more she explained its impacts, the more other people began voicing their discontent.
I’ve interviewed Brown a number of times over the past few years. When I was talking with her late last year, the fight was wearing on her. “I just want my life back,” she said, “I want this whole thing to end.” Despite the sheer exhaustion of fighting something as gigantic as a coal-fired power plant, however, she has never doubted how things will end: “We will stop it.”
For his part, the Alliance’s Eisenfeld has focused on the procedural and legal aspects of the project. A former environmental consultant—familiar with the environmental laws that guide how projects are permitted and undertaken—he has read through and analyzed permit applications, agency decisions, environmental impact statements and thousands and thousands of pages of other studies and correspondence. Since 2004, he says, the San Juan Citizens Alliance has been involved in the process of Desert Rock: establishing standing, offering comments when the Environmental Impact Statement was being scoped, weighing in on permits and in essence watch-dogging the entire regulatory process.
Eisenfeld points out that DINE Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (CARE), a Navajo environmental organization, has done much the same—that organization gave comments on the transmission line when it was first scoped in the mid-1990s. This isn’t glamorous work by any means. But Eisenfeld says project proponents underestimated the ability of people to analyze all these different aspects of the project, ranging from air quality to the project’s impact on endangered species in the area. “There is a failure on their part to recognize the procedural implications of the crap they were throwing out there—and that has come back to haunt them.”
It’s true that Gov. Richardson announced his opposition to the plant while he was running for president in 2007. And last October, the state of New Mexico filed an appeal after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an air-quality permit for the facility that says Desert Rock would not have an adverse effect on a variety of air quality issues in the region. The state disagreed, citing seven major concerns that justify the permit being reevaluated. Those include the agency’s failure to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on how the plant might affect endangered species, as well as how Desert Rock would affect visibility even within nearby national parks, including Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park and the Grand Canyon. Beyond filing appeals and engaging in litigation, officials with the state of New Mexico say they are powerless to stop the plant or affect its design, since it is a project on sovereign land.
And as I’ve written elsewhere, New Mexico’s Democratic members of Congress have supported Desert Rock, either outright or simply through their silence on the project.
What it comes down to is this: The responsibility for protecting communities—and the generations who will suffer the consequences of climate change—truly rests upon the shoulders of citizens and communities. As for the fight against Desert Rock? It proves that the people really do have the power to affect positive change in the 21st century.
Speaking the other day, Eisenfeld reflected on something he told a friend a few years back. He now realizes it’s actually true: “Ten people who know what they’re doing really can shut something like this down.”
For more information:
-The EPA has extended comment period on Desert Rock’s permit until March 25. Learn more or submit your comments here:
http://epa.gov/region09/air/permit/desert-rock/index.html
-Official website of the Desert Rock Energy Project:
http://www.desertrockenergyproject.com/
-Links to documents, permits, correspondence and other information at the San Juan Citizens Alliance website:
http://www.sanjuancitizens.org/air/desertrock.shtml
-Dooda Desert Rock blog:
http://www.desert-rock-blog.com/
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Published on March 16, 2009
Doom for Desert Rock?
“If I were on the other side, I’d probably be throwing in the towel.” That’s the San Juan Citizen Alliance’s Mike Eisenfeld—and he’s referring to supporters of the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant.
Times sure have changed: When I was writing about Desert Rock late last year for the Santa Fe Reporter, I quoted Eisenfeld saying this:
Four years ago, when I first started working on Desert Rock, the proponents laughed in my face and said, ‘There are no opponents up here, this is a done deal, and nobody is going to get in our way—construction is going to start in 2006.
Construction obviously didn’t begin in 2006—and right now, it looks as though grassroots activists just might come out on top in the battle over Desert Rock.
In early March, the project received a huge blow: The Interior Board of Land Appeals granted a request to reconsider the Bureau of Land Management’s previous approval of the Navajo Transmission Project. That 470-mile long line would have run from the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant to Laughlin, Nevada. According to Eisenfeld, at the very least, this means that proponents of the plant may need to draft an entirely new Environmental Impact Statement.
For those who haven’t been paying attention to what has been happening in the northwestern corner of the state, here’s the deal: In 2004, Sithe Global and the Navajo Nation officially proposed construction of a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant near Burnham, New Mexico.
The tribal government says the plant is an economic necessity for the tribe; it would mean 1,000 construction jobs, the re-opening of a coal mine on the reservation and about 200 jobs once the plant is up and running. Sithe Global has also promised the tribe $50 million in annual revenues.
Opponents, however, point out that Desert Rock will emit 12.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, things such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride that are responsible for altering our planet’s climate.
But the plant will also release mercury, ozone, sulfates, nitrates, carbon monoxide and both fine and large particulate matter. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter are associated with asthma, pulmonary disease, increased rates of heart attack and stroke, while elevated levels of mercury are associated with birth defects and developmental delays. The region is already home to two coal-fired power plants and tens of thousands of oil and gas wells; as a result of energy development, Farmington and its surrounding rural areas have air quality problems comparable to those in cities such as Houston and Los Angeles.
It’s true that the political climate has shifted in this country since January, prompting certain federal agencies such as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin again evaluating projects according to science and reality, rather than politics and cronyism. But vastly more relevant to the story of Desert Rock is the persistence of people who have dug their heels into the ground they call home—and who have refused to give up in the face of seemingly unstoppable forces.
Many New Mexicans have been involved in the fight against Desert Rock, but two grassroots activists in particular illustrate how effective incremental progress, full-time dedication and on-the-ground community organizing can be against flashy public relations campaigns, political inaction and something as seemingly indomitable as a $4 billion coal-fired power plant.
Elouise Brown has been running nonstop since October 2006, when she became president of Dooda Desert Rock, a group formed in resistance to the power plant. Brown is not a professional activist: She was volunteering to help when the president of the organization—her aunt, in fact—became spooked by legal threats from proponents of the project. Nobody else within the organization wanted the president’s position, so they voted Brown in as leader.
On the reservation, she has kept close watch on the construction site, helped maintain a protest camp that was originally set up as a blockade of the site and basically, been a thorn in the side of the tribal council and those tribal officials who support the project. She also dedicated herself to educating people on the reservation about the project; the more she explained its impacts, the more other people began voicing their discontent.
I’ve interviewed Brown a number of times over the past few years. When I was talking with her late last year, the fight was wearing on her. “I just want my life back,” she said, “I want this whole thing to end.” Despite the sheer exhaustion of fighting something as gigantic as a coal-fired power plant, however, she has never doubted how things will end: “We will stop it.”
For his part, the Alliance’s Eisenfeld has focused on the procedural and legal aspects of the project. A former environmental consultant—familiar with the environmental laws that guide how projects are permitted and undertaken—he has read through and analyzed permit applications, agency decisions, environmental impact statements and thousands and thousands of pages of other studies and correspondence. Since 2004, he says, the San Juan Citizens Alliance has been involved in the process of Desert Rock: establishing standing, offering comments when the Environmental Impact Statement was being scoped, weighing in on permits and in essence watch-dogging the entire regulatory process.
Eisenfeld points out that DINE Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (CARE), a Navajo environmental organization, has done much the same—that organization gave comments on the transmission line when it was first scoped in the mid-1990s. This isn’t glamorous work by any means. But Eisenfeld says project proponents underestimated the ability of people to analyze all these different aspects of the project, ranging from air quality to the project’s impact on endangered species in the area. “There is a failure on their part to recognize the procedural implications of the crap they were throwing out there—and that has come back to haunt them.”
It’s true that Gov. Richardson announced his opposition to the plant while he was running for president in 2007. And last October, the state of New Mexico filed an appeal after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an air-quality permit for the facility that says Desert Rock would not have an adverse effect on a variety of air quality issues in the region. The state disagreed, citing seven major concerns that justify the permit being reevaluated. Those include the agency’s failure to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service on how the plant might affect endangered species, as well as how Desert Rock would affect visibility even within nearby national parks, including Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park and the Grand Canyon. Beyond filing appeals and engaging in litigation, officials with the state of New Mexico say they are powerless to stop the plant or affect its design, since it is a project on sovereign land.
And as I’ve written elsewhere, New Mexico’s Democratic members of Congress have supported Desert Rock, either outright or simply through their silence on the project.
What it comes down to is this: The responsibility for protecting communities—and the generations who will suffer the consequences of climate change—truly rests upon the shoulders of citizens and communities. As for the fight against Desert Rock? It proves that the people really do have the power to affect positive change in the 21st century.
Speaking the other day, Eisenfeld reflected on something he told a friend a few years back. He now realizes it’s actually true: “Ten people who know what they’re doing really can shut something like this down.”
For more information:
-The EPA has extended comment period on Desert Rock’s permit until March 25. Learn more or submit your comments here:
http://epa.gov/region09/air/permit/desert-rock/index.html
-Official website of the Desert Rock Energy Project:
http://www.desertrockenergyproject.com/
-Links to documents, permits, correspondence and other information at the San Juan Citizens Alliance website:
http://www.sanjuancitizens.org/air/desertrock.shtml
-Dooda Desert Rock blog:
http://www.desert-rock-blog.com/
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