Navajos Tell EPA To Get Off The Dime

HOUSTON (CN) - The Navajo Nation says the Environmental Protection Agency has inexplicably refused to issue permits to build a state-of-the-art 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant on tribal land, despite responding to the tribe's 2004 application by stating that the plant's emission levels would "set a new level of performance for coal-fired plants in the United States."

The Diné Power Authority and developer Desert Rock Energy Co. say the plant would be a boon to the Navajo economy, employing mainly Navajo workers and burning coal procured from tribal lands, and that each month the project is delayed costs the tribe $5 million in.

Diné means "Navajo" in the tribe's language.

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