Coal Fired Power Plants
TAKE ACTION NOW TO STOP THE DESERT ROCK POWER PLANT!
DON’T ALLOW THE POLITICIANS TO SEND YOUR MONEY TO SITHE GLOBAL
In an unprecedented move, the New Mexico State Senate is moving at lightening speed to approve a series of tax breaks and incentives to help Sithe Global, in cooperation with the Dine Power authority, build a 1500 megawatt coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation north of the Burnham Chapter. The bill is scheduled to come before the senate finance committee this week. Without a groundswell of resistance, the huge multinational conglomerate stands to gain 60 million in tax abatements and incentives from the State of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. Here are just some of the reasons why we CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
FLAWED POLITICAL PROCESS AND MISLEADING CLAIMS
Despite misleading claims in the press, there is NO CONSENSUS in the Navajo Nation in support of the plant. While 3 chapters have voted in favor, 4 others have voted down the plant and another has yet to vote. Some Navajo Nation Council members asked debatable questions at the Sithe Global and DPA work session on January 20, but did not get straight answers – only assumptions. The opponents have requested for “equal time” to present their case to the Navajo Nation Council, but have yet to get a response from the Legislative Branch. There have also been numerous back room deals and conflicts of interest among decision makers supporting the plant. Most recently a Council member – who just happens to also serve on the DPA Board – negotiated a back room deal channeling Tribal funds directly to the corporations to subsidize the plant while claiming publically to be renegotiating the deals to better favor the Navajo Nation.
HEALTH IMPACTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGES
Two existing plants in the vicinity have been called two of the worst point-sources of pollution in the U.S. by the EPA, spewing concentrations of a number of pollutants proven to be damaging to human health and the environment. The health of neighboring residents on Navajo lands has been compromised by their exposure to these toxins. Those residents, and many of their neighbors and supporters, have joined forces to resist forced relocation and exposure to even more toxic pollutants the new plant will add to their already overburdened community.
THE CURRENT ISSUES: UNFAIR TAXATION AND UNPRECEDENTED PUBLIC SUBSIDIES
While the plant is being touted as an economic development opportunity for the Navajo Nation, testimony before the state legislators revealed details of tax breaks approved by the Navajo Tax Commission giving Sithe Global dramatic tax cuts. The company would see an 85% savings on their tax bill during construction. The deals would save them 75% during the first 10 years of operation and 61% over the following 15 years. In sum, the Navajo Nation would receive less than one third – 32 percent – of the tax revenues it would normally receive under tribal statutes. ($530.5 million instead of $1.64 billion)
DESPITE THE SWEETHEART DEALS, SITHE GLOBAL WANTS MORE!
While Sithe Global has received generous deals from the Navajo Nation, the New Mexico State Senate is about to give them more. Under SB 464, the company gets 3 different options for calculating its tax burden – and Sithe Global gets to choose which formula to use to minimize its tax burden! One of the 3 formulas requires them to pay only whatever annual fee they can negotiate with the Navajo Nation (as noted in the previous section). Another provision in the bill severely limits the maximum tax the company could pay to 60 million.
Write or call Your Senator And Governor Bill Richardson Today 
(505) 476-2200
Tell Them You Are Opposed To Senate Bill 464
Tell Them You Are Opposed To Public Subsidies for Multinational Corporations
Tell Them You Are Tired Of New Mexicans Bearing the Burden for Economic Development
We Do Not Benefit From and That the Health of the Dine Community Should Not Be Compromised For Sithe Global’s Profit
TELL THEM TO VOTE “NO” ON SENATE BILL 464
Bill Richardson

Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail 
Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Contact information for Governor Richardson and the Senate Finance Committee
Senator Joseph J. Carraro
10216 Carraro Place NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114
505-986-4387
joecarraro@aol.com
Senator Sue Wilson Beffort
67 Raindance Road 
Sandia Park, NM 87047
505-986-4395 
sue.beffort@nmlegis.gov
Bill Richardson
Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail 
Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 476-2200
Bill Richardson
Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail 
Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 476-2200
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE
Senator Joseph A. Fidel 
Box 968
Grants, NM 87020 
505-986-4362
Senator John Arthur Smith
Box 998 
Deming, NM 88031 
john.smith@nmlegis.gov
Senator Pete Campos
500 Raynolds Avenue
Las Vegas, NM 87701
petecampos@newmexico.com
Senator Timothy Z. Jennings
Box 1797
Roswell, NM 88202-1797
Senator Carroll H. Leavell
Drawer D
Jal, NM 88252
leavell4@leaco.net
Senator Leonard Lee Rawson
Box 996
Las Cruces, NM 88004
505-986-4703
lee.rawson@nmlegis.gov
Senator Nancy Rodriguez
1838 Camino La Canada
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-986-4264
Senator Leonard Tsosie
Box 1003
Crownpoint, NM 87313
505-986-4859

Senate to hear Desert Rock tax-credit plan
by Staci Matlock and Shannon 
Shaw The New Mexican 
www.freenewmexican.com/news/39489.html
Lawmakers are considering a multimillion-dollar tax break for an international power company working with the Navajo Nation to build a coal-fired electric-generating facility south of Shiprock. The tax credit is part of an omnibus-tax package the Senate is scheduled to hear today. 

Tribal officials say the two proposed 750-megawatt plants called the Desert Rock facility would bring millions of dollars in revenue and provide hundreds of jobs to Navajo people. 

But some Navajos living near the proposed plant and a Navajo legislator oppose the tax credit and the project. They say it would only add to the brown cloud hanging over the region from two other generating plants and use precious water in a region now under official drought warning. 

“The smoke in San Juan County, with the naked eye you can see the smoke cover the valley for miles and miles, and that’s a big concern for the community people,” said Sarah Jane White, Navajo and president of the Dooda Desert Rock Committee. 

“The Navajo Nation government doesn’t stop and think about what they’re doing. All they’re looking at is dollar signs. All they want is dollars to go back into the revenue. They’re spending, and they want to replace their spending,” said White, who was in Santa Fe last week lobbying against the taxcredit bill. Desert Rock is a joint venture between the Navajo tribe’s Diné Power Authority and Sithe Global Power, a worldwide power-development company owned primarily by Blackstone Capital Partners in New York City. 

Tribal officials and Sithe representatives say the tax credits are needed to keep the Desert Rock electricity competitively priced. By law, Sithe could be taxed by both the state and the Navajo Nation. 

In late January, the Navajo Tax Commission approved reducing tribal taxes by up to two-thirds for Sithe Global during construction of the $2.2 billion power plant and its expected 40-year operation. In return, the plant is expected to pump $50 million a year into tribal coffers from taxes, royalties on coal and a water lease, according to Tom Johns, Sithe Global’s vice president for development. 

The revenue equals almost a third of the tribe’s current budget, according to tribal officials. 

If the Senate approves the House version of the tax credit, the state foregoes about $3.1 million a year in potential tax revenue over the next 40 years. But the state stands to gain more then $10 million a year, Johns said. 

“It’s going to benefit the Navajo communities,” said Norman John, a Navajo tribal councilman who sits on the Diné Power Authority board. “The (power plant) will be economically healthy for the Navajo Nation.” 

Sen. Leonard Tsosie, DCrownpoint , and a Navajo tribal member, calls himself the bill’s “harshest critic.” 

“There’s no sense in having a fancy power plant in Indian country around homes that have no power,” Tsosie said. “We already have that on our land, homes near power plants that don’t have any power. I’m here to stop that.” 

Both the Burnham and Sanostee chapter houses, communities near the proposed plant site, passed resolutions last year opposing the Desert Rock Power facility. Other nearby chapter houses approved it. 

Tsosie said he attended chapter meetings with Sithe officials last summer and thought afterward the communities were getting “ripped off.” 

Johns said the site has two big advantages for energy production: Coal for the plant can be mined near the site at the former Navajo Mine, and a permanent electricity-transmission line is nearby. 

Desert Rock is touted as a state-of-the-art facility, using one-fourth of the water used by similar generating facilities, Johns said. Desert Rock would use 4,500 acre-feet of water a year drawn from a deep underground aquifer that wouldn’t affect nearby community wells, he said. The facility also is designed to reduce sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions by 50 to 90 percent, Johns said. 

Opponents say they’re worried Desert Rock would impact already scarce water resources at a time when the Navajo Nation has declared severe drought conditions. In addition, no matter how low the emissions, they say Desert Rock would add to the pollution produced by the San Juan Generating Plant and Four Corners Power Plant for decades. 

Johns said 1,000 jobs would be created during the four-year construction of the facility. Another 400 plant and mining jobs would be available during production at Desert Rock. Sithe is committed to giving preference to Navajo workers, Johns said.

We are opposed to Senate Bill 464 
We are opposed to Public Subsidies for Multinational Corporations

We citizens of San Juan County and the Northern Navajo Agency are here to formally request our New Mexico Senators vote NO on Bill SB 464. We are asking you: please do not give tax incentives for Dine Power Authority and Sithe Global for the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power generating station. We oppose this plant for the following reasons:
1.    HEALTH: Navajo People have suffered great abuse over the years as energy companies push their way into the Navajo reservation with toxic waste dumps, uranium mining, oil wells, and two power generating stations in the Four Corners area that generate some of the worst pollution in the entire United States. Our people are dying from heart, kidney, and lung diseases. As low income people lose their health insurance, who will cover the medical costs caused by these outside polluters? Now, this new “cleaner” plant is being proposed that will only add to, not take away, pollution in the region. We can’t afford the health costs.
2.    ENVIRONMENT: The proposed power plant will harm our water, air and food. We live in mostly desert areas. Our survival on this land depends on what little water is available locally. Sithe Global and the Diné Power Authority plan to drill for our ground water to operate Desert Rock power plant. Our Navajo Nation government has approved this request. This is our drinking water; our live stock depends on this water. Why must we as private citizens, forced to haul water for ourselves and our animals, be forced to pay more for our water then these energy companies pay? 

Meanwhile, our air is getting dirtier and dirtier. Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury contamination in this country. Local plants emitted 46 tons of mercury in 1990, and this amount is expected to climb 33 percent by 2010. The Four Corners plant emits the highest concentration of mercury as shown by an EPA study in 2003. Mercury is highly toxic to humans. It is transported through the air into river systems where they contaminate the food chain. It’s not just mercury. These plants contribute to global warming, which is devastating our land. The only monitor on the Navajo reservation- located in Sanostee- showed a 75 % increase in ozone in 2003 (that’s 40 miles away from the Four Corners power plant). We are already experiencing hot weather and no rain. We now regularly experience extremely hot summers increasing every year. This year we had the warmest January on record. EVER. And we are experiencing an extreme drought and extremely high fire danger because of these weather changes. 


Pollution from coal-fired plants damages forests and crops; it increases warming and contributes to weather disasters. Our crops are suffering in the San Juan area due to pollution from the two power plants we have already had for over forty years. The soils of our grazing areas are blackening from coal dust for a radius of thirty miles from the power plants, and it can be seen with naked eye. The hot dry weather kills our crops during the hot summer months. The water holes and ponds dry out from the heat. There are three power plants in New Mexico: Escalante, Four Corners, and San Juan. The Four Corners and San Juan power plants are in the Four Corners area, one on Navajo land and one right across the river from Four Corners.
3.    JOBS: The Company promises us 1,000 jobs for four years and 200 permanent mining jobs beyond that. History doesn’t support these claims. Unemployment in San Juan County, home to the two existing power plants, is high. The poverty level is 100% in San Juan Chapter next to Four Corners Power Plant. One more polluting power plant is not going to improve this miserable economic situation. It is not worth risking our lives over a few jobs that will not feed the second largest tribe. It is not worth relocation, or spending time in the hospital or lives cut short due to power plant pollutants, for jobs that will never materialize in the levels that proponents of the plant claim.
4.    TAX BREAK: Tax breaks for Sithe Global are going to jeopardize many of our people and it will affect New Mexican rural communities. New Mexico will be losing out on 60 million tax dollars. In the end, we will all end up losers, and suckers for Sithe Global, if New Mexico and the Navajo Nation approves tax breaks for the largest energy company – and billion dollar Resource Company – in New York
5.    Diné (Navajo) People’s Values: Those who live at the proposed site have deeply held religious and cultural values. There are eagle nesting place for generations which we do not want to be disturbed, there are historical sites, and special offering sacred sites where we pray up to this day as our great grandparents before us had done. There are story telling places. The place itself is beautiful, and people live in the area with their livestock. We don’t want to lose our way of life, meaning we live off the land and we are self-sufficient, the people in the area are very well self-sustaining, and do not want to be bothered. We need no hand outs from our government and we enjoy the way we live and we want to keep it that way.
State Senators, House of Representatives, and New Mexico governor, you represent your state, your town and your people. Should you let this tragedy go on in your state? Say NO to the tax breaks and leaves no pathway for more power plants in the Four Corners.
Sarah Jane White
P.O. Box 357 
Shiprock, NM 87420 
(505) 860-6166
Pauline Gilmore
P.O. Box 1002
Fruitland, NM 87416
Molly Hogue
P.O. Box 7925
New Comb, NM 87455
Lucy A. Willie
Box 7669
New Comb, NM 87455
(505) 215-2644
Lena T. Nakia
Box 284 P.O.
Shiprock, NM 87420
(505) 947-1302
Victoria Gutierrez
Box 56
Fruitland, NM 87416
(505) 598-0028