Resisting Desert Rock
By Nathan Coe, gnn.tv
March 5, 2007

Indigenous resistance against the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant continues despite intimidation and harassment.

On the Navajo Reservation of New Mexico, indigenous elders and youth have been battling energy giants and their plan to construct a new coal-fired power plant on Navajo lands in an attempt to protect their lands and traditions. In December of 2006, resisters erected a barricade and engaged in a tense standoff with law enforcement. Though the barricade has since been removed, indigenous resisters remain on site to vigil and protest against the destruction of their sacred lands, while others seek to educate, organize, and rally their people, as well as the public at large.

In the deserts of the Southwestern United States-the area known as the Four Corners-energy and resource wars are nothing new. Locals say that there is nothing pettier than water politics in the Southwest. The legacy of coal and other mining and oil and gas drilling is a long one, as is the legacy of colonialism and the battles fought by the indigenous to protect their sacred lands.

Over thirty years ago the Four Corners area was designated as a ‘National Sacrifice Area’ by the National Academy of Sciences, by which they meant that the area was to be sacrificed to corporate interests and the extraction of natural resources, from oil and gas to coal to copper and other minerals and metals. The lands of the American Southwest have long suffered the ravages of heavy mining and oil and gas drilling.

Now, on the Dine (Navajo) reservation, at a site near the town of Burnham, New Mexico, twenty five miles Southeast of Shiprock, Sithe Global Power and Dine Power Authority plan to build a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant that has been dubbed “Desert Rock.” Despite claims to clean coal, coal-fired power plants produce the highest emissions, at 13.7 million tons of carbon dioxide per year (anywhere from 10 to 15 million metric tons per year, according to various estimates). The plant would use approximately forty seven gallons of water per minute, leading to dangerous levels of mercury emissions into the streams and rivers, the ground water, and the water table. Desert Rock could potentially increase state mercury emissions by 40%. According to various estimates, Desert Rock would increase the total net emissions in the state of New Mexico by anywhere from 14% - 20%. The Environmental Impact Study due January of this year has been delayed, and is expected to be released some time around the end of May. (read the full article on gnn.tv)

The Navajo people have produced a short video explaining their position…

Resisting Desert Rock

CloseMove

• Play on Youtube
• Visit www.desert-rock-blog.com/
• Sign the online petition