Dine' to Protest Wall Street 'Vulture Capitalists' and Dirty Coal Power Plant -- July 18, 2018

The Navajo Nation government wants to keep this dirty coal fired power plant on the Navajo Nation, the Navajo Generating Station, operating. It has been one of the dirtiest coal fired power plants in the world over the past decade. NGS provides electricity for southern Arizona, while many Navajos go without electricity. NGS uses coal from the nearby Peabody Coal Mine, the primary reason for relocation. Both Peabody Coal and NGS drain the precious aquifer water. -- Censored News

   Dine' to Protest Wall Street 'Vulture Capitalists' and Dirty Coal Power Plant

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

By Lori Goodman, Diné CARE', Carol Davis, Diné CARE', and Percy Deal, Big Mountain Resident

Censored News

Navajo community members gather outside Navajo Council summer session to protest negotiations with Wall Street “vulture capitalists” on NGS

WHAT:    As the Navajo Nation Tribal Council convenes for its summer legislative session, members of the Navajo advocacy group Diné CARE and others will gather outside council chambers in Window Rock to voice their concerns about negotiations between Wall Street hedge fund traders and the Navajo government over continued operation of Navajo Generating Station past its scheduled December 2019 closure date. Navajo community members will “air the dirty laundry” of what will happen if Avenue Capital follows through to buy the plant, which is losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

WHY: The closure of NGS in less than two years is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Navajo Nation to move beyond 50 years of forced economic dependence on coal and toward a sustainable clean energy future. The purchase of the plant by Wall Street speculators – led by tycoon Marc Lasry – threatens to block that path. Lasry’s firm, Avenue Capital, specializes in scooping up “distressed” assets and squeezing profits from them for short-term gains. Navajo communities and leaders need to understand the significant losses that will befall the tribe if a predatory Wall Street hedge fund takes over at NGS.

WHO:  Members of Diné CARE and Navajo communities impacted by almost five decades of colonized dependence on coal

WHEN:  Wednesday, July 18, 2018, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Navajo Time (MDT)

WHERE: Outside the east entrance of Navajo Nation Council Chambers in Window Rock

VISUALS: Advocates will air the “dirty laundry” of NGS, with posters on topics such as: the harm the power plant and Kayenta coal mine have done to Navajo air, land and water; the hundreds of millions of dollars in assets from current owners that the tribe will lose if NGS is sold to new owners; the financial risks to workers and tribal revenue of a sale.