BY RICK MOORE AND ANNE MARIAH TAPP
The Colorado Plateau is full of quiet refuges. You’ll find alcoves in canyons hewn out of Navajo Sandstone where maidenhair ferns cling to the walls, water seeps to the surface, and the repetitive sound of drips falling into small pools reverberates in the silence. And don’t forget shady groves of fir and spruce, high on the sides of volcanic sky islands punched through the horizontal red-rock country that makes up most of the plateau.
Meanwhile, in the high country, shaded snowbanks melt slowly, soaking into the ground to nourish springs far below, water trickling downslope to nurture vegetation lining sinuous sandstone canyons.
Recently, an Arizona Game and Fish Department manager spoke of watching a quarter-mile strip of lush green vegetation sustained by a spring on the Kane Ranch shrink to less than a hundred feet. Catastrophic wildfires are on the rise. In the Southwest, the total area burned from 1987 to 2003 increased more than 300 percent compared to the 1970s and early 1980s. Snow in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains is melting earlier, affecting not only springs, but irrigation and how dams, reservoirs, and hydroelectric power are managed.
A 2002 “Colorado Plateau Advocate” article warned of frighteningly high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pegged at 370 parts per million (ppm). Fourteen years later, carbon dioxide levels have climbed even higher—to 400 ppm—and the need for action in the face of the climate crisis is even more urgent.
Unfortunately, in February 2016, the Supreme Court halted progress on the Obama administration’s signature climate change program, the Clean Power Plan, which will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants by 32 percent.
Despite this setback, we see tremendous potential in the leadership of tribal nations and cities across the United States who are acting on climate. The tribal nations and local governments of the Colorado Plateau are perfectly positioned to join this movement and lead the plateau to a new energy future—one defined by the choices of leaders who act, rather than waiting for the Supreme Court, federal government, or recalcitrant states to take action.
Take the Tonto Apache Tribe whose reservation is located 95 miles northeast of Phoenix. The tribe recently completed an $800,000 solar energy project to provide electricity for the tribal administration building and community gym and pool.
The project is part of a longer-term goal to promote tribal sovereignty and self-determination while becoming a renewable energy leader in Indian country and upholding traditional ways of life.
The Blue Lake Rancheria, located near Arcata, California, is another groundbreaking example of tribal leadership. The tribe began its climate action planning in 2008 and since then has reduced energy consumption by an awe-inspiring 35 percent. Beginning in 2011, the tribe completed numerous energy efficiency projects, held a community forum on climate change mitigation and adaptation, added solar arrays to low-income homes, and installed two electric car charging stations. The most innovative renewable energy project the tribe has completed to date is the construction of a 175 kW fuel cell powered by hydrogen derived from sawdust. The tribe partnered with the Redwood Coast Energy Authority and Humboldt State University to develop and build the fuel cell.
In 2008, the city council adopted a goal of cutting community-wide carbon emissions by 20 percent below 2005 emission levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. In March 2015, after nine months of work with a citizen advisory committee, multiple public forums, and participation from Colorado State University, the council tightened those goals, aiming to reduce emissions by 80 percent in 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Unlike many cities that set goals, but don’t track progress, Fort Collins publishes an annual report on the community’s greenhouse gas emissions. The 2014 report found that emissions were down 2.5 percent compared to 2005, even though the population increased 19 percent and the economy continued to grow at a robust rate, evidenced by the 41 percent increase in the city’s sales and use tax revenues.
Fifty years ago, the Colorado Plateau emerged as an energy colony that supplied both the energy and the water for the buildup of the desert Southwest and California. Using the plateau’s resources, we transformed the arid landscape of the American West and enshrined a fossil fuel-based economy.
Now we stand in a moment when leaders on the plateau—particularly tribal nations and local governments— may again shape history by transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy and energy efficiency alternatives. And these energy choices will dictate whether we will be able to continue listening to the mesmerizing sound of water dripping from lush alcove walls in the plateau’s canyons and finding solace in its high mountain forests.
This crossroad—and the consequences of choosing the wrong way—call for another prodigious peacetime exercise on the Colorado Plateau. This time, let us all work together to restructure our energy future and finally begin to live on the Colorado Plateau in a sustainable way.
Rick Moore is the Grand Canyon Trust’s clean energy and efficiency director.
Anne Mariah Tapp directs the Grand Canyon Trust's Energy Program.
"Tribes across the West are emerging as the visionary leaders in local action on climate."
