BY PETER O'DOWD
The Navajo Nation in northern Arizona is scrambling to keep a coal-fired power plant and coal mine from closing in 2019.
Tribal officials have asked the Trump administration for help to keep the Navajo Generating Station open.
Earlier this year, the plant’s operator said it can no longer compete with the low cost of natural gas and announced it would close the plant two decades earlier than planned.
That puts the fate of Peabody Energy's Kayenta coal mine in question, too. It supplies the power plant with the fuel it needs to make electricity.
The news has caused a growing sense of anxiety among the Navajo and Hopi tribes. Both rely on the operations for hundreds of high-paying jobs and millions of dollars in lease royalties on their impoverished reservations.
On the other hand, Navajos who believe in the sanctity of the Earth and water say the closure can't come soon enough...