It wasn’t the heavy hand of federal environmental regulation that doomed the Navajo Generating Station. It was market forces.
There are lessons in that fact for those who are scrambling to find a way to keep the plant running and for those who hope this is the absolute end of the coal-fired generating station.
Conflicts between industry and environmentalists can become a distraction from reality. That’s what happened in this case.
Doomed by pressure? No, simple economics
Supporters of NGS opposed air quality regulations that appeared to threaten the plant’s future. A deal was brokered in 2015 to close one generator in order to satisfy environmental rules and keep the plant operating until 2044...