More Commentary

• Commentary: Bill aims to help American Indians in urban areas
• Commentary: Albuquerque Public Schools just can't admit they let down the children of Navajo Elementary
• Commentary: Volunteer vets provide animal care to New Mexico's pueblos and reservations

MOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

• ABQTrib.com to remain available
  08:48 a.m., February 25, 2008
• Congressman is indicted
  08:37 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Series of attacks target Green Zone
  08:36 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Iran is defying U.N., agency says
  08:35 a.m., February 23, 2008
• Waterboarding approval probed
  08:34 a.m., February 23, 2008

TRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

• Ty Murray Invitational thrills fans in Albuquerque
• Is Rome Burning?
• Ominous Skies
• The Road to Invalidation
• Albuquerque company participates in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Diné CARE thanks The Albuquerque Tribune for its editorial ("Bouquet: Diné CARE," Jan. 23) bestowing a bouquet on our report, "Energy and Economic Alternatives to the Desert Rock Project."

We commissioned this report to analyze the availability of wind and solar resources on Navajo Nation lands and to shift the obsolete coal-development paradigm that has traumatized our land with irreparable harms — a problem that will be perpetuated by the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant.

When compared to Desert Rock, wind, solar and energy-efficiency technologies are less expensive. Renewable technologies provide 80 percent more construction jobs and five times as many longterm operation and maintenance jobs than Desert Rock — numbers that Desert Rock proponents have not provided to the Navajo Tribal Council and its constituents.

In addition, indirect job creation and economic multipliers within the regional economy would increase, making the net economic benefits from renewable energy development four times greater than those of Desert Rock.

The cost to build Desert Rock has increased dramatically, from $1.4 billion in 2004 to $3.7 billion in 2007, making the project economically impractical, when these costs are passed onto consumers in the form of high-priced electricity.

Renewable energy developments would provide lower-cost electricity than Desert Rock and could be used for decentralized rural electrification in the Navajo Nation.

The Navajo Tribal Council is spending $5 million per month on Desert Rock — without a single return to date. There is no "momentum" behind the Desert Rock project, as The Tribune's editorial suggests — nor should The Tribune worry that Diné CARE's opposition "might not have a Popsicle's chance in a furnace of success."

Part of Diné CARE's mission with this report is to generate discussion within the Navajo Nation about the clean, affordable, renewable energy resources that are available and invoked by people at the grass roots — medicine men and even Navajo tribal officials.

The Navajo people are ready and waiting for change. It's time for the tribal council to listen and consider an alternative that will be more sustainable and not harm the health of our people or our land.