Captured at Desert Rock
Power plant appeals for federal funds

A Navajo woman herds her sheep near the Four Corners Power Plant and not far from Burnham, N.M., where the Desert Rock Power Plant is proposed. The massive, 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock proposal is continuing to shake up the Navajo Reservation. Backers are now seeking federal funding to capture carbon emissions, a move conservationists are decrying./File photo

by Will Sands

In a strange twist, economic stimulus dollars may start flowing toward the Desert Rock Power Plant. The Navajo Nation recently sent the Obama administration a $2.9 billion request for a range of projects, including an ambitious, new plan to capture carbon emissions from the controversial proposed power plant. However, Desert Rock watchdogs and opponents are crying foul and accusing the plant’s backers of greenwashing.

In December, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. forwarded a variety of funding requests to the incoming president. The $2.9 billion wish list included earmarks for impacts from uranium mining, new medical facilities for the vast reservation that spans large sections of New Mexico and Arizona, and more than $800 million for the proposed Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project.

“If Navajos are to remain on Navajoland so that our children continue to speak our language, live our culture and practice our way of life, the Navajo Nation needs economic development,” Shirley said. “After generations of federal policies that hindered America’s most traditional indigenous people, we pray that the Obama-Biden administration’s economic stimulus program can give us the help we seek.”

Shirley also sought a major boost for the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant in his request. Though there was no line-item request, the Navajo president also asked for major funding to capture carbon dioxide at Desert Rock. Still in its infancy, carbon capture technology has never been implemented on a major scale or even at a major power plant. And Desert Rock certainly qualifies as major. As it is proposed, Desert Rock would cost $4 billion to build, be among the largest plants in the nation, supply electricity to 1.5 million customers in the West’s urban areas and emit nearly 13 million tons of carbon into Four Corners skies. Desert Rock spokesman Frank Maisano noted that piloting a carbon-capturing program could make the plant a more welcome fixture on the local landscape.

“All along we’ve said that Desert Rock would be a good opportunity to do a pilot project on carbon-capture technology,” he said. “Obviously, we recognize that there are major costs and technological impediments and that carbon capture is still not in its prime. But if the stimulus bill can help us get there, it would be great.”

Maisano, Shirley and Desert Rock may be overly optimistic, however. Even the U.S. Department of Energy has acknowledged that large-scale carbon capture remains relatively unattainable. “Existing capture technologies … are not cost-effective when considered in the context of sequestering CO2 from power plants,” the agency noted recently. In fact, capturing carbon with current technologies would effectively double the cost of Desert Rock, forcing the total plant’s cost above the $8 billion mark. With this in mind, Maisano noted that the American taxpayer would have to pitch in.

“We would love to have a project that could break new ground in carbon-capture sequestration,” he said. “Should the technology become affordable, reliable and feasible, we absolutely want to do it. But there would have to be a partnership with the government to make it happen. This kind of expense is out of reach for a private entity.”

Conservationists and opponents are countering that carbon capture is out of reach for Desert Rock, regardless of expense. Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance, charged that the move is a desperate, last-ditch attempt by the Navajo Nation. He alleged that Desert Rock is reaching for credibility in the wake of coming regulation for carbon emissions.

“It’s definitely a 23rd-hour deal,” he said. “They’re finally starting to see that CO2 will be regulated under the Clean Air Act. As a result, Desert Rock and Joe Shirley are saying that they’re now amenable to Desert Rock being a pilot plant for carbon capture.”

San Juan Citizens Alliance and Diné CARE, a Navajo group opposing Desert Rock, are both characterizing the funding request as “ridiculous.” Carbon-capture technology is unproven and the American taxpayer should not be asked to subsidize a pipedream, Eisenfeld added.

“We’re adamantly opposed,” he said. “We don’t think carbon capture exists at a commercially viable level. This is a last ditch effort to act like they’re being responsible and actually care about the effects of the plant.”

Lori Goodman, of Diné CARE, agreed. “It’s beyond ridiculous. Not only is it untested, it’s a flawed idea.”

Adding a carbon capture component to Desert Rock would be much more than a band-aid fix. Eisenfeld argued that turning the plant into a pilot carbon capture project would require a major reconfiguration and a return to square one of the permitting process.

“This is not something that you just stick on there,” he said. “It adds huge expense and complexity and requires an enormous amount of water. The whole Desert Rock design would have to be scrapped in my opinion.”

Scrapping Desert Rock might not be such a bad thing, according to Goodman. She noted that pursuing a carbon-capture route could send the power plant back to the drawing board and result in the end of a flawed idea.

“It might not be so bad if it does go forward,” Goodman said. “That would mean they would need to start the process from the very beginning, and there’s no way this power plant would survive a review by the Obama administration.” •