Navajo Generating Station shut down in 2019 and is now being dismantled. The Colorado River water that cooled the plant is part of a broader legal impasse.
The three smokestacks at Navajo Generating Station were demolished on December 18, 2020. Photo courtesy of Salt River Project
By Brett Walton, Circle of Blue
An emblem of coal power in the United States and a symbol of coal’s tight bond with water is being dismantled, piece by piece.
Navajo Generating Station was the largest coal-fired power plant in the American West, a testament to the political bargaining generations ago that divvied up the region’s land, minerals, and water. But the facility’s time is now up. In November 2019, the power plant stopped producing electricity. In December 2020, the trio of 775-foot smokestacks came tumbling down. Six weeks ago, the precipitators that prevented fine coal particles from being emitted into the air were dynamited, crumbling to the desert floor like felled beasts.
A Legacy of the New Deal, Electric Cooperatives Struggle to Democratize and Make a Green Transition
FDR program to electrify rural America is now beset by expensive coal plants and often-hidebound governing boards, as members clamor for transparency and renewables.
President Roosevelt delivers a speech at the dedication of the U.S. Rural Electrification Project. Credit: Getty Images
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What began three years ago as a campaign to stop the spraying of weedkiller under power lines near homes in the Appalachian mountains of northeast Tennessee, has become an example of a more democratic process at electric cooperatives across the country.
Congress on Track to Approve Millions More in Federal Funding for Water Debt Relief circleofblue.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from circleofblue.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
What’s On Interior’s To-Do List? A Full Plate of Public Lands Issues and Trump Rollbacks for Deb Haaland
The Interior nominee would be the first Native American cabinet secretary if she wins Senate confirmation following hearings that begin Tuesday.
February 22, 2021
U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM), President-elect Joe Biden s choice for Interior Secretary, at the U.S. Capitol in January 2019. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
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Public lands are set to play a pivotal role in the Biden administration’s ambitious climate change agenda. The national parks, wildlife refuges and national recreation areas overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior have been little-appreciated as climate solutions, even though they’re crucial sinks for greenhouse gas emissions. But Interior lands are also part of the nation’s climate problem, since they hold vast reserves of fossil fuels that, when extracted and burned, generate climate pollution.
Ashfield photographer’s “Ice Visions” on display at Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
Ashfield photographer Erik Hoffner kneels on the ice next to an ice fishing tip-up with one of his “Ice Visions” images. Contributed Photo/Erik Hoffner
Hoffner captures these “galactic oddities” in the ice by skating out on the frozen lakes in the morning. With his camera aimed straight down at the refrozen ice, Hoffner captures black and white images that have the appearance of galaxies filled with shining stars or living cells. Contributed Photo/Erik Hoffner
Hoffner captures these “galactic oddities” in the ice by skating out on the frozen lakes in the morning. With his camera aimed straight down at the refrozen ice, he captures black and white images that have the appearance of galaxies filled with shining stars or living cells. Contributed Photo/Erik Hoffner