2 views offered on Navajo ‘Green Economy’

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Years ago, the Navajo Nation’s former leaders all rode their horses in to Window Rock. “That was green — a nonpolluting way to get to a Council meeting,” Tony Skrelunas told Council members during Friday’s work session on enacting “Green Economy” legislation.

But now, according to Delegate Leonard Tsosie, they have chosen to drive vehicles which produce emissions that contribute to the greenhouse effect.

Thus, it was two schools of thought that emerged as Council delegates listened to a presentation by Skrelunas and Wahleah Johns of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition and a host of others, including Citizens and Sempra energy company representatives, as they debated a transition toward a more sustainable economy.

In past years, Skrelunas said, “We had an economy that was agricultural. We had livestock, we had our own farming, we had our own system of trade. But at some point we shifted, and now we have a money-based economy.

Everybody now, they have to make an income, they have to have a job.

“The Navajo government, the majority of our revenue comes from coal, oil and power plants,” he said. Because of the high unemployment rate, many Navajos work off the reservation where more jobs are available.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Just one facility manufacturing items such as solar panels could create hundreds of jobs, according to Skrelunas. Renewable energy plants, textile wool mills, weavers co-ops, farmers markets, traditional/organic farms, production of certified Navajo mutton, and green construction projects all could contribute toward a more sustainable economy.

“When we say green economy, it’s not something new. We’ve always had it,” he said. “The way our lifestyle was, the way we moved our livestock around, it was sustainable.”

In trying to define what “green” means to the Navajo people, they came up with a short definition: Well-paid jobs created by sustainable businesses and/or industries that are low or non-polluting. Green jobs respect traditional Diné culture and Mother Earth.

“Not green” industries are those that depend on nuclear, coal, oil, or fossil fuels, Johns said. “Products that are toxic, that do not biodegrade, or that may damage water systems or land; unsustainable harvest of certain resources that will take hundreds of years to replenish also are considered not green.”

The Coalition in partnership with Navajo Nation Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan is hoping to establish a five-member Navajo Green Economy Commission, an independent entity of the legislative branch, which would receive an annual allocation of $10 million from Council. Commissioners would not receive a salary.

The commission would help leverage federal and state funding for green economy projects, now estimated to be in the billions of dollars. The funds would be allocated to the five Navajo agencies and then down to the Nation’s 110 chapters.

“You talked about wool, you talked about planting corn, but the Navajos have chosen to come out of that type of lifestyle,” Tsosie said. “What you’re proposing is to reverse that and try to go back. Is that really feasible? Is that really practical? Because the Navajo people have shown us by their choice that they want to get out of that.

“(Delegate Francis) Redhouse chose to come out of the sheep economy. He would rather have a Toyota Tacoma to carry him around and produce gasoline that contributes to the greenhouse effect,” Tsosie said, adding that it appears the real intent of the commission is to go after green economy funding.

But rather than setting up another commission, he said, perhaps the Nation should look at setting up Section 17 corporations on par with Navajo Nation Oil & Gas.

Delegate GloJean Todacheene told presenters that if they’re going to talk “green,” they need to begin by educating today’s throwaway society on conservation. Regarding wind and solar plants, she said, “It is well and good that we are looking at alternative forms of energy, but I still think that the most efficient is the coal-fired power plants.”

Steven Begay, executive director of Diné Power Authority, said the Southwest is a growing area, so there is room for any kind of power that can be brought in, including renewables, which will take baseload power to get going. In Begay’s view, the Desert Rock power plant that DPA is working on is a “green” project.

Desert Rock “is a large-scale, coal-fired power plant that offers super-critical boiler technology with a series of emissions systems to capture 90 percent or more of some of the pollutants and set new standards as compared to old, existing coal-fired power plants. I think that’s within the definition of ‘green,’” he said.

Delegate Larry Anderson said many Navajos still live the traditional way. “We’re used to sitting at an open fire. We’re used to turning on kerosene lamps. It’s no bother to us because we know how to live that way.

“But in the white man’s way, you have to turn on the switch and then the power generates; and then the guy sitting down at the coast of California or down in southern Arizona that is taking care of the nuclear power plant has to turn up another switch again in order to create that power.

“I think we need to certainly get our immediate departments and divisions here within the Navajo Nation government to really start studying and making every effort to make these alternative changes,” he said.