The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday (Feb. 15) denied preliminary permits for development of pumped hydro on Navajo tribal land, announcing a policy that projects on sovereign tribal lands must have tribal support. The rejection of preliminary permits came for energy storage projects, some of which would consist of multiple components, all on Navajo land in Arizona and New Mexico.
FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said FERC is “committed” to assuring that “tribal interests are carefully considered.” The new FERC policy follows that already in place at the U.S. Interior Department and other federal land management agencies. In February 2021, the commission granted a preliminary hydro permit to a 2.2 GW pumped storage project on both Navajo land and Interior Department Bureau of Reclamation land on the shore of Lake Powell, using transmission infrastructure of the closed coal-fired Navajo Generating Station.
Three of the projects FERC rejected, two in Arizona and one in New Mexico, were proposed by “Nature and People First,” a Massachusetts limited liability corporation founded by French energy entrepreneur Denis Payre. The Black Mesa project (Dockets P-15233-000, P-15234-000, P-15235-000) – three pumped storage facilities – would constitute a 1,500-MW closed-loop hydro generating system, using water from the San Juan and Colorado rivers and groundwater. Last July, 17 Navajo tribal chapters and grazing committees objected to the plan, which, they noted, would require nine reservoirs and 450,000 acre-feet of water.
Nature and People First also proposed a New Mexico project (Docket P-15293-001), Chuska Mountain in San Juan and McKinley counties. The Navajo Nation last December told FERC that “it appears the Applicant is aware the Project would be located on lands of the Navajo Nation, but they have failed to make necessary contact with the appropriate regulatory offices within the Navajo Nation Government.”
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