Sierra Club/Earthjustice

The environmental groups, responding to supplemental questions raised by EPA early in November, focus on treatment of power plants in Indian Country and U.S. Territories, particularly the perceived exclusion of investor-owned power plants situated on tribal nation lands from the carbon control mosaic. They focus on two power plants situated on Navaho Nation lands, the Four Corners and Navaho plants, multi-unit coal-fired plants that, the filing says, “emit large amounts of CO2 and other harmful pollutants without providing significant economic benefits or electrification services to most tribal members: nearly all their generation is exported to customers in adjacent states, while one-third or more Navaho Nation residents live without access to electricity.” They say EPA's supplemental proposal “would largely exempt these plants from regulation. . . .There is no reason to allow a higher level of pollution from plants that are situated on tribal lands but are owned and operated by private corporations, serve the general population in the Southwestern U.S. Rather than tribal residents, and are dispatched in the same manner. . . as nearby plants located in states.” Its answer: “our recommended approach would entail steep emission reductions and would facilitate the transition toward greater investment in renewable and energy efficiency resources.”