In the Rockies today, two tribes said they need coal-fired power and asked environmental groups who oppose the plants to stay off their reservations.
The Hopi Nation Tribal Council voted unanimously on Monday declaring environmental groups are not welcome on their Arizona lands because of the groups' opposition to the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station, which provides the Hopi tribe with 70 percent of its operating revenue.
On Wednesday, Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. echoed the Hopi message, as environmental groups are protesting the Desert Rock project, a coal-fired power plant proposed on Navajo lands.
Shirley has also applied for a U.S. Energy Department grant to add carbon-capture technology to the Desert Rock plant.
Also in the news, Harris Sherman, nominated to be the next undersecretary of Agriculture in charge of the U.S. Forest Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service, testified before a Senate committee on Wednesday; and in Wyoming, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso got Sweetwater County and two cities on the board reviewing Aaron Million's proposal to pipe Green River water from Wyoming to Colorado's Front Range.
