DISQUS

gilmanc · 1 year ago

OK seriously, we can supply power practically anywhere in the country that needs power. Are you saying that we can't get power to the Navajo Nation? Are the Navajo standing in the way?



It's the least the country can do to ensure power is supplied.

rockarchy · 1 year ago

Really seriously, I doubt you have any notion of the difficult terrain, vast open spaces, and dispersed settlement pattern found on the res. And, NO the Navajo people are not standing in the way! Stringing power lines to every isolated hogan would be fantastically expensive and I doubt that will ever happen. While a lot of people who live near the Desert Rock mine are very unhappy with that project, the Navajo are not Luddites who resist change or the introduction of electric power to their lands and homes.

Desert Rock is just another in a long series of projects that benefit a few and leave the many behind. The plant and coal mine operators will bank huge profits while only a few Navajo will benefit financially. Some Navajo will get jobs and a few, mostly in the government, are likely to get quite a bit richer. A case in point could be the fellow in Window Rock who wondered where the land could be found for a solar plant. Well, it could be found on the vast tailings piles left by other strip mines or the land that is soon to be strip mined. At a minimum the Desert Rock investors could put a tiny dent in their profits over the next 20 years and supply all of those isolated home sites with adequate, on site solar power collectors and battery storage facilities.

veganjohn · 1 year ago

Goodness: "According to Scientific American, the "grand solar plan" to use solar energy to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil by 2050 would require $420 billion in subsides over 39 years."

So, we can get America OFF Middle Eastern oil (and the heck OUT OF IRAQ!) for 2.9 years of the war we're so mightily loosing there. Think of that - we've already paid far far more than what it would cost to wean the US off the Petroleum Nipple. I am going to be so very happy when that failed oilman Bush and his murderous oilman compatriot Cheney are shown the door to the White House. I only hope Mr. Obama is up to the task of holding a lot of criminals to account for their law and Constitution breaking ways.

Looking at http://www.realgoods.com (a site for wind/solar/etc. power) I see you can set up a very sweet 2Kw solar system for around $12,000. With compact fluorescent lights, and energy efficient Sunfrost (or other) refrigerator, and other smart appliances, 2Kw is plenty of electricity to live very comfortably. The way this article is written, it sounds like that's barely scarping by.

gilmanc · 1 year ago

Umm, if the Navajo have no problem with stringing the power lines, it's the least the government can do for them. If it were just about expense, rural America wouldn't have electricity or phones.