Up in smoke?

The photo here is from 2010, of the Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad, a short line created to move coal from a mine on the Navajo reservation in Arizona to a giant coal-fired generating plant near Lake Powell. The size of the coal-fired plant, and its proximity to the Grand Canyon and other major recreational area, has been a point of contention for environmentalists ever since the plant was planned. The plant was built to generate electricity for major portions of the west, including the Los Angeles and Phoenix areas – Los Angeles pulled out of that agreement a number of years back as there was increasing pressure in California for cleanrer energy production, but the plant continued to be a major source of energy in the Western grid.

There are plans now to shut down the plant – those plans developed not out of environmental concerns but the economics that have resulted in electricity from natural gas being so much less expensive than from coal-fired.

This situation, of course, puts the tribe that owns and operates the coal mine in a very difficult situation of losing close to 900 jobs. Considering the current presidential administration’s attitudes towards deregulating, there is hope by the tribe that the plant will be saved, but the current economics do not work in favor of that.

As is the issue for the whole coal industry – how to provide meaningful employment while saving the planet.

Follow the Black Mesa and Lake Powell Railroad keyword to see the other, earlier, pictures from this railroad.