Today the utility companies that own the Navajo generating station voted to close the plant which is one of the biggest in the US. While many will applaud the reduction of greenhouse gasses, it is expected to have a fairly serious effect on the Hopi and Navajo people. Besides the employment both tribes also receive considerable royalties from the mine.
I’m not sure what the total numbers are, maybe $150 million in wages and royalties. A lot. A quarter of Navajo nation revenue, 65% of Hopi.
I’ve never been to the area the mine or the generating station, but if you’ve seen what happens to a western town dependent on mining jobs after the mine shuts down it’s not pretty. People who used to proudly earn a good wage and support their families, are suddenly on unemployment, and then on public assistance, a humiliating thing. People drink, divorce happens, kids grow up a lot differently.
I’ve exactly zero hope that this instance will be any different than any other mine closing. I personally am against coal mines, fully cognizant of the cost in human lives every closure incurs. I just wish it didn’t have to be this way.
The US needs to rethink its social contract such that people are supported when jobs like this are lost instead of being forced onto a dole that is a fraction of former earnings.
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