{"id":100097,"date":"2018-04-29T20:04:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T02:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/email-reveals-potential-buyer-for-navajo-coal-fired-plant\/"},"modified":"2018-04-29T20:04:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T02:04:22","slug":"email-reveals-potential-buyer-for-navajo-coal-fired-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/email-reveals-potential-buyer-for-navajo-coal-fired-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Email reveals potential buyer for Navajo coal-fired plant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The potential buyers for the Navajo Generating Station near Page were identified publicly for the first time this week as Avenue Capital Group and Deerfield, Illinois-based Middle River Power. The power plant is set to close in December 2019 unless a new owner is found, costing hundreds of good-paying jobs on the Navajo and Hopi reservations.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Navajo Generating Station near Page is set to close in December 2019 unless a new owner is found, costing hundreds of good-paying jobs on the Navajo and Hopi reservations.<\/p>\n

The investment banking firm Lazard Freres has been leading the search for a new buyer after being hired by the plant\u2019s sole coal supplier, Peabody Energy, Inc.<\/p>\n

The potential buyers were identified publicly for the first time this week as Avenue Capital Group and Deerfield, Illinois-based Middle River Power. The information came in emails between a Lazard representative and the general manager of the Central Arizona Project, who were trying to set up a meeting to talk about power purchase agreements.<\/p>\n

The emails were shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a nonprofit research group that has been following the coal industry. A spokeswoman for the Central Arizona Project confirmed their authenticity.<\/p>\n

Lazard has said prolonging the life of the plant would hinge on the willingness of current owners and the Central Arizona Project to buy power after 2019, a long-term lease with the Navajo Nation, a coal supply agreement and spending less to operate the plant. The current owners decided to close it because natural gas was cheaper.<\/p>\n

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation this week exempting coal used at the Navajo Generating Station from the state\u2019s sales tax to make it more attractive for a new buyer.<\/p>\n

There are mixed feelings on the Navajo Nation and the Hopi reservation over coal.<\/p>\n

The industry employs hundreds of Navajos and Hopis, and the revenues provide a huge chunk of the tribe\u2019s budgets. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns a share of the power, has said it\u2019s working to keep it open in part to save the jobs.<\/p>\n

But the plant has its detractors because it is a major source of pollution on the reservation and its long-term viability is in doubt as utilities retreat from coal in favor of cheaper sources of energy and renewables. That\u2019s led to a push by some on the Navajo Nation to convert the site to a solar plant.<\/p>\n

Nicole Horseherder is among Navajos pushing for a transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWall Street hedge funds taking over on Navajo Nation would be a disaster for our people, for our culture, for our water and future,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are called vulture capital companies for a reason. They aren\u2019t in it for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the emails, Lazard representative Ali Taqi described the potential investors as \u201cvery reputable and experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avenue Capital Group has assets of more than $9 billion, according to its website. Middle River Power owns five power plants that produce about 2,000 megawatts of energy. One is a coal-fired power plant outside Baltimore, Maryland, that Middle River purchased two years ago and has said would stop burning coal this summer.<\/p>\n

The Navajo Generating Station alone generates up to 2,250 megawatts.<\/p>\n

Both Lazard and Avenue Capital Group declined comment Friday. An email sent to Middle River Power was not returned.<\/p>\n

Navajo Generating Station is operated by the Salt River Project, which has shared financial and other details about the power plant with more than a dozen entities under non-disclosure agreements. Spokesman Scott Harelson said Friday that no potential buyers have entered into negotiations for the power plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not have indications of any interest levels,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The utility has said it doesn\u2019t see how anyone could run the power plant economically. And any investor that makes an offer after mid-May \u201cwill face significant challenges\u201d in securing agreements needed to keep the plant open without a temporary shutdown, deputy manager Michael Hummel wrote in a letter to the Interior Department this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

potential buyers for the Navajo Generating Station near Page were identified publicly for the first time this week as Avenue Capital Group and Deerfield, Illinois-based Middle River Power. The power plant is set to close in December 2019 unless a new owner is found, costing hundreds of good-paying jobs on the Navajo and Hopi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1424,2306],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-coal","tag-mining-issues"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100097"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}