"Utilities Vote To Close Navajo Coal Plant At End Of 2019"

"The utilities that own the Navajo Generating Station coal-fired power plant near Page [AZ] are tired of overpaying for power and decided Monday to close the plant when their lease expires at the end of 2019.

To run that long, the utility owners need to work out an arrangement with the Navajo Nation, which owns the land, to decommission the plant after the lease expires. Otherwise, the owners will have to close at the end of this year to have time to tear down the plant's three generators and be gone by 2020.

Environmentalists cheered the decision to shutter one of the biggest polluters in the nation, while other stakeholders such as the U.S. Department of the Interior and coal supplier Peabody Energy hope to find a way for the Navajo Nation or another entity to step in and keep the plant going beyond 2019."

Ryan Randazzo reports for the Arizona Republic February 13, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Tribes Expect Job Losses After Closure Of Navajo Coal Plant" (Associated Press)