A view of the Kayenta Mine in Arizona. Peabody Energy operates the mine through leases with the Hopi Tribe and the Navajo Nation. Photo from Peabody Energy
Vernon Masayesva, the executive director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition and a former chairman of the Hopi Tribe, calls on the Interior Department to hold Peabody Energy, the largest coal company in the world, accountable for decades of mining in Arizona:
It is the responsibility of Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewell, to make sure that Peabody Energy, owners and investors Navajo and Mohave Generating Stations, pay full cost of all Hopi coal, cultural resources, and water related restoration requirements. It was Interior that allowed Peabody to self-bond. That decision, combined with decades of U.S. decisions to defer honest enforcement of federal cultural and environmental protection laws, allowed damages to our land and cultural reclamation to be deferred, so Peabody and utility companies could make more money in the easy days, then in the end walk away. There should be no negotiation about this. Hopi Tribal Council should take action now to require the Secretary to obey the law, as it was intended, and that Interior will assume all obligations if Peabody succeeds in getting Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. There will be long lines of creditors trying to get pennies on the dollar what Peabody owes them, and many will use Congress to try to get federal dollars. The Secretary needs to overcome Congressional pressure to put other damaged parties at the head of the line and leave Hopi with a train wreck.Get the Story:
Vernon Masayesva: Despite bankruptcy, Peabody Coal should be made to pay Hopi for restoring integrity to Hopi lands and waters and cultural resources (The Navajo-Hopi Observer 4/26)
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