Thoughts for Today

The San Juan Generating Station is a coal-fired electric power plant located by its coal source, the San Juan Mine, near Waterflow, New Mexico, which is near Shiprock, New Mexico. The Public Service Company of New Mexico, the Tucson Electric Power and the Farmington Electric Utility System are owners of this power station

There were four units there and Unit 2 and Unit 3 were shut down in 2017 and Units 1 and 4 with be retired in 2022.

To date the following coal generating plants have been retired from service or will be shut down in the future. Costing many jobs and millions of dollars in environmental clean up.

• Page Generating Unit 2019
• Prewitt Escalante station 2020
• San Juan Generation Station -Unit 2 & 3 in 2017 and Unit 1 and 4 in 2022
• Cholla Power stations Unit 2 retired in 2016, Unit 4 is scheduled to be retired in 2020 and Unit 1 and 3 are scheduled to be retired in 2025
• Springerville Coal Generationg plant with 4 units. No retirement date scheduled 3 units Lee Ranch Mine, NM supplies coal for Units 1 and 2. Unit 3 mainly receives its coal supply by rail from North Antelope Rochelle Mine, around 65 miles south of Gillette, Wyoming. Coal is delivered monthly by ten trains with 128, 120t railcars
• Coronado Generation Station 2 units scheduled shut down after 2014. Coal source from McKinley mine in NM and Power River basin in Wyoming
• Apache Generation Station no retirement date scheduled

• 28 % of the power in Arizona is now derived from 3 nuclear plants.
• Solar 6% 290 megawatt farm near Yuma and 25 megawatt in Kayenta
• 6 % Hydroelectric from Glen Canyon, Hoover dams, Parker Etc.
• Less than 1% wind Tuscon Electric power is building a wind farm in New Mexico
• 33 % natural gas generating plants estimated 15 plants with most of them in Maricopa County.
• 27% coal and this will be drastically reduced be 2020

The the lack of employment and the recent Peabody Coal mine shutdown and the Page power station taken out of service some of the more entrepreneur Navajos are now renting their hogans on Airbnb.

I always on the look out for wood to provide firewood for my small outreach firewood program to the Navajos in the Oljato community near Monument Valley. As you may be aware that wood stoves are the main source of heat for the Navajo dwellings and in June 2019 the Peabody coal mine has closed down along with the Page power plant closing in November 2019. With the coal mine and power plant closing down, 650 jobs have been eliminated and source of coal is not readily available now.  The nearest source of wood is 80 miles away from this community. I have been taking 4 to 5 loads of firewood to several of the families in this area over the past years. I am always looking for new sources of wood in the Verde Valley area to take up to Monument Valley and if you have some wood to spare it would be much appreciated. 

One of my favorite people to provide wood to is Anna. She is a 86 year old widow that has lived a hard life.