Votes Will Be Cast April 29th, 2003! Call Your Senator Today!

The Overall Energy Bill has already passed in the house has moved to the Senate. The Bill which passed in the House of Representatives contains section 14029 which gives 10 million dollars a year for 2004, 2005, 2006 for an agreement between the Department of Energy and uranium producers to identify, test and develop uranium mines. This is a further subsidy into the most damaging source of non-renewable energy, nuclear power.

The Senate Bill contains S.522 Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell's Indian Energy Bill, which has passed the Indian Affairs Committee, and on April 29th will be considered by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. On that date Senator Bingaman, co-chair of the Natural Resources Committee is expected to add provision S.424 that would make Dine' Power Authority's Navajo Transmission Project, and a related power plant proposal, eligible for federal grant funds.

The Houston Based company Steag Power wants to build a 1,500-megawatt coal burning plant near Farmington. The plant would ship electricity on a proposed 470 mile 600 million dollar transmission line from a substation near Shiprock across mostly Navajo Nation land in northern Arizona to the Marketplace substation South of Las Vegas. Connections at that substation and near Flagstaff would allow the electricity to be shipped to customers in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Southern California.

What You Can Do!!!

Call your senator today and let tell them NOT to support The Indian Energy Bill. A better alternative is Senator Jim Jefford's letter to The Natural Resources Committee, which supports developing a better Renewable Energy Standard.