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Public Can Weigh In On Future Of Navajo Generating Station

The public will have a chance to weigh in on the future of the West’s largest coal-fired power plant.

Southwest utilities, the federal government and officials from the Navajo Nation have been working on a deal to keep the Navajo Generating Station from closing at the end of this year.

Owners of the plant have already decided they will not renew their lease with the Navajo in 2019, but the question now is can they keep the plant — and the hundreds of jobs its supports — operating until then.

The Salt River Project has cited the energy market and the cheap price of natural gas as the reason for shuttering the plant. That has received push back from the tribe and some regulators in Arizona who contend that the power plant and nearby mine are critical for the state’s energy mix.

Listening sessions will be held in Phoenix and several locations in northern Arizona this month.

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Will Stone was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2015 to 2019.