'Peabody Coal Plan' To Eliminate Energy Poverty, Inequality - McClellan Hall Named To National Committee

Black Mesa Residents Claim Mine Related Illnesses
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK – Peabody Energy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gregory H. Boyce outlined a multi-step plan Tuesday to eliminate energy poverty and inequality by unlocking the power of coal to advance energy security, generate economic stimulus and create environmental solutions.

Boyce unveiled the “Peabody Plan” during a keynote address before the 21st World Energy Congress in Montreal. The Congress is a gathering of global energy leaders from nearly 100 member nations convened every three years.

Boyce called for creating energy access for all by 2050, noting that there are 3.6 billion people in the world – more than half the global population – who lack adequate energy access.

Many Navajo Nation residents living in the shadow of Peabody's Black Mesa and Kayenta mines still do not have electricity or running water. A number of them spoke out during recent public hearings to oppose Navajo's lease reopener with Peabody.

According to the lease agreement, the 1987 amendments provide for a reopener to negotiate increased royalty rates and royalty-tax caps for each successive 10-year period after 1987. The coal royalty rate for the Kayenta Mine is 12.5 percent, set in 1977, and 6.25 percent for the Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area.

Many Black Mesa residents claim they have asthma and other illnesses they believe are related to the mines. Navajo medicine man Norris Nez in a December 2009 declaration, said, “Peabody's desecration of the land has devastated our ability to heal through ceremony and relocation has denied us new generations of medicine men that would have continued to practice traditional ways.”

Boyce said, “Study after study – and pure common sense – tell us that access to electricity helps people live longer and better. Yet each year, we lose more than 1.5 million people to the effects of energy poverty. We can no longer turn our heads from these brutal statistics. We must put people first. This is the first value.”

The Peabody Plan calls for:
· Working to eliminate energy poverty and propelling global economies by ensuring that at least half of new generation is fueled by coal;
·
· Replacing the 1,000 gigawatts of traditional coal plants with supercritical and ultra-supercritical plants, which are more efficient and carbon capture-ready;
·
· Developing at least 100 major projects around the world that capture, store or use carbon dioxide from coal-based plants within 20 years;
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· Deploying significant coal-to-gas, coal-to-chemicals, and coal-to-liquids projects around the world over the next 10 years; and
·
· Commercializing and deploying next-generation clean coal technologies to achieve continued environmental improvement and ultimately near-zero emissions.

“Coal is the only sustainable fuel with the scale to meet the primary energy needs of the world's rising populations and economies,” he said. Peabody Energy, the world's largest private-sector coal company, had 2009 sales of 244 million tons and $6 billion in revenues. Peabody fuels 10 percent of U.S. power and 2 percent of worldwide electricity.

Mac Hall Named Founding Member To NSSP
Albuquerque, NM

Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., Administrator for SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) appointed National Indian Youth Leadership Project's Executive Director and Founder, McClellan Hall, M.A., as a founding member of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention's Executive Committee.

Hall attended the Alliance's formal launch at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on September 10, 2010. The event was hosted by Secretary of Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other senior leaders.

The mission of the "Action Alliance" is to advance the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (NSSP) by: -championing suicide prevention as a national priority. -catalyzing efforts to implement high priority objective of NSSP. -cultivating the resources needed to sustain progress.

About NIYLP - NIYLP is the developer of "Project Venture", the first Native American prevention program to be designated a "Model Program" by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and listed on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. Project Venture is implemented in over 15 schools and agencies in NM and in over 71 sites nationally.

"I am honored to be selected for this important committee. The suicide rate for Native American youth is alarming. I value the goals and work of this committee and utilizing the experience and learnings of NIYLP and our 25 plus year history of working with youth", Hall said.

Learn more...About National Indian Youth Leadership Project
NIYLP

924 Park Ave. Suite A , Albuquerque NM, 87102, 505-554-2389
National Indian Youth Leadership Project
Beth Wonson
Director of Operations
email info@niylp.org
phone: 505-554-2289

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