Rather than close the plant later this year, the Salt River Project and three other utilities that own shares of the Navajo Generating Station voted Feb. 13 to keep the big coal-fired power plant operating until its lease on tribal land runs out in December 2019, as long as an agreement to extend the lease can be reached with the Navajo Nation.
The fifth owner, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — part of the Interior Department — did not participate in the vote on the plan to close the 40-year-old plant.
