January 08, 2006

Black Mesa Mine closing--some history

Albuquerque blogger Coco reminds of us about the back story to the recent closing of the Black Mesa Mine and the Mohave power plant. The usual slant today is unemployment on the Big Rez, but there is a lot of dirt involved--not just in the air but the financial and ethical kind.

The back story is rich, complicated, long, and full of enough intrigue for an HBO mini-series. It's tied to water, crooked lawyers, the Cheney Energy Task Force and the Navajo-Hopi land dispute.

....

Long-time attorney for the Hopi Tribe, John Sterling Boyden was found in 1997, years after his death, to have been employed by Peabody Coal (operator of the mine and slurry line) at the same time he was representing the Hopi in land claims and coal lease negotiations. With Peabody. (Did Abramoff learn from this guy?) Read about it in Phoenix New Times.

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