Renewable Energy Unlocks Energy Sovereignty for Tribal Nations, Changing Lives | Article

It is vital that the United States make a swift transition to a clean energy economy to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis, but equally important is how it makes that transition happen. For tribal communities, having control over their own energy resources can facilitate a just transition away from fossil fuels, and renewable energy development presents an opportunity for just such control. Approximately 6.5 percent of total U.S. utility-scale renewable energy potential is on tribal lands, according to data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The transition away from fossil fuels is already occurring in tribal communities. A declining market for coal in the face of abundant natural gas and increasing competition from renewables led to the 2019 closure of the Kayenta mine and the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station in northern Arizona. The Navajo Nation depended on funds from the mine and power plant, in the form of employment for its citizens as well as annual mining royalties, for nearly half a century. Salt River Project, a utility with majority ownership of the plant, made the decision to close the mine with little regard for the abrupt economic impact that the closing would have and no plan in place to help restore the land or infrastructure. The closure resulted in hundreds of jobs lost for Navajo citizens in addition to tens of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue for the tribe.

Fortunately, by the time it was announced that the mine and plant would close, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority had already broken ground on two solar projects in the area, known collectively as the Kayenta Solar Farm, which helped alleviate the economic shockwave that resulted from the abandoned mine. The Kayenta Solar Farm is the largest tribally-owned solar plant in the United States and will generate 55 megawatts of utility-scale electricity, enough to power 28,500 homes and businesses in the Navajo Nation. It also provided hundreds of jobs during the construction period, about 90 percent of which were given to Navajo citizens.

Other tribal communities are also well on their way toward clean energy sovereignty. In March 2022, the Department of the Interior (DOI) granted approval to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians to create a Tribal Energy Development Organization (TEDO), which will spearhead Red Lake’s efforts to develop renewable energy projects in their sovereign territories. A TEDO is a certified business organization that is majority- or fully-owned by a tribe, and this is the first time DOI has ever approved a tribe’s application for a TEDO. According to DOI, TEDOs like Red Lake’s Twenty-First Century Tribal Energy, Inc, “allow a Tribe to enter into and manage energy-related leases, rights-of-way, and business agreements without obtaining Secretarial approval for each individual lease, right-of-way, or agreement.”

Solar panels on the roof of the Red Lake Nation Government Center. Image credit: Native Sun Community Power Development (photo provided by Bob Blake)

Even before the historic certification of its TEDO, the Red Lake Nation had already made a name for itself as a climate leader. EESI previously spoke with Bob Blake—executive director of Native Sun Community Power Development and a member of Red Lake—about how his work deploying an inter-tribal network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will help connect over 20 tribal nations in Minnesota and the Dakotas, both geographically and in solidarity against the construction of harmful fossil fuel pipelines. Projects like Native Sun’s EV Pathway are managed by tribes for the benefit of tribes.

But tribal communities often face challenges and barriers when trying to access federal climate funding, as highlighted by a House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis hearing, Tribal Voices, Tribal Wisdom, Strategies for the Climate Crisis, in November 2021. One of the major issues discussed was that many tribes do not have the extensive personnel or technical resources necessary to submit funding applications for grant programs that have timelines of only one or two years. This is especially arduous for renewable energy projects that require long-term planning and management. Tribes also have to deal with state governments as a middleman in order to apply for and receive federal funds—a superfluous step called out by multiple witnesses at the hearing.

Other obstacles have been detailed by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which released a report in March 2022 stating that poor management from the federal government has been an obstacle to energy development on tribal lands, even after the Bureau of Indian Affairs tried to improve collaboration by creating the Indian Energy Service Center in 2015. The GAO issued two recommendations to strengthen the service center’s ability to facilitate energy projects on tribal lands: (1) “clearly state the specific strategic goals… identifying what is to be achieved” and (2) “establish performance goals and… measures, where feasible, based on the specific strategic goals.”

Tribal nations are set to receive an influx of funding for climate projects through two recently enacted laws. The Inflation Reduction Act (P.L. 117-169) allocates $720 million in direct climate resilience and clean energy funding for tribal nations, including $225 million for high-efficiency electric home rebate programs and $75 million for energy loan programs. That $720 million is in addition to the $13 billion for tribal infrastructure provided by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58) that passed last year. Of the tribal-specific funding from that law, $200 million will go toward climate adaptation and community relocation, while another $200 million will fund efforts to plug, cap, and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells.

The ability to manage their own renewable energy systems could allow tribes like Navajo Nation and Red Lake Nation to recover from the damage done by the fossil fuel industry while also ensuring energy access and economic opportunity for tribal citizens. Federal climate funding will have a greater potential for on-the-ground impact in Native communities as tribal governments continue to gain more control over the development of renewable energy resources on their own lands.

Author: Alison Davis