generate significant amounts of biomass energy. In addition, simply making tribal homes and buildings more energy efficient can save 15 to 40 percent in energy consumption and costs. That is significant: Because of the rural location of most reservations, Indian tribes suffer the highest energy costs in the nation, often three to five times the cost of most U.S. households. The opportunity is clear for Pat Spears, president of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy: “Renewable energy from the earth, the sun, and the wind can provide energy and jobs for our communities and green the federal transmission grids that interconnect us all.”
Credit: Myra Wilensky
Wind turbines rise from a 60-megawatt wind farm built on lands of the Campo Kumeyaay Nation in southern California, the first wind farm on tribal lands in the U.S. Such cleanenergy projects can help tribes mitigate climate impacts and bolster economic development.
The Cocopah have led efforts to reach out to state and federal agencies to protect these areas, including a request that the Bureau of Land Management designate the area around the lower river as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Their efforts failed due to lack of support from the last administration. Now, reinvigorated, the tribe has brought agencies and NGOs back to the table in a new attempt to gain formal protection for this section of the lower Colorado. “We’re on the road to success,” says Soto.
The Promise of Clean Energy
While adaptation strategies are essential to confronting climate change, tribes also have tremendous opportunities to mitigate climate change impacts by harnessing their abundant natural resources. Earlier this year NWF—in collaboration with the National Tribal Environmental Council, Native American Rights Fund, and Intertribal Council on Utility Policy—issued a new report detailing this potential (NWF 2010). It notes that energy efficiency and renewable energy projects could help tribes achieve economic independence and strengthen tribal autonomy while helping to sustain natural resources for future generations. The report estimates that tribal wind energy projects could meet 20 to 25 percent of the nation’s current energy needs. Solar energy potential from tribal lands could provide 4.5 times the total national energy consumption of 2004, and tribes have access to crop and forest residue that could
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The Wildlife Professional, Winter 2010
The Campo Kumeyaay Nation in southern California proves the point. In 2005, it completed the first wind farm on tribal land in the U.S. With 25 turbines, the 60-megawatt farm helps feed the grid in California, producing enough energy to power 50,000 homes and saving about 110,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year (NWF 2010). In partnership with two local energy companies, the Campo Kumeyaay Nation has a 20 percent initial ownership in the project, with full ownership after 25 years. A second 160-megawatt wind farm is now underway, and the Campo Kumeyaay will have a larger ownership stake in that project, a critical step in advancing control of their green energy future and economy. According to Kandi Mossett of the Indigenous Environmental Network, clean energy projects such as this can help eliminate the ageold obstacle faced by tribes of choosing between economic development and natural resource and cultural preservation.
Legislative Talk without Teeth
While many tribes are motivated to confront climate change, very little is possible without support and resources. Congress has made a number of attempts to pass climate legislation, most notably when the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454), which provided important funding and support for tribes for natural resource adaptation and climate change mitigation measures. However, unable to agree on a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill, the Senate has not yet passed any meaningful legislation. Barring the passage of federal legislation, it is critical for tribes to engage federal agencies on climate change issues. In March 2009, Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar issued secretarial order No. 3285 requiring the use of “scientific tools to increase understanding of climate
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