And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Navajo Nation Sues Peabody Coal for $600 Million
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jun99/1999L-06-22-02.html
WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 1999 (ENS) - The Navajo Nation has
filed suit in
U.S. District Court in Washington, DC seeking recovery of
$600 million in
damages from Peabody Western Coal Company for "unlawful acts
defrauding the
Navajo Nation." The lawsuit alleges that Peabody has
virtually stolen the Navajo
Nation's "strategically located, uniquely valuable, high-BTU
and low-sulfur coal at
far below fair value."
Peabody operates the Black Mesa and Kayenta mines on the
Navajo reservation in
northeast Arizona.
Peabody Coal Company's Kayenta
mine covers over 10 miles in Arizona
(Photo courtesy Sol Communications/)
The Los Angeles based Southern California Edison Company,
the Arizona
based Salt River Project, other Peabody holdings and three
current and former
Peabody employees also named as defendants in the lawsuit
filed Monday.
Coal from the mines powers electricity generation across
Arizona, Nevada and
Southern California. The coal is transported to the Navajo
Generating Station of
the Salt River Project near Page, Arizona and the Mohave
Generating Station of
Southern California Edison on the Colorado River near
Laughlin, Nevada.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants engaged in misconduct
that included
"corruption of a federal administrative appeal, fraudulent
misrepresentation,
obstruction of justice, conspiracy, breach of contract and
interference with the
fiduciary relationship between the United States government
and the Navajo
Nation."
From its headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, the Peabody
Group said it would
"vigorously defend" the lawsuit served today by the Navajo
Nation related to the
1987 renegotiation of their coal lease agreements for the
Black Mesa and Kayenta
mines."
The mines are operated by Peabody Western through lease
agreements originally
signed with the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe in the
mid-1960s. The leases
now have provisions that allow renegotiation of royalty
rates every 10 years if any
party requests a review. Two revisions have been completed
since the mines
opened.
Edward Begay is Speaker of the Navajo Nation
Council. (Photo courtesy office of the Speaker)
"We will not be cheated any longer," said Edward Begay,
speaker of the Navajo Nation Council. "Coal represents the Navajo Nation's
most valuable natural resource. This lawsuit will restore lost revenues to
the Navajo Nation and place us on the road to achieve economic
self-sufficiency for our people. We are not asking for a handout. We are
demanding to be compensated equitably by American corporations and treated
fairly by the United States Government."
The Navajo leases were renewed and expanded in 1987 after
both the Navajo
Nation Tribal Council and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior
approved the new
agreement. At that time, the renewal included a 12.5 percent
coal royalty rate -
equivalent to the federal coal royalty rate - applied to the
sales price of each ton
sold to the power plant customers, the Navajo and Mohave
Generating Stations.
That is precisely the problem, the Navajos claim. In a
statement Monday, the tribe
said, "Under the terms of the 1964 lease, the Navajo Nation
received less than two
percent for its coal, a tiny fraction of its real value."
In the 1984 the tribe sought to renegotiate the royalty
rate. "The Interior
Department, after a series of U.S. Government studies,
decided in favor of a
royalty rate of 20 percent. The defendants appealed
Interior's decision and, when
they learned that the 20 percent royalty rate was about to
be upheld, schemed to
influence Interior Secretary [Donald] Hodel to derail his
Department's decision.
Peabody's interference caused Hodel to suppress the decision
to grant fair value
for the Navajo Nation's coal."
The Navajo Nation agreed to the federal minimum 12.5 percent
royalty rate in
1987. They claim the 1987 agreement also forced the tribe to
forfeit back taxes,
back royalties and future taxes, and to concede more coal,
more land and more
rights-of-way to Peabody.
But Peabody said in its statement, "Last year, the Navajo
Nation and Peabody
Western reached their second renegotiated coal royalty
agreement for the leases
that continues to include a 12.5 percent royalty rate on
each ton of coal in
addition to a $3.5 million annual payment. That agreement
was subsequently
approved by the Navajo Nation Tribal Council as well as the
U.S. Secretary of the
Interior."
Peabody Group Vice President Roger B. Walcott Jr. said, "We
are confident that
the lawsuit is without merit and our intent is to
aggressively defend our actions."
Since mining operations began, the Black Mesa and Kayenta
mines have injected
more than $1.2 billion into Navajo and Hopi tribal economies
in royalties, taxes,
wages and charitable contributions. Each year, Peabody
Western provides the
Navajo Nation and the Hopi Tribe with more than $40 million
in royalties and
taxes generated from the mining operations, Walcott said.
� Environment News Service (ENS) 1999. All Rights Reserved.
Environmental Press Releases
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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