On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, our organization hosted a hydrogen informational summit at the Shiprock Chapter House in Shiprock, NM. Over 50 people from Shiprock and the surrounding communities attended the event, most of whom were Diné (Navajo) and had already heard about the proposed GreenView hydrogen pipeline but wanted further information. Some believed that hydrogen was good and posed no threat to Navajo communities. In contrast, others made the connection between the Navajo’s history of resource exploitation and environmental injustice and openly condemned Greenview’s project as yet another scheme to extract natural resources, transport them through the Navajo reservation, and sell them to outside companies and states, enhancing their economies while Navajo receives no substantial benefits.
During the summit, we provided an overview of the science of hydrogen and the developer’s Greenview and Tallgrass plans, which include a hydrogen production plant planned in the Four Corners area and a pipeline. This 200+ mile long pipeline will traverse the northern and Western agencies of the Navajo Nation to transport hydrogen to off-reservation cities such as Phoenix, AZ, Las Vegas, NV, and Yuma, AZ, for industrial and agricultural uses.
Dr. Tom Solomon of 350 New Mexico provided a scientific overview of Blue Hydrogen and Climate Change, presenting data that blue hydrogen with carbon capture sequestration is not clean nor a solution for climate change, and it’s best to electrify first. Dr. Ruhan Nagra, Director of the Environmental Justice (EJ) Clinic at the University of Utah School of Law, presented on Four EJ barriers: 1) Ensure communities, not developers, set the terms of community engagement; 2) Maintaining community cohesion in “Divide and Conquer” company tactics, 3) Lack of information transparency, and 4) Lack of technical expertise and/or resources.
All presentations were translated in Diné and time was allocated for attendees to ask questions and provide comments to the presenters. This event was an excellent opportunity to further community knowledge and awareness of hydrogen and potential hydrogen projects on or near Navajo. We thank all those who attended, and again, we apologize for the late start and the poor video/audio quality of our live stream.
Check out the link below for the following:
- Dr. Tom Solomon Presentation
- Dr. Ruhan Nagra Presentation
- Facebook Livestream Part 1
- Facebook Livestream Part 2
Tó Nizhóní Ání would like to thank the Shiprock Chapter House for allowing us to use their space for this summit. Ahéhee’, thank you, Shannon, and your student workers; you all were very helpful. We look forward to having another chance to provide information, and we’ll keep you all posted on future events. For more information, contact Eleanor@tonizhoni
