Tucson Electric Power (TEP) Right-of-Way (ROW) Renewal Blog
Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has not provided ANY direct community benefits to the 14 impacted Navajo chapters along their 102-mile KV transmission line Right-of-Way (ROW) and has only paid the Navajo Nation (NN) $1.32 per acre per year for this ROW over the last 50 years, while current Bureau of Land Management transmission line rates are between $200-$300 per acre per year for this area. Now TEP wants to renew this ROW with the NN and still has not adequately engaged with the impacted chapters for direct community benefits. Since last year, Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA) has engaged with these impacted chapters to provide education on the TEP-ROW and their right to request for just and equitable direct community benefits.
On June 4, 2025, Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA) wrote a letter to TEP which was also published in the Gallup Independent as an “Open Letter to TEP”. The letter summarized TEP’s lack of integrity and transparency in its community engagement with 14 Navajo Chapters in New Mexico and steps it needed to take to make the Right-of-way renewal agreement more just for the impacted Navajo communities. TEP has benefited over the last 50 years, paying the equivalent of only $1.32 per acre per year to the Navajo Nation for a 102-mile ROW. According to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by TNA back in March 2025, the Navajo Nation received one-time payments in 1973 from TEP for the transmission ROW in the amount of $269,090.50 plus $38,244.00 for re-seeding of disturbed land, and 242 allottees shared a total of $110,000.00. These figures are well below going rates for that time. This transmission line ROW has been profitable for TEP while leaving impacted Navajo communities with no direct community benefits for the last 50 years.
As the original agreement between Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and the Navajo Nation expires, TEP has been seeking support from impacted communities and negotiating a ROW renewal with the Navajo Nation. After looking at the resolutions passed by some of the chapters, it became apparent that once again chapters were being left out of any direct community benefits. While we don’t know the rates the Navajo Nation is negotiating, we do know that current Bureau of Land Management transmission line rates are between $200-$300 per acre per year for this area. What we don’t know is that not all chapters are seeking direct benefits, and for the few that are, those benefits don’t seem to be based on equity. Since last year, Tó Nizhóní Ání (TNA) has engaged with these impacted chapters to provide education on the TEP-ROW and their right to request for just and equitable direct community benefits.
Click this link below to access the “Open Letter to TEP”.
https://tonizhoniani.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/OpenLettertoTEP_Eleanor_TEPROW.pdf
