U.S. must deal with “microChina” in its own back yard.
I have a feature in today’s Toronto Star that looks at the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest, and how the largest Indian reservation in America is pursuing an economic development strategy based on mining and burning more coal. In many ways the Navajos are like a tiny rural China the size of West Virginia, and like China, they want to be more green but are also driven to lift themselves out of poverty. The Navajo tribal council believes tapping more coal reserves is the fastest way to do that, but many in the Navajo community believe the focus should be on renewables first, not just because of climate issues but also because of problems with localized pollution and health issues. If the U.S. government let’s the Navajo government get its way, it will send a bad signal at a time when the U.S. is expecting developing nations like China and India to get greener. If the U.S. government says no, the Navajo Nation — like the Chinese — can rightly ask why they are being denied a standard of living enjoyed by the rest of America. Somewhere in this dilemma there is a comprise that achieves both objectives — solar thermal power plants, rooftop solar PV, geothermal and wind. But there are challenges to getting there…
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
