Forty years ago, the Navajo Nation and Southern Ute tribes
languished side by side, mired in high unemployment and poverty.
Today, worth billions, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe is one of
the richest in the United States, while the Navajo still suffer
as one of the most impoverished communities in the country. The
difference? Energy. While the Southern Utes have natural gas,
the Navajo Nation has coal, which has for decades been extracted
to feed various large-scale power plants, including in the Four
Corners. But that revenue has come under threat by tightening
air-quality regulations. At the same time, natural gas, a
cleaner fuel source for generating electricity, has grown
cheaper and more abundant because of hydraulic fracturing. The
shift has left Navajo leaders in a quandary: either continue
investing in coal in the hopes it will remain a significant fuel
source, or cut their losses and choose another investment. The
tribe is staking its future on coal. The Navajo Nation is in
negotiations to buy the Nav