Three years ago, the EPA struck a deal with the owners of the largest coal plant in the Western U.S. to close the plant by 2044. Now–because of economics, not regulation–the owners plan to shut the plant down by 2019 instead.

The Navajo Generating Station, 12 miles from the Grand Canyon near Page, Arizona, is the seventh largest individual source of climate pollution in the country, pumping out more than 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year. It’s also a major source of air pollution for people living nearby; by some estimates, shutting it down will also save more than $127 million a year in health costs.

[Photo: CrackerClips/iStock]

Both the plant and the nearby coal mine also use a significant amount of water that would otherwise be used as drinking water for the Navajo Nation. “It’s clean water that they’re using,” says Percy Deal from Dine Care, a local Navajo environmental group. “I really believe that it’s time to put an end to that. That 31,000 acre-feet of water is Navajo water, and for almost 50 years now, Navajos have not been able to use it.”

While Navajos have experienced the negative effects of the plant and mine, the power has been sent elsewhere; 18,000 homes on the reservation still don’t have electricity.

Like other coal plants, the Navajo Generating Station has been struggling to compete with cheap natural gas. The plant’s customers have been paying more than they would otherwise. The Central Arizona Project, one of the main purchasers of power, reported in a recent presentation that they could have saved $38.5 million in 2016 by purchasing power at standard market rates instead of the coal plant.

Coal plants also face competition from renewables, at a time when demand for new electricity in the U.S. is growing slowly.

“The market forces working against coal are not going away.”

“As new gas-fired and renewable resources are being added every month, this means that more supply-side resources are competing for the same or almost the same demand,” David Schissel, director of resource planning analysis at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, tells Co.Exist. “This is not good for coal.”