2010-09-04

Tribal Lands Struggle to Bring Power Online. By Amy Standen, NPR, August 20, 2010. "A slumped economy, one modest casino isn't enough to sustain the Campo Kumeyaay Nation, especially when about half of the 329 tribal members are unemployed. So the Campo have turned to a new source of income: generating electricity... It's a wind farm, the only large-scale renewable energy plant on Indian land in the country. The 25 turbines, which went online in 2005, provide electricity to up to 35,000 homes in San Diego County…The Wind Farm is an enormous source of pride for the Campo, but monetarily, it hasn't changed much, in part because the Campo don't own it -- they just lease the land. Now the tribe is in negotiations to build another wind project -- three times [larger]. This time, they plan to go in as investors, along with a private energy firm and the local utility. While all sides are tight-lipped about the numbers, the electricity produced by that plant would be worth about $24 million a year on today's market."

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