LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Navajo Nation wants the Trump administration to expand a coal mine the tribe depends on economically. That expansion could upend lives on the reservation. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports.
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GABRIEL PIETRORAZIO, BYLINE: Burnham, New Mexico, is practically barren, all but for 200 or so Navajos who call this remote high-desert region home, like Emma and Emery Long. Emma, who's 69, grew up without running water or electricity.
EMMA LONG: Years ago, we stopped using coal. We don't bother it.
PIETRORAZIO: Instead of coal, she'd rather be bothered by her menagerie of pets.
EMMA LONG: That was Gene Fred (ph). (laughter).
PIETRORAZIO: Where'd that name come from?
EMMA LONG: I don't know. We just put those two names together like that.
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PIETRORAZIO: You have a beautiful home.
Emery, age 68, tends to their flock of Navajo-Churro sheep.
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EMERY LONG: They keep me on my feet, pretty much. I don't pin them all the time like they are now, but I usually let them roam.
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PIETRORAZIO: Their backyard butts up against an open-pit coal mine that has been running since the 1960s.
EMERY LONG: Four Corners Power Plant just sitting right there where the steam is coming up. And Navajo Mine, they're right here. Right where these red hills are. When they bomb, you feel the shake.
PIETRORAZIO: Tremors brought on by blasting explosives. The Longs are among a dozen or so families that could be displaced by a plan to expand the mine by nearly 12,000 acres to tap into more than 500 million tons of coal. Doing so could extend the mine's life to 2136 - 110 years from now.
DAILAN LONG: The tribe is just clinically dependent upon coal, like substance abuse.
PIETRORAZIO: Dailan Long works for a New Mexico healthcare company and is one of Emma and Emery's four children.
D LONG: We try to pull them back, but they keep going back to coal, and it's just like this unending cycle of relapse, and we're fed up with it.
PIETRORAZIO: But the mining company owned by the Navajo Nation government sees it differently. Vern Lund is CEO of NTEC, the Navajo Transitional Energy Company.
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VERN LUND: Coal has to remain a part of the equation, and that has to be the backbone that helps build the next phase of the journey.
PIETRORAZIO: Lund declined an interview request, but in a statement, NTEC says it's committed to responsible coal production while, quote, "minimizing environmental impacts." The Obama and Biden administrations worked to phase out coal in response to climate change. But now the coal industry is optimistic anything is possible under President Trump.
EMILY ARTHUN: We've certainly seen a change, even from Day 1 of our president being sworn in.
PIETRORAZIO: Emily Arthun is executive director of the American Coal Council.
ARTHUN: There's a lot of work being done to protect this industry that really had been unfairly assaulted for many years.
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PIETRORAZIO: Back in Burnham, Emma Long contemplates her family's uncertain future.
EMMA LONG: I actually think about our grandchildren. I don't know. I'm not going to even be here, and I think about them. Where are they going to go?
PIETRORAZIO: The Interior Department is expected to decide on whether to approve the coal mine expansion by the end of August.
For NPR News, I'm Gabriel Pietrorazio in Burnham, New Mexico.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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