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Studies show the nation’s aging power grid isn’t ready to handle the energy shift from fossil fuels to renewables.
The U.S. government hopes a historic investment will fix that.
The Mountain West News Bureau’s Kaleb Roedel has more.
The Department of Energy is spending $3.5 billion on efforts like expanding capacity for wind and solar power and building microgrids that keep the lights on during power outages.
Money will also go toward hardening power lines against extreme weather and wildfires.
That’s led by a $100 million investment in high-risk areas across more than a dozen states – including Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
Margaret Tallmadge is with Navajo Power, a Native-owned developer of renewable energy projects.
“This provides an enormous opportunity for us to address transmission congestion, outdated transmission leading to wildfires – a huge opportunity to support renewable energy development in Indian Country.”
She says it’s also a chance for tribes to receive the revenue and economic benefits of their projects.
Courtesy ACLU of Nebraska
A Lakota family in Northwestern Nebraska was the recipient of a six-figure settlement following a court battle.
C.J. Keene has more.
The case circles a 2021 incident involving the Johnson-Leroy family in Cherry County, Neb., just south of the border of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations.
Amyrah and Madeline had their hair allegedly cut during school hours as school officials searched for head lice. (Family photo)
Two of the families’ children had their hair cut by school staff, which sparked the discrimination suit.
Nebraska state law prohibits discrimination in public schools based on a student’s tribal regalia or long hair.
The family was represented by the ACLU of Nebraska and the Harvard Law School Religious Freedom Clinic.
The suit ultimately sparked change in the Cody-Kilgore School District as well, including the recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day and Native American Heritage Month.
Further changes are to be made to the district’s student and employee handbooks to note no student’s hair should be cut without consent from parents or guardians.
Native American Bank has been chosen to administer $50 million in grants from the U.S. Treasury Department to bolster low-income Native American community projects and businesses in Plains states, including Montana.
Mark Moran reports.
The Treasury Department has given Native American Bank the authority to invest in disadvantaged Indigenous communities that often lack access to the capital they need to start and maintain viable, sustainable businesses on tribal reservations or other American Indian-owned land.
Joel Smith with the Denver-based Native American Bank says, in northern Montana, the investments will show up in the construction of community service facilities on and around the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Browning.
“So, we’re looking at a lot of health-care clinics, wellness centers, behavioral health or opioid recovery centers in addition to child care and schools.”
The $50 million is part of a larger, $5 billion federal investment designed to spur economic growth in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide.
Smith says this federal investment will fill the gaps that remain on Indian land that currently aren’t covered despite bank and grant funding.
“But when you layer this on top of it, gets the project across the finish line. So, in that regard, it’s one of the most impactful things because it’s making projects happen that really would not otherwise. ”
In addition to new and much-needed community services, Smith adds the investment will also create jobs in the communities where these facilities are built.
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