Navajo Generating Station: Production Theory & Social Action

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After several decades of moderately successful performance, the Navajo Generating Station was set for closing in 2044 due to its effects on the environment. From the perspective of the Treadmill of Production Theory, the specified outcome can be considered inevitable. Specifically, the plant was started as a minor enterprise, reached the scale of a corporation, received the support of the government, and achieved the growth scale at which its environmental impact became far too noticeable. Namely, the effects of coal-firing as the main mechanism of generating the energy needed to sustain the performance of the plant has taken too great a toll on the environment, which led to the unanimous vote of closing the plant in 2019 (“Navajo Generating Station (NGS),” 2019). In the process of the plant development, the community members created multiple new bonds, which resulted in the reception of the USDA grant and the creation of relationships with powerful entities across Arizona (“Navajo Generating Station (NGS),” 2019).

Although the process of ceasing the energy production has been extended to 2044, the fate of the plant has been decided given the detrimental impact that it produced on the local ecosystem and the environment, in general (Gould, Pellow, & Schnaiberg, 2015). The observed decision aligns with the final phase of the Treadmill of Production Theory, which suggests that environmental degradation is going to be the inevitable outcome of the rapid production growth and the increase in the economic expansion of an enterprise (Gould et al., 2015). The legislation concerning the closure of the plant has led to the creation of the revenue replacement program for members of the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe (O’Halleran, 2019). The Arizona Democratic District was the main group working on the legislation. An action plan to be followed in the case described above should consist of the reconsideration of employment opportunities for the workers that are about to be dismissed. Thus, an economic crisis within the local community will be avoided.