Once again, an energy company with ties to France is asking a federal agency to allow exploration of a possible hydropower project on the Navajo Nation.
Nature and People First applied for a preliminary permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last year to investigate the possibility of building a pumped storage project 12 miles southwest of Kayenta.
On May 27, FERC accepted the application for filing, opening up a public comment period that allows protests of the proposed project and motions to intervene in the company’s request for a permit.
The Chilchinbeto Pumped Storage Project would include two reservoirs each with a storage capacity of 10,000 acre-feet of water.
Pumped water storage projects generate energy by letting water flow downhill from high-elevation reservoirs through a tunnel, turning a turbine as it travels to reservoirs at lower elevations.
Then, when energy prices are low, water is pumped back uphill.
On its application for preliminary permits, the company said it would get water for the project from either the Coconino aquifer or the San Juan River.
Nature and People First tried to get FERC approval for three pumped storage projects in 2021, but the Navajo Nation opposed the idea and the feds later denied the company’s request for permits.
In its Biden-era decision to deny those permits, FERC said it was establishing a new policy about working more closely with Native American tribes.
“The Commission will not issue preliminary permits for projects proposing to use Tribal lands if the Tribe on whose lands the project is to be located opposes the permit,” the agency wrote in 2024.
On Dec. 10, 2025, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright asked FERC to overturn that policy, calling it a part of “unnecessary burdens” to hydropower development.
Critics have raised concerns about past proposed hydropower projects from Nature and People First. They’ve cited the potential for the overuse of aquifers and damage to the environment of nearby Black Mesa.
“This time around, we definitely have our hands full,” says Adrian Herder with the Navajo nonprofit Tó Nizhóní Ání, which works to protect water sources in the region. “[It raises] the question of, where does that Biden era tribal consultation and consent – does it still hold on this issue, or has that already been terminated with this new administration?”
Meanwhile, proponents of past projects, including chapter officials in Chilchinbeto, have highlighted the need for pumped storage solutions to help with the intermittency of renewable energies, as well as their economic benefits.
The area near the proposed project has ecological and cultural significance to both the Navajo and Hopi tribes.
