Indian reservations look to renewable energy

Researches estimate that about 10 percent of the United States’ renewable energy resources reside on Indian reservations.

Reservations have been cultivating solar power for decades. But it’s only recently becoming something that could help pull reservations out of poverty and end their dependence on casinos.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in southwestern Colorado has been saving more than $4,400 a year by using Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels to power their water pump. The Ute there raise cattle to support the reservation, according to a report from the United States Tribal Energy Program.

The Hualapai Tribe in northwestern Arizona also uses PV panels to pump water, supporting their business of serving 500 tourists a day at the Grand Canyon. The tribe is considering an expansion.

Both of these projects have been going on for at least five years, while planning for them started in the 1990s.

While solar resources are bolstering Native American reservation finances, it hasn’t been enough. The Hualapai still suffer a 70 percent unemployment rate.

Outrageously high unemployment figures and debt-strapped native nations are more the norm than the exception. And until now, there has been little native populations could do other than establish casinos to draw a rather sorry sort of tourism to their borders.

Reservation leaders are excited about the prospect of profiting by being good stewards of the renewable energy sources on their lands.

The problem is that Indian reservations have the worst of the government world along with the worst of the corporate one, according to a report National Public Radio did last week about a California reservation attempting to build a wind farm.

While Native Americans and reservation governments do not pay Federal taxes, the companies and individuals that do business there are subject to all of the taxes and none of the rebates or deductions they would get if they were doing business on U.S. soil.

Reservation leaders from around the country have been visiting Washington over recent years to beg for some solution. They want to develop solar and wind farms on their lands, bringing jobs. But it’s hard to get businesses to contract with them when they could do it for less with government rebates somewhere else.

In the meantime, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota introduced a new bill in Congress called the Energy Promotion and Parity Act earlier this month that would cut down on the hurdles tribes have to jump in order to bring energy development business to their