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PHOENIX (AP) — The Latest on coal-fired power plant in northern Arizona (all times local):
10:45 a.m.
More than 300 Navajo Generating Station employees, relatives and union and tribal leaders rallied in Phoenix on Wednesday to request a 90-day pause in steps to close the plant by the end of 2019 as scheduled.
The group asked for time to allow a potential buyer of the coal-fueled plant near Page in northern Arizona to work out the details of a purchase.
"Just 90 days! Just 90 days!" The group chanted during the gathering. Some in the crowd carried signs that read, "We're Worth 90 Days."
The board of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District is scheduled to consider alternative power sources to the generating station during a Thursday meeting. The district uses power from the plant to operate an aqueduct system.
Utility operators say power from the coal-fired plant is more expensive than power from gas-burning plants.
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11 p.m.
Hundreds of miners and their relatives will join leaders from the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe and the United Mine Workers to rally at the state Capitol to keep open the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station in northern Arizona.
The gathering in downtown Phoenix on Wednesday morning is the latest effort by employees of the 2,250-megawatt station near Page in northeastern Arizona to save their jobs. Utility operators say the station costs more to operate than natural gas-burning plants.
The Hopi Tribe and coal mining groups last month sued the operator of an Arizona aqueduct system known as the Central Arizona Water Conservation District to halt the plant's closure when its lease ends in late 2019.
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