WINDOW ROCK, ARIZONA (AP) - Navajo lawmakers have approved a $4,000,000 appropriation to a tribal company set up to purchase a coal mine in northwestern New Mexico.
The vote Wednesday came during a special session of the Navajo Nation Council in Window Rock.
The bill will give an initial infusion of cash to the Navajo Mine from BHP Billiton if lawmakers don't vote to update the tribe's 1980 energy policy.
A bill to do so had been on the council's agenda Wednesday. But the council lost a quorum.
The measure states that coal will remain a key part of the tribe's energy future. It says renewable energy also will be developed.