Meet our Guests: Vince Signorotti

Vince Signorotti

Vice President, Resource & Real Estate, EnergySource LLC

Calipatria, CA

11/11/21

     Vince Signorotti is a Vice President at EnergySource, a California-based renewable energy company focused specifically on renewable geothermal energy. At their John L. Featherstone geothermal plant next to the Salton Sea in southern California, EnergySource drills thousands of feet into the Earth to harness salty groundwater that has been heated by the planet’s internal energy. They pump this brine to the surface to generate electricity from the steam it produces. Vince explained that this is while the process is expensive, it is carbon neutral and produces only minor byproducts. This is one of eleven plants operated by EnergySource in the Salton Sea area that collectively produce 380 megawatts of energy for the greater Phoenix area.

     While touring the geothermal facility with Semester in the West, Vince explained with excitement that EnergySource has developed technology to extract lithium from the brine they use to generate energy. With predictions that all vehicles will be electric by 2035, Vince and his company expect demand for lithium to be used in batteries to increase dramatically. Unlike most other forms of lithium mining in operation today, EnergySource’s extraction technology requires a very small footprint: together with the geothermal equipment (which provides the electricity for the extraction process) the John L. Featherstone plant will take up only 33 acres on the surface. While this technology is not currently running they have plans to start building the additional infrastructure this coming spring.

By Wes Johnston

Meet our Guests: Norman Benally

Norman Benally

Interpreter, activist, sheep herder, and assembly line worker

Black Mesa, AZ / Navajo Nation

9/25/21

Self-proclaimed “old timer,” Norman Benally meets Westies outside his home in Black Mesa on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. His house adjoins a retired coal processing plant. Peabody Energy moved into the region in 1968, mining coal and pumping water from the Navajo aquifer to power cities off the reservation – Tucson, Flagstaff, Las Vegas. For years, many Diné (Navajo) people depended on the coal plant for work and the aquifer for water, yet their proximity to these resources did little to increase their access.

Today, the plant is shut down. A pipeline borders Norman’s house, but no water runs through his faucet. “The politics are as dirty as the coal plant,” he states—not to mention the drinking water. This summer, 86 of his sheep died after drinking from a nearby spring. He holds up a plastic water bottle, “we never drank out of these [until now].”

Before the backdrop of an arid, industrial landscape – his backyard – Norman expounds on the “struggle to maintain a way of life we were raised in,” when any extra cash goes into feeding his livestock, and the local resources “to keep all those AC units running in the Southwest.” Norman has pushed through this struggle. He resisted removal, fought, and remained. Norman’s activism, working as a translator for Navajo matriarchs to speak out against the coal plant and pass down Diné stories, has brought him to locations such as Standing Rock and the United Nations. His story is what he calls “the hard truth.” He intends to continue resisting.

By Neave Fleming