We are pleased to announce that helium development is moving forward with the Desert Mountain Energy Corporation in the Holbrook Basin, as my work and research with the Sitgreaves County Project and network in the White Mountains has helped make this a reality through great collective effort, despite the efforts of propagandists to smear the Heliopolis project, unscientifically I might add, as a “fracking” operation.
Everyone in Arizona should know that the environmentally low-impact helium development in the Holbrook Basin will bring potentially billions of dollars of revenue into Arizona, helping offset the state’s loss of tax revenue due to COVID-19, probably easily cover riot/protest damage, all the teacher’s demanded pay from the Red for Ed movement, plus tons of other things we need to pay for and quickly at no additional cost to taxpayers.
My personal role in this was to connect the helium corporations to the Arizona State Government after discovering through the SCP the enormous potential for sales tax revenue to Navajo, Apache, and the future Sitgreaves counties. Several community, government, and business leaders banded together shortly thereafter, and together we’ve defeated those opposed to growth and prosperity over and over again through science and common sense.
The success of helium development in Northeastern Arizona was one of the stated goals of the SCP in my proposal of the Northeastern Arizona Development Act (NADA) to the State and International Affairs Committee last March, so seeing it come to fruition now, in the midst of all of this chaos despite the efforts of POWAZ and several other self-interested buffoons is a major win for Sitgreaves.
Groups likes these and others tricked Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike far and wide across the region using unscientific propaganda relevant to geological regions entirely foreign to the Holbrook Basin or the correct technical method of helium extraction. I gave an impassioned speech about it and was harassed, then Rep. Walt Blackman and the DMEC organized a public meeting on helium development to dispel the propaganda peacefully, and they too were harassed.
Eventually, these groups have shown what their true colors are, in bed with competing energy corporations and political machines. Helium development is so badly needed in Arizona right now, with the inevitable recession looming, that throwing it into partisan politics seems both completely illogical and vastly counterproductive. POWAZ and their ilk have taken their lies and propaganda to Rep. Blackman’s district far beyond the Holbrook Basin in order to turn public support against him by smearing him as “pro-fracking”.
The same people who are trying to stop helium development in Northeastern Arizona because “they’re fracking” (even though they are not) are the same as those who believe that creating Sitgreaves will “wreck tax revenue to the tribes” (even though it will not).
I have already proven to myself and to the Sitgreaves movement that creating Sitgreaves County in the White Mountains as originally proposed would increase state funding to the region by 40 percent and significantly expand Indigenous representation at every level of government. That design is the only one possible according to currently existing state law, which is why we went with it, and it turns out it looks like it would be an excellent idea. Any other version of the county would need new laws to be written for it to happen.
That initial design was so technically and legally sound that the only next step was to do it, but there was no way the Arizona State government was going to conduct a civics experiment with 200,000 people just because I said so, although I would have loved to see it happen. Rep. Blackman, however, wisely introduced the feasibility study bill. The bill did not make it through committee this year, but now everyone knows for a fact, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Sitgreaves is not only possible but probably necessary to the entire region’s development from poverty to prosperity. We hope we can get another study bill in next session.
As the helium initiative takes off, we have been busy working with local leaders in the Southern Navajo County Community Feeding Collaborative to ensure food security throughout Navajo and Apache Counties. This will continue to be the SCP’s primary mission during the pandemic.
Northeastern Arizona is helium rich, and county governments must be proactive in securing royalties from the state and federal governments, as well as the corporations as their success expands, and for the use of this precious land so that it can be invested back into our communities towards a sustainable future.
I would like to write more on this subject at a later time, but once again I thank you for your support of our movement and work. Helium is the future! We Are Sitgreaves!
Jesse Valencia
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