The dirt road winds through desert grasslands and over sandstone outcroppings before it ends — sooner than expected — at a camp built by Navajos who refer to themselves as the “resisters.”

For more than a week, they have blocked the road to the site of a $3 billion coal-fired power plant planned by the Navajo Nation’s Dine Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global Power.

They see the Desert Rock Energy Project as a threat to tribal resources, the environment and cultural landmarks that dot northwestern New Mexico.

“We’re here to stay,” Lucy Willie, vice president of the Dooda Desert Rock Committee, told supporters on an Internet blog site Wednesday.

But Sithe and DPA officials plan on staying, too.

They were granted a court order Wednesday that allows access to the site to continue survey work for an environmental impact statement. The study, along with an air permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is needed before construction can began.

Jackson Hole Star Tribune