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Nineteen-year-old Sheldon Natoni worries about the haze hanging over his tribe's sacred mountains in Arizona and the impact it is having on the health of others in the Navajo Nation.

His friend Sebale Tsosie, 21, has the same concerns, saying it's unfair that the massive coal-fired power plant blamed for the pollution won't have to drastically cut back emissions until a generation from now.

Federal rules exempt the Navajo Generating Station in Page, Arizona, from drastically reducing haze-causing nitrogen oxide emissions for several decades — a decision that's being challenged by Navajo environmental groups in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Friday, the two young men and dozens of other Navajo Nation youth, including some who organizers say suffer from asthma, plan to fill rows of a federal courtroom in San Francisco to hear oral arguments in the case. Some also plan to protest outside the courthouse during the hearing.

"The whole point for me being here is to show my face and show that us young people care about our land and about everything we had — or have," Tsosie said while en route to San Francisco.

The youth who range from middle school to college age travelled nearly 1,000 miles for the hearing, piling into vans for the trip.

They are among the growing ranks of young activists to claim a role in recent environmental causes in the U.S. Last week, a federal judge in Oregon gave the green light to a lawsuit brought by 21 youth who are suing the United States for failing to protect them from the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.

In North Dakota, tribal leaders have said Native youth opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline helped grow the movement that has led to months of protests against the project.

The lawsuit against the Navajo Generating Station was brought by conservation groups To' Nizhoni Ani, Dine Citizens Against Ruining our Environment and the Black Mesa Water Coalition, in which Natoni and Tsosie said they are members.

The groups allege the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to set back the deadline for the plant to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 84 percent sets a double standard when other plants have had to meet speedier timelines.

The plaintiffs say the decision doesn't meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act, and that they and the Hopi Tribe, which also lives in the region, were not a part of consultations with the government, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Gila River Indian Community, the Navajo Nation government, the Interior Department and other groups.

The Navajo Generating Station serves customers throughout the West. It powers a series of canals that deliver water to Phoenix and Tucson, fuels the economies of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, and helps fulfill American Indian water-rights settlements with the federal government.

The Interior Department's U.S. Bureau of Reclamation co-owns the plant, which some consider an important supporter of the local economy.