Dominion Virginia Power is at it again. It ran a full-page page ad in the Washington Post yesterday, apparently forgetting all about a key ruling in March by the State Corporation Commission (SCC), the agency that oversees utilities.

Take a look at Dominion’s first bullet point describing how it plans to provide new electrical generation to Virginia:

[Among the important parts of this plan are:] A new clean-coal, carbon capture-compatible power station in Wise County where we’ll spend nearly $320 million to install the very latest in emissions-control systems. It’ll be one of the cleanest coal-powered stations in the U.S. and bring more than 1,200 jobs and $1.8 billion of new investment to Southwest Virginia.

Really? Carbon capture compatible? On July 13, 2007, Dominion Power applied to the State Corporation Commission for approval of a coal-fired power plant in Wise County it promised would be “carbon capture compatible.” On March 31st, the SCC approved construction of a “conventional coal” facility and did not give Dominion any bonus for carbon capture compatibility. Rather, the Commission was explicitly clear – of the $1.8 billion to build the plant, not one penny would go to address the plant’s global warming pollution, either now or at any time in the future.

Now let’s talk about “clean” coal. First, the term clean coal in general is a joke. Calling coal clean is like calling a cigarette healthy; the cigarette may have less tar and cancer-causing agents than other brands, but that does not mean it’s good for you. Same goes for coal: No matter what you do to it, it will never be clean.

Second, the plant in question is a far cry from clean. The Wise County facility would emit more than four times the amount of mercury per-megawatt than Dominion’s Clover station in Halifax County. Mercury is a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in fetuses, children and adults. A new study just released yesterday shows a statistically significant link between pounds of industrial release of mercury and increased autism rates. It also shows