Wise County residents Deliver Mile-Long Petition to Dominion at Moving Rally

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Yesterday, hundreds of people gathered to support Wise County residents who are fighting Dominion’s plans to build a coal-burning plant in their neighborhood. “We can prevent Virginia from making this terrible mistake by allowing Dominion to build this plant,” said Jennifer Mullens, a Wise County resident. “I encourage you to look around at these mountains and imagine them gone, because that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t make the right choice now.”

Over 40,000 petition signatures were submitted to Dominion representatives. No official response has been made by Dominion, but Wise County representatives will be at Dominion’s shareholders meeting in Chicago today. The only official response that was overwhelmingly evident was that of police enforcement. As the Green Miles pointed out there was a surprisingly strong police presence. We counted over 17 cop cars lining the blocks around the park where we were having our peaceful Continue reading

Fairfax Board Drags Feet on Coal…

Live from the Fairfax County Government Building…

(11:40)I am reporting live today, listening in on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors hearing, waiting for news on whether the Fairfax Board will submit comments for the Department of Environmental Quality on the impacts of a new coal plant in Wise County on the residents of Fairfax County.

This board meeting room is the biggest one I have ever been in, and I can’t wait to hear the good news that our Supervisors will deliver soon…

(12:35) Anthony Griffin, county executive, withdraws the motion without debate… something is going on here…

(3:00) So I have had some time to think about what happened at the Board meeting today (and a little time to cool down), and I will give it to you straight here — something is going on here. The Board has been in some way contacted by Dominion power or one of their henchmen (that includes our General Assembly Members) and convinced the Fairfax county board that commenting for the DEQ on this power plant would not be a good idea. This stinks of insider politics. Why does it stink?

  1. The agenda item regarding submitting comments for the DEQ was immediately withdrawn without debate. We contacted enough Board members, we had the names of six board members that already supported the comments, and we had the critical commentary that the Chairman had already submitted for the DEQ in hand — we had enough votes to pass this board matter last week, why was it not even talked about on Monday?

  2. None of our strongest advocates said anything when the Board matter was being withdrawn — Chairman Connolly, Supervisor Smyth, and Supervisor Hyland said nothing — that makes me think that somebody was silencing them…

  3. Dominion has enough money and influence in this state to pull strings when they need to, it doesn’t seem unlikely that they would feel compelled to meddle in Fairfax county business…

So that is it. Now we must regroup and stay on top of our Supervisors and let them know that the issue of a new coal plant in Wise County and the impacts that it will have on our air are too great to ignore. Contact paul@chesapeakeclimate.org to help fight Dominion power in Fairfax county.

Fairfax to Comment on Wise County Monday…

Monday morning, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will discuss a board matter to submit testimony for the Department of Environmental Quality in regards to the impacts that a new coal fired power plant in Wise County would have on Fairfax. If built, a new coal fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia could negatively impact Fairfax’s air quality, the health of Northern Virginians and serve as a counter productive step in Fairfax’s campaign to help minimize global warming pollution.

Since the power generated by a new coal plant would principally the high growth areas of Virginia, like Fairfax, and because Dominion’s rate payers in Northern Virginia are likely to foot a majority of the bill of new energy infrastructure, many Fairfax residents are demanding that their county representatives help them voice concerns over new coal development.

In regards to a new coal fired power plant, Eleanor Whitaker of Fairfax say, “I freely admit that I enjoy the amenities that electricity provides, and if we had no other choices for the production of energy, we would have a difficult decision on our hands. But that is not where we are. Virginia is currently ranked at, or near the bottom, of all the states in the union in terms of energy efficiency.”

Even the Chairman of the Fairfax County Board Gerry Connolly has voiced his opposition to Dominion’s coal fired power plant.

Wise Co. Coal DEQ Hearing…

Live from Dominion Boulevard at the beautiful Marriott in Glenn Allen, Virginia, here is your live blog on the last Department of Environmental Quality hearing for Dominion’s proposed Wise County coal fired power plant…

(6:15pm)First and foremost, seriously, this hearing is on Dominion Blvd. I think that is because we are in close proximity to a Dominion office, or it is because Dominion owns this road… one or the other… Either way, the irony that an environmental hearing is taking place on Dominion Blvd is not lost on this attendee.

There are about 300 people here, many of whom oppose the plant. For the first time in the series of hearings on the Wise Co. plant, opponents were one of the first ones to sign up to testify. At other hearings, Dominion’s supporters (which include employees…) testified for up to two hours before any opponents got a chance to speak. This is due in large part to the fact that the actual sign up time posted by the DEQ is often very different than the posted sign up time. Today, sign up was scheduled to begin at 4:45pm. The first sign up sheet was posted at 3:00pm. But thankfully, we learned our lesson and got we were staked out at the hearing location starting at 9:30am this morning in preparation for this predictable twist.

Josh Tulkin was the first opponent to testify today. His testimony was highlighted when he asked all the opponents of the plant at the hearing to stand up. Half the room stood up, and DEQ Chairman immediately said, “Mr. Tulkin, you are out of order!” To which Mr. Tulkin coyly replied, “I respectfully withdraw my request.”

Other testimony include a statement from Gerald E. Connolly, the Chairman of the Fairfax County Board, in which he respectfully asked Dominion to explore alternatives to the coal plant that would harm the air quality in Fairfax and totally offset all the progress that counties like Fairfax have made through local initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Oh, and a side note, I would like to thank Dominion for feeding me.

(7:36pm) About half the people here have left. The break was festive and the students seemed have an an expectational time. I get the feeling that the plant opponents of the plant now far outnumber the proponents… now the party can really begin.

The best quote of the night so far came from one JMU student (I already forgot his name) who stepped up to the microphone and said, “My name is Joe Smith, and I am not a former employee of Dominion…” We all laughed…

(7:48pm) A man just walked up to me as I was sitting and told me how there is, “no Mountain Top removal in the state of Virginia.” Seriously. He said that, and I don’t think he was joking. I respectfully informed him that he was mistaken and that I could show him pictures taken from a tour of the Mountains of Wise County that I took last week. The Bristol-Herald Courier also took the same tour… I guess what we saw doesn’t exist…

FYI, 25% of Wise County’s total land area has already been leveled due to mountain top removal.

(7:55pm) Richmond City Councilman Marty Jewell just testified. He is very concerned about global warming and how the proposed power plant would effect Richmond’s air quality.

“I like cream in my coffee, not sludge!” — Councilman Jewell, in reference to mountain top removal mining.

New Coal in Wise Will Affect Richmond

Richmond City Councilmen Hilbert and Jewell have introduced the Wise County Resolution, 2008-R13. This resolution is a strong statement of opposition to the proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia. So why is the City of Richmond weighing in on an issue for Wise County? On the surface it may seem that they’re just butting in but this plant is very much the business of Richmond and its citizens.

This plant is a bad investment and every Richmonder with an electric bill will have to pay for it. Dominion will pass all the costs of the plant onto the ratepayers of Virginia. Those costs include $1.8 billion to build the plant, 14% profit for Dominion, and also the cost of controlling carbon emissions which may reach $100 million each year. That means quite a lot of money out of our pockets. I don’t want any of my money funding new coal but Dominion isn’t giving me the ability to choose clean energy. If ratepayers must pay for new energy generation why can we not have a say in how it is generated? Across the country more and more people are realizing that coal simply costs too much. According to the US Department of Energy, $1.8 billion is too much to pay for a coal-fired power plant. The DOE recently pulled support for a proposed plant in Illinois based on cost. Just a few days ago three of the largest financial supporters of new coal reassessed the risks and found them to be too high. Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have realized that carbon control legislation is inevitable, which will make coal far more costly. As a result they will encourage utilities to invest in energy-efficiency and renewable energy as alternatives to new coal. Asking Dominion to invest in efficiency, conservation, and renewables is exactly what this resolution does.

Where our energy comes from and the effects of its production is most certainly our business. The City of Richmond is powered by coal. That coal is supplied by the coalfields of southwest Virginia. The coal that powers my home comes from a strip mine site in Tazewell Virginia. When I turn on the lights in my house I am inadvertently contributing to mountaintop removal mining. The proposed power plant in Wise County will not be used to supply power to southwest Virginia. That power will enter the grid and be used to power the growing urban areas of NOVA, Richmond, and Tidewater. It is being built specifically to supply power to places like Richmond. At the recent State Corporation Commission hearing on the Wise County plant held in Richmond life-long Wise County resident Frank Taylor spoke of the sacrifices by the people of the coalfields for our energy needs. “Haven’t we sacrificed enough to provide power to our country? The thousands of men who have lost their lives in the mines, the tens of thousands who have black lung and the great amount of the land itself stripped away. Isn’t that enough? And now they want us to give up the clean air that we and our children breathe? Shame.” We certainly have the right to make a statement regarding where our power comes from and the damage it does.

This resolution has already been passed in Arlington, Albemarle, Charlottesville, and Blacksburg. It is now being discussed in Fairfax County. The people of Richmond also have a right to ask Dominion to invest in energy efficiency and conservation that will save us all money and keep us from unwillingly encouraging the destruction of Wise County. No new coal in my name. No new coal funded by my wallet.

VA SCC Hears Case on Wise County Coal Plant

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I went and observed the first day of a 4-plus day evidentiary hearing at the Virginia State Corporation Commission yesterday. The hearing is set up like an actual trial, with Dominion’s Wise County coal plant construction permit at the heart of the case. The first day consisted mainly of two of Dominion’s Senior Vice-Presidents. They were the first of Dominion’s witnesses that submitted direct testimony. The evidentiary hearing is held so that each side of the case (Dominion as the applicant and Southern Environmental Law Center representing App Voices, Sierra Club, SAMS and CCAN as one of a few of the respondents) to cross-examine each parties expert witnesses.

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Wise County Air Pollution Control Board Hearing, Alexandria, VA

Where are you NoVa? I am currently sitting here at the at the lovely Holiday Inn on Eisenhower Ave, at a public Air Pollution Control Board hearing — one of the first of these types of hearings — and it is me, Kayti from the Sierra Club, Ernie from NOTICe, a few other activists and a room full of Dominion suits. The front row is literally comprised solely of Dominion “experts” who are working the podium, seemingly in a rotation, in an effort to deflect criticism and offer non-answers to serious questions. We have to be outnumbered… or at least that is the feeling that I am getting…

Dominion is talking the talk about how the proposed Wise County CFB coal fired power plant is going to be the best thing since sliced bread — how they their plant can use waste coal and biomass like wood-chips, how their plant will have lower SOx and NOx emissions than an IGCC coal plant. Yes, there are lots of wonky terms at a hearing like this (PSM, public health, environment, endanger), that not everyone will understand, but the feeling of deceit is palpable and accessible to everyone in attendance.

For example:

The presentation from Dominion to the Board included a large section about CCS, carbon capture and sequestration, and how compatible the Wise County plant may be, if the technology one day becomes available at a cost-effective price, with CCS and how that should mean that Virginians should not worry about this plant’s estimated 5.4 million tons of annual CO2 emissions. When asked when we could expect the plant to start to turn CCS compatibility into CCS reality, the Dominion speaker said, “decades.” Continue reading

Bristol Herald editorializes AGAINST Wise County Coal Plant

Two weeks ago, the US Forest Service wrote the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality concerned that the proposed Wise County Power Plant would pollute a national park in North Carolina. Citizens spoke out against the proposed plant at a hearing last week. Charlottesville, Blacksburg, and Arlington have all passed resolutions against the proposed plant.But NONE of those come close to today’s development. The Bristol Herald (which last week endorsed Senator William Wampler) just editorialized AGAINST the Wise County Power Plant. Check it out!

BY Bristol Herald Courier Editorial Board

Dominion Power plant is no bargain for the region

Tuesday, Dec 18, 2007

All along, Dominion Power Co. has touted its planned coal-burning plant in Wise County as a boon to the region.The plant, we were told, will create as many as 800 construction and coal mining jobs, along with jobs running the plant, and inject wealth into an economically depressed area. It will supply much-needed energy to fellow Virginians. It will exclusively burn Virginia coal.Sounded good until we read the fine print. Many of the jobs are temporary and the number has decreased over time. The plant, while cleaner than older coal-fired facilities, isn’t clean enough. It is still a polluter. Continue reading

Coal Kaput in Kansas – what does this mean for Wise County?

Great news for the climate. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment yesterday became the first government agency in the United States to cite carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a proposed coal-fired electricity generating plant, saying that the greenhouse gas threatens public health and the environment. Read the Washington Post story here.

Kansas has stepped up to help lead the nation away from the dirty energy technologies and towards smart energy solutions. Virginia should follow Kansas’ lead and do its part to help fight global warming by finding cleaner, better ways to produce energy, a goal that does not include allowing Dominion Virginia Power build their proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County. As most of you probably know, CCAN is part of a major effort to stop Dominion’s proposed power plant.

Kansas’s Sunflower Electric Power, a rural electrical cooperative, wanted to build the pair of big, 700-megawatt, coal-fired plants in order to supply power to parts of Kansas and fast-growing eastern Colorado. Similarly, Dominion claims they need to build the Wise County power plant to meet the growing demand for electricity in Virginia, especially as the population in Northern Virginia explodes.

One interesting note is that Kansas, like Virginia, is not exactly committed to the idea of conserving energy. In fact Kansas and Virginia are in a three-way tie (along with Wyoming) for last in the nation in spending on demand-side management programs according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. Those three are the only states that spent absolutely nothing on demand-side conservation.

Despite their lack of interest in energy efficiency and conservation programs in the past, Kansas yesterday reversed course and put climate and health concerns first. Instead of a new coal plant, Kansas has committed to taking a path to a clean energy future.

Dominion has been using the threat of rolling blackouts for a while now. Yet Dominion’s threats are unfounded. Virginia can do better — much better – on energy efficiency and renewable energy, making a new coal plant unnecessary.

CCAN and its coalition members — the Sierra Club, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices, and the Southern Environmental Law Center — are fighting Dominion’s proposed coal plant in the courtroom, at the statehouse, and on the street. The victory in Kansas gives us something to point to to show that wise energy decisions are being made in the U.S. right now!

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