This week I’m going to be in Wise County, where Dominion Power is planning to build a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant. Members of the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and CCAN are putting on events around the meeting of the Air Board on Tuesday.

Today was the final day of the Air Board Hearing concerning the Wise County coal plant. The room was full of hope after yesterday’s comment period, and the board acknowledged the powerful citizen outcry over the plant’s health and environmental impacts. But ultimately, they unanimously approved the plant. While they significantly strengthened the emissions regulations, they did nothing to address mountain top removal mining or CO2 emissions.

They went as far as they could, without doing more harm than good. Fearing litigation from Dominion, they made no strong statement about regulating CO2 It was clear to me and other members of our coalition that this was a courageous move by the Air Board. They are going to take hits from both sides of the debate, neither of which got what they wanted. As Kathy Selvage said, “They gave no consideration for the mountains that will be the fuel for this plant.” MTR wasn’t mentioned by the Air Board at all. Also, the “out clause,” which allows Dominion to get a new permit if they cannot achieve the mercury standards, was also left in.

“There you go. We didn’t do it.,” said one Air Board member in his final comments. They didn’t take a strong stand on MTR, on CO2, or on the plant. But they did create a strong regulatory hurdle for Dominion, and they made an attempt to protect our air based on the Clean Air Act.

Obviously, this is not enough. Southern Environmental Law Center plans on taking the permit to court, further litigating the plant. It would also seem like as we impose delays and court battles, the plant is getting more and more expensive. It’s easy to see that a bank funding the plant would back out because of rising costs.

But it’s the people here who are going to continue to take up the fight. I want to thank every one that showed us such strong hospitality while we were here. Kathy Selvage, Larry Bush, and Jane Branham of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards welcomed us to their community and showed us the real side of coal in this state. Hannah Morgan was awesome enough to let us sleep at her house and organized a lot of our activities. To everyone who was involved