Just two days after America’s top climate scientist warned that new coal-fired power plants would doom the global climate, the state of Virginia gave final approval to a massive new coal plant that will send dirty electricity to Northern Virginia. But the fight is far from over. We are headed to court where we believe the controversial $1.8 billion plant will be rejected — in part on global warming grounds.
Over a hundred people from all over Virginia came together in Wise County last week to show the Air Board that there is broad opposition to this plant, not just in southwest Virginia but throughout the Commonwealth. Despite massive efforts on the part of plant proponents, we far outnumbered the plant supporters at Tuesday’s public hearing.
In response to the outpouring of public opposition, the Air Board made a number of significant changes to the permits. These changes drastically curtail Dominion’s ability to emit mercury, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and carbon monoxide.
But ultimately the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board awarded final permits for a new 585-megawatt coal-burning plant that has no technology whatsoever to capture greenhouse gases and still fails to meet federally required maximum controls for the neurotoxin mercury and 60 other hazardous air pollutants. Despite a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Massachussetts vs. EPA) that establishes carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, the state of Virginia has now approved a plant that radically departs from the nation’s new clean energy focus.
“Future generations will look back at this Virginia decision and wonder, ‘What were they thinking?’,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, a leading opponent of the proposed plant. “With extreme weather and vanishing Arctic ice and the rising warnings of scientists, it’s time to close the book on dirty coal and move quickly to the clean and efficient energy solutions all around us in Virginia.”
The proposed power plant would be located in southwestern Virginia in Wise County but most of the power would be sent to Northern Virginia. Virginia already ranks near the bottom of all states in terms of energy efficiency, with New Yorkers and Californians using half as much electricity per capita as Virginians. Indeed, Gov. Kaine’s own 2007 energy plan calls for achievable statewide efficiency improvements that would make the Wise County plant totally unnecessary. Yet Gov. Kaine, who has received nearly a quarter million dollars in campaign contributions from Dominion Power, continues to be one the biggest supporters of the plant.
Now the fight moves to Virginia state court, where the Southern Environmental Law Center will represent key opponents that include CCAN, Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, and Sierra Club.
To learn more about this campaign and how you can take action, visit www.WiseEnergyForVa.org
