Baltimore, MD — Yesterday, Chickahominy Power, LLC announced it had “terminated” its 1,600 megawatt, $1.64 billion gas-fired power plant planned for Charles County, Virginia. The plant would have been one of the largest gas plants in Virginia and would have sold electricity into the grid as a business venture instead of providing power directly to Virginia customers. This termination follows the suspension of a pipeline that would have crossed five counties to carry gas to the power plant.
Both the plant and the pipeline faced strong opposition from Charles City County residents. The county is already home to a large, polluting landfill and was the proposed site of another large gas plant known as C4GT that would have been located just a mile from the Chickahominy Power site. That gas plant was canceled last July.
In response to the cancellation, Anne Havemann, General Counsel of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said:
“The Chesapeake Climate Action Network was honored to fight the proposed Chickahominy gas-fired power plant alongside Concerned Citizens of Charles County and other local residents over the past six years. The cancellation of the plant illustrates that gas is not the energy of Virginia’s future but the energy of the past.
“The company struggled to find financing, was met with stiff opposition from local residents who worried about the health effects of living next to such a large plant, and faced competition from a growing clean-energy industry. Instead of relocating to Ohio or West Virginia, as Chickahominy Power’s press release threatens, the company should see the writing on the wall and invest in clean energy instead of sinking $1.64 billion into more climate-wrecking fossil fuels.”
For more information see “Chickahominy Power cancels plans for natural gas plant in Charles City” by Sarah Vogelsong, The Virginia Mercury.
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Chesapeake Climate Action Network is the first grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with global warming in the Chesapeake Bay region. Founded in 2002, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.chesapeakeclimate.org
