EPA: More Virginia cities and counties violate Clean Air Act

Apparently dirty air isn’t just for Northern Virginia. Under new EPA standards released today, several Virginia communities around Richmond and Hampton Roads will receive a time-honored label of “non-attainment” with the Clean Air Act. Fourteen cities and counties in Virginia are projected to be in non-attainment: Alexandria City, Arlington, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Fairfax, Hampton City, Hanover, Henrico, Loudoun, Madison, Prince William, Stafford, Suffolk City.

In a release today, Trip Pollard of the Southern Environmental Law Center elaborated.

“What we’re seeing is that unhealthy air is not just an urban problem anymore,” said Pollard. “Even small and mid-sized cities are going to have to tackle their air problems in order to protect the health of their citizens.”

“The fact that more cities than ever are likely to fail to meet even this standard should serve as a wake up call to all Virginians that dirty air is everyone’s problem,” said Trip Pollard.

This announcement comes at a time the state is considering permitting two new power plants, a coal-burning plant in Wise County and a natural gas plant in Buckingham county. This follows a court ruling earlier last week which would restrict mercury emission from power plants too.

Under the new standard, the metro Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia region is expected to remain in violation of the federal standard, otherwise known as being in “nonattainment.” However, the greater Richmond area and Virginia Beach as well as smaller western cities including Harrisonburg, Martinsville and Culpepper will also likely be added to the list. These areas will face deadlines to reach the new standard or risk federal sanctions including tighter smokestacks controls and the possible loss of federal highway money.

SCC analysis – Power Plant will eliminate 1476 jobs

According to recently uncovered testimony by staff at the State Corporation Commission, the Wise County Power Plant could actually eliminate 1474 Virginia jobs and have a significant negative economic impact on the rest of the state.

“This implies that for each dollar of revenue requirement collected through Rider S will have a -$1.36 impact on economic activity elsewhere in the state economic activity elsewhere in the state. The analysis also reveals a negative impact on employment of -1476 jobs.“

Because of the huge profit Dominion will make from this plant (12.12%), money will be removed from the Virginia economy, instead being transferred to Dominion’s shareholders, who received almost 40 cents per share dividend last quarter. Quite a good deal for the shareholders. We pay for our electricity, lose jobs, and they reap the profits.

Last year Governor Kaine dispatched Secretary of Commerce and Trade Patrick Gottschalk to testify before teh SCC, urging them to support the plant and emphasizing that the plant “has the full support of myself and the Governor”. Will this new evidence change his mind?

Despite an agreement with the Attorney General and the SCC staff that the plant will NOT be carbon capture compatible, Dominion struck a deal to maintain the higher 12.12% profit on the $1.8 billion power plant.

UPDATE: No New Coal Resolution in Richmond

The City Council of Richmond is officially the first and only locality to kill a resolution against the Wise County coal plant. Why? Because City Council President Bill Pantele didn’t like it. In fact, Mr. Pantele went out of his way to kill this resolution.

The resolution was originally scheduled for a full council committee hearing at the beginning of February but it was postponed at the very last minute by, you guessed it, Mr. Pantele. The decision was so last minute that not even the sponsors of the resolution knew that it had been removed from the agenda until walking into the meeting. Pantele told me himself that everyone on council had been getting “a lot” of phone calls from constituents on this. Apparently the wishes of his constituents are irrelevant.

While we waited for the resolution to be rescheduled, Dominion representatives had time to meet with each member of City Council. Continue reading

Virginians Vs. the Dominion of Coal

Video by Jay Tomlinson

People of Virginia rise up in a democratic fervor to oppose the coal-fired power plant proposed by Dominion Power. This plant would be extremely destructive to the local environment, not to mention the regional and international impacts that coal has because of its contribution to global warming.

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.

Break Virginia's Addiction to Coal? Yes We Can!

An excellent and inspiring post on Raising Kaine from The Green Miles, one of our great allies in the fight to cool the commonwealth. Let’s get rolling!
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Believe it or not, The Green Miles and the president of coal company Alpha Natural Resources agree on something. Virginia could slash its energy and coal usage without much effort. We just choose not to:

Steady growth demand for electricity to feed homes and businesses has the [coal] industry’s future looking bright, [Michael] Quillen said. Conservation could curb that growth, but Americans, he noted, don’t do that well with conservation.

Virginia is last in the nation in spending on energy efficiency and conservation. As a result, the typical Virginia household uses 150-200% of the energy it actually needs. That’s not due to glitzy home theater systems or something — it’s poor insulation, drafty windows, and inefficient appliances. Energy that slips out your attic or under a drafty door that you’ll never even notice you used — until your power bill arrives.So when Gov. Tim Kaine said on last week’s RK conference call that we were building a huge new coal-fired power plant because the General Assembly had determined that the plant was “in the public interest,” I wasn’t exactly shocked. To steal a phrase from Quillen, the General Assembly doesn’t do all that well with managing our energy interests.

While Virginia will likely never get off coal entirely in our lifetimes, we do have the power to dramatically ease our dependence. We’ll need three people to do it: Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, and you.
Energy/Environment :: TheGreenMiles :: Break Virginia’s Addiction to Coal? Yes We Can.
Let’s break it down:Tim Kaine – The governor has already raised a red flag on the Wise County plant, asking the Department of Environmental Quality to hold more hearings on the proposal. But if Gov. Kaine is serious about the success of his Virginia Energy Plan and Commission on Climate Change, he needs to reconsider his public neutrality on this plant. How can we cut Virginia’s greenhouse gas emissions if this plant is adding 5.3 million tons in new carbon dioxide emissions each year, the equivalent of adding more than 300,000 cars to Virginia roadways?Mark Warner – Here’s what our next junior US Senator had to say at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner:

In January of 2009, we have to change our energy policy. Our energy policy right now consists of borrowing money from China to buy oil from countries around the world that don’t like us.

And with some of the dollars we send to the Middle East, it’s fair to say we may be the first country in history that’s funding both sides of a war.

We must invest in renewable energy, and we must eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

By making these investments, we can create millions of new jobs here in America. We can make our nation more secure.

And if we take on the threat of climate change, we can reassert America’s moral standing in the world. If we do it right, we might even save the planet along the way.

There is no doubt our new Sen. Warner will be a leader on energy and environmental issues on Capitol Hill. But can renewable energy advocacy be compatible with neutrality on the Wise County plant? According to the American Wind Energy Association, Virginia has the potential to produce an average of 1,380 megawatts of wind energy each year. Will Virginia be able to share in the spoils of a clean energy future if we’ve already invested $1.6 billion in coal?You – Gov. Kaine told us, “When legislature passed legislation calling for this plant, no one asked me to change it that I can recall.” Virginia environmentalists have been slow to react to the threat of global warming and slow to push our elected officials to change. That means now we have to fight twice as hard to stop this plant before it locks us into 50 years of mountaintop removal, polluted air, and lost opportunity for clean energy jobs.

If you can, attend tonight’s DEQ hearing in Richmond to tell regulators there’s no such thing as “clean coal.” This plant will spew carbon dioxide, mercury, sulfur and nitrogen into Virginia’s air for generations to come.

Even if you can’t make it in person, email the DEQ right now!

All's quiet on the DEQ front

I am writing from the lobby of the Marriot Hotel in Innsbrook, just outside Richmond. Its still three hours before the final hearing of the Department of Env. Quality on the Wise County Power Plant. There’s free wireless, and I’m in good company with CCAN’s campus organizer Tom Owens. But why am I here 4 hours before the hearing anyway? Paranoia!

For the last two hearings (before the State Corporation Commission and Department of Env. Quality), opponents to the power plant have arrived early in an attempt to sign up to speak, only to wait 2-5 hours to testify. Most recently in St. Paul, opponents to the power plant did not get called to speak until after 11:00 PM, despite signing up early. Now, there may be logical explanations in both cases. For the SCC, maybe there was an advanced sign-up we didn’t know about. For the DEQ hearing, Dominion beat us to the punch, getting supporters there early with the lure of a hospitality suite.

I’ve been assured by Cindy Bernt at DEQ that sign-up won’t start until 4:45, but I figure, better safe than sorry. And so we wait. And wait. More to come in a few hours. Continue reading

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.