Proposed coal-fired power plant highlights conflicting environmental, economic interests

Dominion Virginia Power plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Wise County,
but as construction plans move ahead, some Wise County residents have joined
with environmentalists to try to halt the construction.

The proposed Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, slated for completion in
2012, is a 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant that Dominion said is needed to
meet Virginia’s growing energy needs.

“Our number of customers grows by 20,000 to 30,000 each year . (while)
existing customers are using more energy with plasma screen TV’s (and other highenergy
devices),” said Karl Neddenien from his office telephone at the Dominion
headquarters in Richmond.

Dominion must get its coal from Virginia, and the plant has yet to develop
contracts with area mines. Residents of Wise County, a coal-mining region, who
oppose the plant fear new mining methods that blast off the tops of mountains
will scar the region forever, while the pollution from the plant will compound
pre-existing environmental problems.

The Department of Environmental Quality rates the technology used in the
plant as a clean coal technology, said Dan Genest, a spokesperson for Dominion,
and the plant will reduce its environmental impact by burning coal waste and
wood scraps.

But opponents of the plant said that its hybrid capabilities are not enough.

“Even if (the plant) is less polluting, they aren’t mining in environmentally safe
ways,” said Glen Besa, the Appalachian regional director of the Sierra Club.
The negative impacts of the plant are numerous, Besa said, and they include acid
rain, water contamination, algae blooms in waterways and sickness and asthma
caused by coal dust.

The plant will burn 2 million tons of coal each year to meet the electricity
needs of 145,000 homes in Northern Virginia, Central Virginia and Hampton,
Genest said.

Dominion said the plant will bring money to the low-income area in a number
of different ways, including jobs and taxes the company will pay for the plant.

During construction, the plant will provide the area with 800 jobs, Genest said,
and after the plant is finished, it will provide 75 permanent jobs.

Pete Ramey, a spokesperson for the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards,
an organization that works to protect communities in Southwest Virginia from
mountaintop removal mining, thinks the number of jobs created is insignificant
when compared to the amount of damage caused by the plant.

“If you consider 75 jobs for all the pollution and destruction it will cause (it’s not
worth it),” Ramey, a resident of Wise county, said from his home telephone.
Dominion is aware of the environmental issues surrounding the plant, Genest said.

“Obviously, burned coal has ramifications for the environment . Dominion is
aware of that, but we have more coal resources than Saudi Arabia has oil,” Genest
said, and Dominion, along with much of the rest of the nation, plans to use it.

Coal provides the United States with more than 50 percent of its electricity,
according to the U.S. Department of Energy Web site. Although companies are
actively seeking out ways to balance the economic needs of the United States with
its environmental needs, Genest said solutions won’t come overnight.

“We don’t have a balance between the economics and the environment . all
the people talk about alternatives, but alternatives still involve pollution. There is
a better way,” Ramey said.