Should Arlington and Charlottesville Care What Happens in Wise?

Why, you might ask, should places like Arlington and Charlottesville care about a coal plant in Wise County?  More specifically, why should they be passing resolutions about this issue?  Well, according to the (Republican-leaning) Arlington Sun-Gazette Arlington Sun Gazette, they shouldn't be.  

The vote raised eyebrows because the planned power station is located nearly 400 miles from Arlington - New York City is considerably closer - leading to the impression that county officials are butting in on a matter that has nothing to do with them.

Is this argument valid?  Does a coal-fired power plant in Wise County have "nothing to do with" places like Arlington, Charlottesville, or Blacksburg for that matter?  According to a letter to the editor by Paul Burman, Northern Virginia organizer of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the answer is clearly "no!"  

Dominion's proposed Wise County power plant is being built specifically to supply power for Northern Virginia, not for Wise County. If built, the rural county of 40,000 will be home to two coal-fired power plants with a generation capacity of over 1,000 megawatts, so, clearly, the power is not for the residents of Wise.

Moreover, Arlingtonians will literally be the ones footing the bill for a new coal-fired power plant. Dominion plans to charge the entire cost of the $1.6 billion Wise County Plant to its ratepayers in Virginia, and last I checked, that includes Arlington.

So, if the power is for us and will be paid for by us, why shouldn't the County Board speak out in a way that is totally consistent with all of its energy-related actions over the last year?

There are all excellent points. The bottom line is that we are one state, one country, one planet.  It may be hard to picture at times, but we are all connected -- literally, in the case power lines.  The fact is, when a person in Arlington or Charlottesville flicks on the light or turns on their TV set, the electricity comes from burning coal.  That is to say, coal mined by blowing the tops off of mountains in southwestern Virginia (or West Virginia), filling the valleys and streams below, and polluting the atmosphere shared by all of us.  

Given all that, why shouldn't the consumers of this dirty coal-fired power care about where it comes from and the damage it does?  Why shouldn't the consumers be moving rapidly to slash their consumption, and to help others slash their consumption, of a power source that is partly responsible for causing the polar ice caps to melt, the oceans to rise, and the environment of places like Wise County to be damaged?  Why shouldn't the consumers be partly responsible for the damage done by their consumption?  I can't think of any good reasons why they shouldn't; can you?

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