Richmond City Councilmen Hilbert and Jewell have introduced the Wise County Resolution, 2008-R13. This resolution is a strong statement of opposition to the proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia. So why is the City of Richmond weighing in on an issue for Wise County? On the surface it may seem that they're just butting in but this plant is very much the business of Richmond and its citizens.
This plant is a bad investment and every Richmonder with an electric bill will have to pay for it. Dominion will pass all the costs of the plant onto the ratepayers of Virginia. Those costs include $1.8 billion to build the plant, 14% profit for Dominion, and also the cost of controlling carbon emissions which may reach $100 million each year. That means quite a lot of money out of our pockets. I don't want any of my money funding new coal but Dominion isn't giving me the ability to choose clean energy. If ratepayers must pay for new energy generation why can we not have a say in how it is generated?
Across the country more and more people are realizing that coal simply costs too much. According to the US Department of Energy, $1.8 billion is too much to pay for a coal-fired power plant. The DOE recently pulled support for a proposed plant in Illinois based on cost. Just a few days ago three of the largest financial supporters of new coal reassessed the risks and found them to be too high. Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have realized that carbon control legislation is inevitable, which will make coal far more costly. As a result they will encourage utilities to invest in energy-efficiency and renewable energy as alternatives to new coal.
Where our energy comes from and the effects of its production is most certainly our business. The City of Richmond is powered by coal. That coal is supplied by the coalfields of southwest Virginia. The coal that powers my home comes from a strip mine site in Tazewell Virginia. When I turn on the lights in my house I am inadvertently contributing to mountaintop removal mining. The proposed power plant in Wise County will not be used to supply power to southwest Virginia. That power will enter the grid and be used to power the growing urban areas of NOVA, Richmond, and Tidewater. It is being built specifically to supply power to places like Richmond. At the recent State Corporation Commission hearing on the Wise County plant held in Richmond life-long Wise County resident Frank Taylor spoke of the sacrifices by the people of the coalfields for our energy needs. "Haven't we sacrificed enough to provide power to our country? The thousands of men who have lost their lives in the mines, the tens of thousands who have black lung and the great amount of the land itself stripped away. Isn't that enough? And now they want us to give up the clean air that we and our children breathe? Shame." We certainly have the right to make a statement regarding where our power comes from and the damage it does.
This resolution has already been passed in Arlington, Albemarle, Charlottesville, and Blacksburg. It is now being discussed in Fairfax County. The people of Richmond also have a right to ask Dominion to invest in energy efficiency and conservation that will save us all money and keep us from unwillingly encouraging the destruction of Wise County. No new coal in my name. No new coal funded by my wallet.
Cross-posted from http://www.chesapeakeclimate.o...