Dominion Virginia Power is at it again. It ran a full-page page ad in the Washington Post yesterday, apparently forgetting all about a key ruling in March by the State Corporation Commission (SCC), the agency that oversees utilities.
Take a look at Dominion's first bullet point describing how it plans to provide new electrical generation to Virginia:
[Among the important parts of this plan are:] A new clean-coal, carbon capture-compatible power station in Wise County where we'll spend nearly $320 million to install the very latest in emissions-control systems. It'll be one of the cleanest coal-powered stations in the U.S. and bring more than 1,200 jobs and $1.8 billion of new investment to Southwest Virginia.
Really? Carbon capture compatible? On July 13, 2007, Dominion Power applied to the State Corporation Commission for approval of a coal-fired power plant in Wise County it promised would be "carbon capture compatible." On March 31st, the SCC approved construction of a "conventional coal" facility and did not give Dominion any bonus for carbon capture compatibility. Rather, the Commission was explicitly clear - of the $1.8 billion to build the plant, not one penny would go to address the plant's global warming pollution, either now or at any time in the future.
Now let's talk about "clean" coal. First, the term clean coal in general is a joke. Calling coal clean is like calling a cigarette healthy; the cigarette may have less tar and cancer-causing agents than other brands, but that does not mean it's good for you. Same goes for coal: No matter what you do to it, it will never be clean.
Second, the plant in question is a far cry from clean. The Wise County facility would emit more than four times the amount of mercury per-megawatt than Dominion's Clover station in Halifax County. Mercury is a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in fetuses, children and adults. A new study just released yesterday shows a statistically significant link between pounds of industrial release of mercury and increased autism rates. It also shows-for the first time in scientific literature-a statistically significant association between autism risk and distance from the mercury source.
Dominion has been making up the truth in Virginia for a long time, but, thanks to the efforts and activism of people like you, its days of unchecked power are coming to an end. Just this week an amendment Governor Kaine proposed, which was then "edited" by Dominion, was unanimously defeated in the Senate. While Governor Kaine's intention was to promote conservation and energy efficiency in Virginia, Dominion got its hands on it and amended the amendment. In the end, the amendment attempted to limit the information the SCC could use when issuing permits on key energy issues to information provided by the utilities. In other words, the SCC would only get one side of the story - the utility's side. Virginia State Senators received thousands of emails from Virginians (including 1400 from CCAN members) and, once the Governor realized what the edited amendment would do, he withdrew his support and it was unanimously defeated.
People from all across Virginia are coming together to dismantle Dominion's power. When we stop the coal plant in Wise County, it will be a major victory against one of the biggest teams in the game. I hope you'll join the almost 30,000 people who have signed the petition against the plant, and then tell your friends. Virginia needs clean energy, not new coal!