How is that for cross-country networking?
John
Fighting Dominion's Disaster: Who has the Energy?
Created Jul 27 2008 - 9:19pm
By Beau Grosscup
Spurred by the raging debate over national (and global) energy policy, in mid-July, I traveled to the mountains of southwestern Virginia. While famous as the birthplace of country and bluegrass music and full of authentic Appalachia culture, it was the coal in "them thar hills" that sparked my visit.
My destination was Wise County and the small town of St. Paul where for two years a fierce, indeed classic battle has raged between the powerful coal industry and a variety of less powerful citizens groups over the building of Dominion Power's Virginia City hybrid coal-burning power plant...
Non-coal industry experts say the illness and death rates from coal-fired power plants are highest within a 30-mile radius of the smokestack. Dominion's plant is to have a 500-foot-tall smokestack, making it just about right for boosting the fumes two miles over the hill and into the natural bowl around St. Paul...
Indeed, with tongue clearly in cheek, my suggestion that the city's fortunes could be reversed by marketing St. Paul as a case study in environmental disaster was met with angry stares and rude hand gestures.
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