Poor King Coal can seem to get a break these days. After the election saw three global warming deniers lose their elections in VA, Thursday saw a huge shift toward a rational policy on coal. The Environmental Appeals Board ruled that the EPA must regulate CO2 as a pollutant from coal plants, and Virginia's Climate Commission nearly banned new coal plants.
The EPA ruling sets a very persuasive precedent in our case against Dominion's Wise County coal plant. The State Air Pollution Control Board did not include CO2 as a pollutant when they were permitting the plant-largely because the EPA hadn't ruled that CO2 was a pollutant. Now that that's change, the plant should go back to the State Air Pollution Control Board where they would be required to make a decision on CO2. As far as a deal-breaker, at this time, it's not. As a breath of fresh reason, it's quite refreshing and long overdue.
However, there is some great news coming out of the Governor's Climate Commission meeting yesterday that shows an unbelievable political shift in VA. This commission, which is seeded with industry folks, held a vote to ban new coal (without ccs)--it lost by one vote. They also endorse a mandatory energy efficiency goal of reducing Virginia's projected energy use by 19% by 2025, as per the ACEEE report's recommendations. This isn't a binding decision, but it puts pressure on Gov. Kaine to adopt his own commission's recommendations.
A commissioner also mentioned that Dominion is spending $1.4 billion for a 700 MW wind-power facility. Note the numbers: 700 MW of wind will cost $1.4 billion, and ongoing fuel costs will, of course, be ZERO. Meanwhile, 585 MW of coal-fired power in Wise will cost $1.8 billion, and then Dominion will have to purchase coal year in and year out to make the place run.