Fairfax Board Drags Feet on Coal…
Posted by Paul on 25 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: Coal, Virginia
Live from the Fairfax County Government Building…
(11:40)I am reporting live today, listening in on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors hearing, waiting for news on whether the Fairfax Board will submit comments for the Department of Environmental Quality on the impacts of a new coal plant in Wise County on the residents of Fairfax County.
This board meeting room is the biggest one I have ever been in, and I can’t wait to hear the good news that our Supervisors will deliver soon…
(12:35) Anthony Griffin, county executive, withdraws the motion without debate… something is going on here…
(3:00) So I have had some time to think about what happened at the Board meeting today (and a little time to cool down), and I will give it to you straight here — something is going on here. The Board has been in some way contacted by Dominion power or one of their henchmen (that includes our General Assembly Members) and convinced the Fairfax county board that commenting for the DEQ on this power plant would not be a good idea. This stinks of insider politics. Why does it stink?
- The agenda item regarding submitting comments for the DEQ was immediately withdrawn without debate. We contacted enough Board members, we had the names of six board members that already supported the comments, and we had the critical commentary that the Chairman had already submitted for the DEQ in hand — we had enough votes to pass this board matter last week, why was it not even talked about on Monday?
- None of our strongest advocates said anything when the Board matter was being withdrawn — Chairman Connolly, Supervisor Smyth, and Supervisor Hyland said nothing — that makes me think that somebody was silencing them…
- Dominion has enough money and influence in this state to pull strings when they need to, it doesn’t seem unlikely that they would feel compelled to meddle in Fairfax county business…
So that is it. Now we must regroup and stay on top of our Supervisors and let them know that the issue of a new coal plant in Wise County and the impacts that it will have on our air are too great to ignore. Contact paul@chesapeakeclimate.org to help fight Dominion power in Fairfax county.
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2 Comments »
on 27 Feb 2008 at 11:12 pm 1.Lawrence MacDonald said …
Paul – Thanks for this timely report. Members of our congregation at Temple Rodef Shalom in McClean have been writing to the Fairfax board (and Gov. Kaine) urging them to oppose this plant. One of our members got a prompt reply to her letter from one of the supervisors, Lynda Smyth, saying that “The comment period has been extended into March. With extra time, our staff can do more research before anything is submitted.”
I don’t know if there has really been an extension or not, and whether or not this will come up again on the Fairfax board agenda.
Do you or anybody else have any information that would guide us?
Thanks
on 05 Mar 2008 at 8:15 pm 2.CARMA Blog - » Applied CARMA: Dominion Power, Fairfax Country, and Virginia’s Proposed Wise County Coal Plant said …
[...] the new plant was scheduled for a vote on February 25. Mysteriously, county executive Andy Griffin withdrew the motion without explanation on the night of the [...]