Stop the Wise County Coal Plant!
Sign the Mile-Long petition to Stop the Wise County coal plant!
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Collect petition signatures>> (you will be directed to our partner site Wise Energy for VA)
VA Clean Energy Rally
May 8, 2008, 1 pm
KANAWHA PLAZA PARK: (Canal and Eighth Sts. Midtown)
Register here>>
The Wise County Coal Plant is bad for Virginia, here’s why:
1. The Plant Would Emit 5.4 Million Tons Of CO2 Annually
This plant will be a huge emitter of carbon dioxide—around 5.4 million tons of CO2 or the equivalent of adding more than 1 million cars to Virginia roadways—making it one of the biggest polluters in the state. In a time of heightened concerns over global warming, when Virginians are already suffering from air that violates current EPA standards, there’s no good reason to drastically increase our air pollution.
2. The Plant Would Exacerbate Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
Hundreds of miles of the Appalachian Mountains are been blasted away from mountaintop removal mining, a particularly destructive form of mining that involves blasting the tops off mountains and dumping the debris in the stream beds below. Wise County, where this plant will be built, has already lost 25% of its mountains to this kind of mining.
3. The Plant Would Trigger A Net Loss Of 1476 Jobs
According to testimony released by the State Corporation Commission, building the plant would create a net loss of jobs in Virginia. Recent testimony by the State Corporation Commission reveals that the Wise County Plant would cost Virginia nearly 1,500 jobs and greatly diminish families' disposable income through higher electricity rates. In other words, 75 permanent jobs in Wise County equals 1500 less jobs for Virginia. For comparison's sake, we could pay 75 Wise County residetns $100,000 per year and give the county $6 million a year for the next 133 years with the $1.8 billion it will take to build the plant. Sounds like a better deal to me…
4. The Plant Will Not Be Clean.
Despite Dominion’s claims to the contrary, the plant will not be clean. Dominion is not utilizing the best available technology for this plant. The Wise County plant would utilize Circulating Fluidized Bed Coal Technology (CFB), not Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology — IGCC is considered the most advanced coal technology and the one best suited to remove pollutants and CO2 from emissions. By utilizing this inferior technology, Dominion can burn cheap waste coal with low BTU value and high pollutant emissions. There is no existing technology that can be used reduce carbon dioxide. Dominion's only plan to capture carbon from the plant is to set aside a few acres of land, a plan which the SCC recently ruled wasn't good enough.
5. Plant Won’t Meet The Governor’s Own Carbon Reduction Goals
Governor Kaine has set a goal of reducing projected carbon dioxide increases 30% by 2025, and has created a climate commission to achieve this goal. With an estimated 5.4 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, the Wise County Power Plant would comprise almost 8% of 2005 emissions of the electricity sector (the largest sector, comprising 36% of total emissions).
6. Opposition To The Plant Keeps Growing
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governoments and Fairfax County have both passed resolutions opposing the plant because of global warming and pollution concerns. Faith Leaders have come together and have signed a letter opposing the plant. Students are opposed, mountain lovers are opposed. And 30,000 Virginians from across the Commonwealth have signed a petition against the plant.
7. Virginia Hasn’t Invested In Renewables Or Efficiency
Fact: Virginia gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from "green" sources such as the wind or the sun. Fact: Virginia ranks 50th among U.S. states in investments in energy efficiency. Just phasing out inefficient light bulbs, as Congress has mandated beginning in 2012, would eliminate electricity consumption in Virginia equal to half the entire output of the Wise County plant. Beyond efficiency, federal estimates show Virginia could get 12 percent of its electricity from wind farms using just a small area of land. Yet Dominion's wind-power investments equal less than 0.5 percent of its total mid-Atlantic generation capacity.
And the legislature this year killed the Clean Energy Future Act , a bill introduced by Senator Chap Petersen that would have put Virginia on course to become a leader in clean energy, efficiency, and conservation - protecting the environmental, generating jobs, and saving people money.
