Another new power plant in the works for Southwest Va.?

WISE, Va. – Southwest Virginia needs another power plant, said Del. Bud Phillips, D-Castlewood, who announced at Monday’s Southwest Virginia Legislative Forum that he’s working to bring a natural gas-fired power plant to the region.

The announcement was one of few bright spots at an event dominated by state budget woes and federal energy regulation that threatens serious harm to Southwest Virginia’s economy.

Each year the forum brings together Southwest Virginia’s state senators and delegates to speak and answer questions about issues affecting the region.

“Natural gas development in Southwest Virginia is a growing by leaps and bounds,” said Phillips, who said Monday he had a site picked out for the proposed plant but was not ready to announce it. “They are at the point now where I think they have the capacity to fuel a power plant.”

He pointed to an economic boost he said has come to the region with Dominion’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, a 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant under construction outside St. Paul, and said a similar boost could come with the construction of a second, gas-fired plant.

“Hopefully…you Dominion guys will start working on that for us,” said Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, “a new generation plant somewhere here in the coalfields with natural gas.”

As the legislators look ahead to grow the local tax base in the future, however, they’re also preparing for the massive state budget shortfall that’s looming on the immediate horizon.

In Virginia, the state Constitution requires the general assembly to live within its means, operating on a balanced budget every year. With declining revenues, that means spending cuts.

Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, had grim predictions Monday: $3.5 billion will likely need to be cut in the coming year to offset declining state revenues – a number that could increase to $4.6 billion once federal stimulus money dries up.

“The news on the budget front is not good,” said Wampler. “I would even say that after 23 years it is the worst that I have ever seen it.”

The magnitude of the situation is so great, he said, that a 10 percent across-the-board reduction in spending would solve less than one-third of the problem – and everything will be on the table for budget cuts, including K-12 education, as the state tightens its belt.

But Sen. Phillip Puckett, D-Tazewell, and others said they hope to ensure that local school boards retain control over how to best cut spending in their schools.

The other issue that topped the legislators’ agendas Monday was coal, and federal regulation they say could devastate Southwest Virginia’s economy.

“What bothers me greatly is we have an administration in Washington and a Congress that say no to coal,” said Wampler.

“They say that we are going to do everything that we can to delay the process of surface mining and when the EPA takes an application and sits on it, it only causes operators to question whether they should remain in business, which means workers are no longer employed, so we have a tremendous challenge ahead of us not only to create new jobs but to maintain the jobs that we have.”

Delegate-elect Will Morefield, R-Tazewell, spoke about another federal regulatory scheme he said will hurt the region’s industry: cap and trade legislation, which would cap the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and allow emitters to trade emission credits amongst themselves to keep the economy under the limit.

“Your Southwest Virginia delegation is very strong in support of coal and gas,” said Puckett. “We’re going to do everything we can to fight with the Corps of Engineers and EPA, who are trying to put us out of business.

Phillips, who talked about Virginia’s reputation as a good place to do business and raise a family, focused on the positive, saying the state has potential to enter a period of significant growth once the recession is over – including Southwest Virginia tourism.

He said the people here won’t get the economic solutions they need from Richmond or Washington – but from Southwest Virginia, with a focus on developing health care, education and technology.

“There are folks who want to shut us down,” he said. “If there are folks out there that want to do that, let’s out-think them. Let’s find better ways to mine coal, and let’s find better ways to use coal.”

Del. Joe Johnson, D-Abingdon, also offered advice for the region Monday.

“Just remember the good times,” said Johnson, who, as always, touted his poor, rural roots in Depression-era Hayter’s Gap and the amazing leaps of progress that have been made since. “They’ll be back.”

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