Mining isn’t what it once was

I’m responding to T. Reid Scott’s Jan. 12 letter ["Coal plant can help the region"] about how this region would be "nothing" without coal. Maybe coal got this area noticed initially. But it’s the 21st century. Many mines have closed, and [mining] is not how the majority of people in the region earn their money today. Russell County has a call center and a computer analysis firm and Washington County has the Barter Theatre and many quaint shops, as well as a community college.

Wise County has depended a lot on coal in recent decades and has the scarred, strip-mined land to prove it – the most of any county in Southwest Virginia, according to Appalachian Voices. It, too, can diversify if there is the will to do so.

I would like to see a booming tourism industry developed in Wise County. It has some beautiful places, from the High Knob/Powell Valley overlooks to Wise Reservoir and Guest River Gorge.

As for the issue of "clean coal" technology, if you were at the State Corporation Commission hearing Jan. 8 in Richmond, you would have learned that it is still in development and not available now. If Dominion Power wants to build a plant, let it seek out cleaner technology using solar, wind and biomass solutions.

We need jobs, but let’s shoot for healthy, environmentally friendly ones.

Denise Mathews
Castlewood, Va.