Opposition To Dominion Power Plant Remains Strong
Dominion Virginia Power held a groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 14 for a coal-fired power plant that poses a massive risk to the environment and ratepayers.
As one of nearly 45,000 Virginians who have signed a petition opposing the plant, I can assure you that our opposition to the boondoggle plant remains strong.
Opponents were not there only because Dominion chose not to inform the public of its groundbreaking activity.
Stu Gitchell, site manager for Dominion, was quoted by this paper as saying the plant will be an “imposing” sight. Indeed, this coal plant will “impose” on Wise County, with devastating air and water pollution and the destruction of our mountains. And it will “impose” on Dominion’s Northern Virginia ratepayers to the tune of $1.8 billion, so far.
Although protesters weren’t at the groundbreaking, the fight against the coal plant has only just begun. Three lawsuits were filed last month challenging the state’s approval of the Wise County coal plant.
In the past, we chose coal because we didn’t know any better. Today we do, and we should begin to act as we now understand the consequences of our past actions and march off in an exciting, really new direction – looking for real solutions.
Kathy R. Selvage
Wise, Va.
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Reader Reactions
tear what mountains up? do you folks know the territory? probably not. i was born and raised in va.city.there is not gonna be any mountains torn down there to supply the coal. there are two underground mines not a half mile up the hollow. the site where plant is being built was the former home of eastover mines cleaning and processing portion of their va.city operation. a few acres were strip mined about a decade ago and put in the present condition to be useful land. the first project that was mentioned was gonna be a section 8 housing complex.how many jobs would that have provided?
my mother lives 1.5 miles up in va.city and she is all for it. the bristol paper never took the time to get the opinions of the residents of the nearby communities,such as bull hill,flags,hardy hollow,and even the handful of folks in va.city. the only folks they talked to was anyone they could find that were against it.
“Look for real solutions,“ those real solutions are still decades away. In the meantime we’ll just sit around in the dark and freeze our asses off.
I don’t believe these petition signers are sitting around in the dark. The power plant is here, get use to it. Southwest Virginia needs it, the state needs it, and the country needs it.
Our energy dollars need to be invested here, and if we don’t do more to that end we’re going end up with an economic collapse that will make the 1930s seem like good times.
Protesting will not stop the plant from being built or the citizens of SWVA from supporting this plant.
Construction has started and people are gainfully employed working there everyday. Wise County will soon be the home of the cleanest coal plant in history using only Virginia coal. It is a wonderful thing!
Watch out, Dominion will now pull out the new coal industry buzz words “ clean coal”.
“Clean Coal”: Tear apart a mountain range, ruin the ground water, toss millions of tons of particulates into our air, and a routine incidents that result in injury or death of its employees. Yup, that sounds clean.
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