www.roanoke.com

Eleanor Whitaker

Whitaker, of Alexandria, is a retired nurse practitioner.

In early April, Dominion Power hopes to break ground on a new coal-fired power plant in Wise County. Also in early April, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., could cast a key vote to extend tax incentives crucial to sustaining and expanding clean energy industries. While the state seems intent on providing new energy from dirty coal, our senator might be a key vote in support of clean energy.

In light of this paradox, it seems worthwhile to consider the facts of the proposed Wise County power plant. Even a short list of facts make for an offensive list.

At the top of the list is mountaintop removal, which is the designated means whereby Dominion will obtain the coal for this plant. Mountaintop removal utterly destroys the earth, and does so with abandon, but because it is the most cost-effective way to remove coal from beneath the earth, the practice continues.

And yet, perhaps all the explosives have caused an awakening. Perhaps the tons of dynamite have finally ignited our imaginations and spurred us to action. We have now reached a place where we are prepared to say that blowing up our mountains without even a nod to the consequences is unwise, unethical and, ultimately, not cost-effective.

We are prepared to acknowledge our past indifference to the citizens who live in these mountaintop communities as inexcusable. We refuse the lines trotted out by politicians and coal lobbyists that the industry is the provider of jobs vital to these depressed areas. We refuse these tired claims because we have seen the maps that show that the greatest areas of poverty in Appalachia are a mirror of the areas where mountaintop removal is practiced. How could it be otherwise?

As a society, we have never fully evaluated the true cost of coal-fired power. Perhaps there is an economist out there who will step up to the cause. But we don't need to know an exact number; we know the cost is steep. Were it not for the ongoing government subsidies and our willful ignorance and/or apathy, we would have recognized this long ago.

Dominion has recently admitted that many of its statements about the proposed hybrid plant are not actually possible. Specifically, the company has agreed to forfeit the agreed upon incentives for making this plant carbon capture and sequestration compatible because ... oops, the technology does not exist. Even conservative estimates do not put that technology available to us until around 2018.

Earlier, Dominion stated it could not possibly decrease the toxic mercury emissions of the Wise County plant any lower than 71 pounds, but then the courts required the EPA to set better controls and, bam, Dominion reduced the mercury number to 49 pounds. It couldn't decrease the toxins or just didn't want to make the effort?

Two to three years ago, scientists gave us 10 years to make drastic changes to curb our emissions, to address our energy inefficiency and to start practicing conservation. We as a country, but especially as a state, have so far proved woefully inept at making the big changes that are so vital to our well-being. In fact, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy ranks Virginia dead last in this regard.

It's time for change, time for us as a society to insist that the tax breaks and incentives currently given to the coal and oil industry would be better used in support of renewable energy. The fossil fuel industry has enjoyed years of record profits and supplies are dwindling.

In addition, consumers' pocketbooks are hit harder and harder. If we are going to pay through the nose, let's at least curb our emissions, breathe cleaner air and make the whole world better at the same time. And if the government steps up to help fund clean energy, then the price tag will no longer be quite so daunting.

The time line is short: Wall Street is deciding on its 2009 investments right now. If Congress does not provide consistent tax credits for producing clean energy, it could jeopardize more than 100,000 jobs by leading private investors to pull funding from clean energy projects scheduled to break ground in 2009.

We need to write Warner and ask him to please vote "yes" on a clean-energy tax package that will move us away from our dirty-energy past and toward a clean-energy future.

At the same time, we need to insist that Dominion do better than the proposed Wise County power plant. Coal is not clean, whether it's new or old, and should not be part of our future energy plan in Virginia. As Dominion goes forward with its plans to raise our rates in order to build this plant, let's insist that it invest in renewable energy technology with that money instead.

We will all breathe better for it.