Thursday, September 27, 2007
Editorial: Act now to protect our mountaintops
Mountains need not be decimated to extract coal and support jobs.
From the RoundTable blog
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It is unlikely environmentalists will prevail in their fight to stop Dominion Virginia Power from building a coal-fired plant in Wise County. The project, after all, has the blessing of the General Assembly to meet two objectives: increase the supply of electricity in Virginia and create economic development in job-scarce far Southwest.
Dominion's planned 585-megawatt power station will create 75 jobs at the plant and support an additional 350 new mining jobs; it more than fits lawmakers' intent.
Yet it is the unintended consequences that have rightly alarmed environmentalists. Their concerns that the plant will worsen air pollution and encourage the incredibly destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining need to be addressed.
Dominion, to its credit, plans to equip the plant with features to minimize emissions, and it will be "carbon-capture compatible," meaning it will capture carbon dioxide when the technology becomes available. The State Corporation Commission still must sign off on the plans and can ensure that Dominion meets the highest anti-pollution standards available.
However, the far graver concern, that of the type of mining practiced to fuel this plant, is a matter that the General Assembly must take up.
Virginia's mountains, so far, have been mostly spared the carnage in West Virginia, where mountaintops have been leveled to reach the coal. This type of mining requires clear-cutting massive forests, blasting away thousands of tons of rocks and dirt, and burying streams under the rubble.
Environmentalists are justified in worrying this could happen here because the same law that created the plant also requires that it burn coal mined in Southwest Virginia. To feed the beast, coal companies might find it more beneficial to turn to mountaintop removal.
Surely, lawmakers didn't intend to destroy ageless forest, mountain and stream ecosystems in the creation of transient jobs.
The environmentalists need to push Virginia lawmakers to head off this practice. They would also do well to pressure U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, who serves on the House Energy Committee, to better protect his district.
