Tomorrow morning the public will have a chance to speak out about the proposed building of another coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia. The State Corporation Commission is holding a public hearing in Richmond on Dominion Power’s proposal to build a new power plant in Wise County. People around the region have voiced concern about the proposed 585-megawatt facility, which would be built near the town of St. Paul. If the new plant is approved it will be built less than five miles from the coal-fired Clinch River plant operated by American Electric Power in nearby Carbo—a facility that according to the EPA emits 148 pounds of toxic mercury per year and accounts for 59 premature deaths annually. Citizens are also worried about increased mountaintop removal mining, which has already scarred one-fourth of the land in Wise.
Here are the hearing details courtesy of the Southern Environmental Law Center:
WHEN: Tuesday, January 8, at 10 a.m. (speakers must arrive before 9:45 a.m.)
WHERE: At the SCC Courtroom, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond
WHAT: The SCC is considering Dominion’s application for a “certificate of public convenience and necessity” to build the plant and a rate hike to pay for it.
-J.F.
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