In 2004, Sen. Thomas Norment patroned SB651, a bill declaring construction of a coal-fired power plant in the coalfield region of Virginia to be in the public interest. Prior to this bill's passage, authority to declare items as in the publics' interest was held by the State Corporation Commission (SCC). Sen. William Wampler amended the bill to also allow a utility that has been designated a "default service provider" to seek permission from the SCC to build this plant in Southwest Virginia and use Virginia coal.
"Finally, the bill authorizes any investor-owned distributor that has been designated a default service provider to petition the SCC for approval to construct a coal-fired generation facility that utilizes Virginia coal and is located in the coalfield region of the Commonwealth, in order to meet its native load and default service obligations. A distributor that builds such a facility shall have the right to recover the costs of the facility, plus a fair rate of return, through its default service rates. The construction of such a facility is declared to be in the public interest."
Thus Dominion, the area's "default service provider", was allowed to proceed directly to the SCC for a "construction certificate". The SCC must now decide "whether the plant is needed, whether the type of technology Virginia Power has chosen is appropriate and, if so, what financial return the company should get for the plant's electricity."
more on the flip...
Previous to last year's General Assembly, three state commissions (the State Air Pollution Control Board, the State Water Control Board, and the Waste Management Boards) had the authority to assess and provide building permits for such projects. But in 2007, SB1403/HB3113 were introduced and ratified. This bill essentially took away the permitting powers of the State Air, Water and Waste Boards, by consolidating them into one entity and giving that permitting power over to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The DEQ has a long record of "rubberstamping" projects such as the one proposed in Wise. "There has been a decided move in the Virginia Assembly the last several years to remove citizen control and citizen guidance from all levels of state government", writes Rick Kennerly of Tidewater CCAN. "These moves against the citizens of Virginia target not only environmentalists but any group of citizens concerned with any given project, public or private."
Keep in mind also that this legislation does not only affect the Wise County power plant, but also affects other projects across the state, including the Mirant power plant in Alexandria.
The Virginia League of Conservation Voters in its 2007 Conservation Scorecard also writes, "This bill came about as a total surprise to the conservation community-and that was the intent; the public did not know this bill existed until one week into the General Assembly session, and just one day before the deadline."
Luckily, Delegate David Bulova amended the bill last year to contain a "re-enactment clause". This means that the 2008 General Assembly has to re-approve the same legislation from last year. The re-approval bill is SB423 which "[v]ests the authority to issue and enforce permits (including general permits), licenses, and certificates related to air and water pollution with the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality." It needs to be defeated. Contact your legislators!
Small wonder that Dominion is so cocky. They've been working this game with willing legislators for several years, proving once again to be a devious, mistrusting, and manipulative entity. They must be stopped!
Cross-posted at VBDems.org.
It's not like there's a mega construction firm in Wise County that specializes in power plant construction. Dominion will get some out-of-state company to come in and build it and that company will bring their own regular employees to do the work rather than hire on what would amount to a bunch of local temps with no experience in this kind of thing for a single job.
Then the plant will be finished and it will be time to staff it. Hey, how many people in Wise County have years of experience in operating and maintaining power plants? Got a lot of idle people with masters degrees in engineering hanging around looking for a power plant to run? Not too many of those in Wise County, I think. They'll get some people over from other Dominion plants and they'll get professional recruiting services to find them other skilled, experienced people from around the country to come to Wise County and keep the plant humming along.
Those people will be easy to spot. They'll be the ones buying up nice properties and building big, fancy houses and driving nice new cars. Good for the economy? Nah. They won't shop with the local masses at the locally owned stores. They want something a little more upscale, you see. They want a latte and the fancy bread. And when there are enough of them, an upscale grocery store will move in to cater to the carpetbaggers.
All those nice people in Wise County who always felt like they have it pretty good won't feel that way any more. Because now you've got your haves and your have-lesses living right next to each other.
Wise County locals will be lucky if a couple of them get part-time shifts cleaning toilets at the new plant. This power plant would do absolutely nothing for them.
In fact, if he wants to create a legacy, I think challenging Dominion and beating them would be pretty monumental (well, at least for those of us paying attention to state politics).
At least from the NoVA view, I don't see how we are going to get enough people to stop Dominion. That's why this is the time and place for leadership in my opinion. I'll write those letters though letter. The only response I got on the Dominion re-regulation bill was from the Arlington County Board though, and I wrote to every official I vote for on the state and local level. Well, maybe not Clerk of the Courts... =)
Portland, Maine (Platts)--9Jan2008. Thirty-one coal-fired plants totaling about 24,250 MW were canceled or delayed in 2007 because of rising construction costs and concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, according to Resource Media, a public relations firm representing Western environmental groups.
"Strong public opposition, combined with uncertainty over the future costs of complying with carbon dioxide emission caps and concerns about global warming's environmental and economic impacts, forced many utilities to cancel--or regulators to reject--plants from Florida to Washington," the group said late Monday.
New regulations in Oregon, Washington and California limiting greenhouse gas emissions also scuttled proposed plants, Resource Media added.
Anticipated costs for the canceled and delayed plants totaled about $45.3 billion, the group said. The estimate includes Houston-based TXU's agreement to cancel eight projects totaling about 6,860 MW. It also includes six
integrated gasification combined cycle plants totaling 3,360 MW.
Four projects were canceled in Florida: Tampa Electric's 630-MW IGCC plant, Florida Power & Light's 1,960-MW Glades plant, the Florida Municipal Power Agency's 800-MW Taylor Energy Center and Seminole Electric Power Cooperative's 750-MW Seminole 3 Generating Station.
Increasing capital costs were a key factor in same of the cancellations and delays, the group said. Resource Media cited a June report by Standard & Poor's that found capital costs for new generation climbed by more than 50% in the past three years.
Price escalation may continue with continuing worldwide demand for building power plants possibly driving capital costs well above $2,500/kW for supercritical coal plants and approaching $1,000/kW for combined-cycle gas turbines, according to the S&P report.
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Platts (McGraw Hill subsidary) is an energy/commodities industry news source
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Solutions:
(1) the capital expediture for 50,000 utility installed smart ac switches in Hampton Roads and Richmond.
(2) construction of 1000 two MW OFFSHORE WINDMILLS 12 miles off of the Virginia coastline (of course shipping lanes and avian routes are an issue)
(3) INCREASE the capacity of the previously proposed (2006)300-600 MW generator in Caroline County.
(4) push forward the NORTH ANNA nuclear expansion project 1 full year.
(5) Implement DEMAND RESPONSE programs netting an additional 200-300 MW b/n Hampton Roads and Richmond, and an additional 300 MW in NOVA.
(6) Expand another EXISTING coal station in the Tri-State region with the new clean coal technology.