The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Why should coal-fired power plants be exempt from the law? They're not, a Georgia judge ruled last week, and this morning a coalition led by the Southern Environmental Law Center detailed plans to take Dominion's proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County to court:"Dominion cannot lawfully construct this plant without first controlling emissions of the most dangerous heat-trapping gases. It’s as simple as that,” explained SELC senior attorney Cale Jaffe. “And yet Dominion has no plan to capture the 5.4 million tons of global warming pollution the plant would emit every year – equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide output of all of the cars and trucks on the road in the greater Richmond metropolitan area."
Of course, one huge question hangs over everything: Why is this being left to citizen activists to fight out in court?
"Kansans had their leader; now Georgia has one too. More than ever, Virginia now needs one of those visionary leaders she is historically capable of producing to lead us away from the burning of fossil fuels for the sake of our children and our planet," said Kathy Selvage, vice-president of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, based in Wise County.
We know that leader is not Tim Kaine. He's cast his lot with Dominion. Will any of our other elected officials step up to fill that leadership void?
UPDATE 2:17pm: Full news release can be found here.If the state of Virginia (which I'd have to believe would include the governor and state regulators) is essentially Dominion's "co-defendent", I assume we the taxpayers will foot the bill for ensuing legal defense. But possibly more importantly, if the attorneys for the plaintiffs require sworn testimony relative to whether anything improper had transpired that influenced the final approval decisions we might finally learn the real reason(s) our own government ignored Federal law. I'm not suggesting, of course, that our governor was involved in anything illegal. But he has never fully explained why he has supported Dominion from the beginning. At the very least I think he should be required to state under oath why he failed to realize and/or ignored the fact that what has happened is in clear violation of EPA regulations and Federal law.
I's sure I'm not the only RK reader who has become extremely disappointed with Tim Kaine on this and several other major mistakes by him, not the least of which is his refusal to order termination of the Dulles rail no-bid contract. Kaine has always had the legal authority to require open competition for this contract and, as with the Dominion situation, has steadfastly refused to explain his real reason(s) for his failure to exercise this authority in the best interests of Virginia taxpayers. These are just two of the more troubling and important issues that seem to indicate a pattern and I for one want a very public airing of the facts, preferably in public under oath.
I eagerly await your comments.
T.C.
Miles - any idea where to find footage or transcript of the event?
Great quote from the RTD article:
"Any attempt to delay the (Wise plant) is an effort to delay reliable energy and cleaner air for Virginia," Dominion said in a statement today.Apparently in Dominion's world, "reliable energy" forces you to raise rates 18% to keep up with skyrocketing costs and "cleaner air" is laden with mercury, asthma inducers and global warming pollution.