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An active association of forty-seven garden clubs, whose members collectively form a group of more than 3,300 civic leaders from around the Commonwealth, the Garden Club of Virginia exists to celebrate the beauty of the land, to conserve the gifts of nature and to challenge future generations to build on this heritage. We encourage our members to be informed advocates for proper land management practices, particularly those involving long-term protection of air, water, and soil qualities; and we encourage local organizations and governing bodies to support responsible residential and commercial development.
With these objectives in mind, the Garden Club of Virginia Board approved a resolution on December 11, 2009 to oppose the Cypress Creek Coal-Fired Power Plant proposed by ODEC for Dendron in Surry County. The resolution follows:
GCV Resolution
WHEREAS, the Garden Club of Virginia strives for the preservation of Virginia's beauty and natural heritage-including clean air and water, healthy terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and intact landscapes-from the Tidewater and the Chesapeake Bay to the mountains and streams in the western portion of the state;
WHEREAS, the coal-fired power plant proposed for Hampton Roads by Old Dominion Electric Co-operative could:
• Exacerbate mountaintop removal coal mining, a practice that permanently destroys the mountains, forests and headwater streams of southwest Virginia-treasured and irreplaceable parts of our natural heritage that provide clean water to communities, harbor a diversity of plants and animals unequaled in other regions of the United States, and enrich the lives of residents and visitors alike;
• Annually emit millions of tons of carbon dioxide, making it a major contributor to climate change, a severe threat to Virginia's more than 3,300 miles of tidal shoreline, its agricultural sector, and its sensitive wildlife habitats;
• Annually emit thousands of tons of the air pollutants that cause smog, soot, ground-level ozone, and acid rain, impairing human health and natural ecosystems;
• Contribute significantly to excessive levels of nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay-the most serious problem facing the Bay-through deposition of airborne nitrogen oxide emissions, worsening algal blooms that deplete oxygen levels, killing fish and shellfish and creating "dead zones" in the Bay;
• Also emit a large quantity of airborne mercury in close proximity to the Chesapeake Bay and major tributaries, contributing to mercury deposition leading to the contamination of fish and other aquatic life in waters already subject to fish consumption advisories due to excessive mercury levels;
THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Garden Club of Virginia will work to oppose construction of the proposed plant and continue to advocate for investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy in the state.
With this move, the Garden Club of Virginia has joined the former Director of the VA DEQ and 2008 recipient of the GCV Dugdale Award Bob Burnley in opposing construction of the Cypress Creek plant. Groups fighting to stop the plant include the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Wise Energy for Virginia; Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards; Sierra Club; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Surry Justice; and the Southern Environmental Law Center.
This is awful. Absolutely terrible. Its already pretty bad that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) used the anti American, anti-democracy Bonner and Associates as their PR firm even though they are known for breaking the law by impersonating public groups and private individuals to promote such things as smoking in the workplace. Even though its a known fact that in order to create a false sense of public support for an issue they hire temp employees, pay them hourly with no benefits, give them two hours of training on an issue, and then tell them to generate as many phone calls and letters to congress as possible in an office that has been repeatedly referred to as a "white collar sweatshop".
They even sent a fake letter to Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello from a non-profit group in his district that focuses on issues of importance to Hispanics encouraging Perriello to vote no on important climate change legislation. They also used the same tactic several on several other congressmen; faking letters from grassroots groups in their districts asking them to vote no on climate legislation -complete with fake letterhead and signatures.
It's even worse that the new group "Faces of Coal" turned out to be complete farces of coal when their website, which was supposed to be showing the faces of people who supported coal, turned out to be photos purchased from istockphoto.com.
Jack Bonner, the president of Bonner & Associates, told the House Select Committee on Global Warming and Energy Independence on Thursday that around June 22 the firm had discovered that a temporary employee had sent letters to Congress falsely representing local chapters of the NAACP, AAUW and other groups.
The panel has been investigating the forged letters since their discovery last summer. It released the results of its investigation at a hearing on Thursday.
The House voted on the bill on June 26, meaning Bonner knew of the forgeries as many as four days prior to the vote.
Six hearings, in six Appalachian coal producing states, were held last week to determine the fate of Nationwide Permit 21. If this permitting process is suspended by the Army Corps of Engineers, coal companies seeking permits for mountaintop removal mining that include valley fills will be held to more rigorous standards, be scrutinized under individual review, and be subject to public hearings before being granted. The public was asked to come out and voice their concerns about the suspension or renewal of the permit, known as NWP 21. A panel of Army Corps representatives listened to politicians that came to stump, miners and contractors that came to fight what they see as outsiders taking their jobs, and environmentalists that came to fight for the health of the people and land of the coal field.
West Virginia, and Kentucky are covered in this blog post as well as Virginia. To see Virginia go below the fold.
Charleston, WV: October 13, Charleston Civic Center
Tensions in the heart of coal country ran to a boiling point when a large group of angry miners pushed anti-mountaintop removal activists against the side of a building. Vernon Haltom of Coal River Mountain Watch was on the receiving side of the fray:
Although a few other people and I were in line and had filled out the registration forms to give comments, the Charleston police made us go out of the building where we were surrounded by more thugs pushing against us, threatening our lives, and again hurling insults. Our group included an eighty-year-old woman enduring 300-pound thugs screaming obscenities within three feet of her ears. After 15 minutes or so of this shameful display, the Charleston police required us to leave. Because it was easier to control a group of 6 or 7 peaceful people than a mob of hundreds of violence prone thugs, and because the police did not want any of us or the police to get hurt, they escorted us off the premises. Essentially, police inability to control the mob resulted in our inability to give verbal comments...Our friends inside the hearing were able to give comments, but were drowned out by the mob. When they complained to the hearing moderators, they were told the clock was ticking. When they left, the police refused to escort the last small group to their vehicles, forcing them to run the gauntlet without protection. The police said, "You all knew what you were getting into; you're on your own," or a similar reply when asked for escort to cars.
(Richmond, VA) Lawyers for the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition told a state judge today that Dominion Power's 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Wise County violates the Clean Air Act on several grounds, and asked the court to invalidate the environmental permits.
During the four-hour hearing before Judge Margaret Spencer in the Virginia Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, Cale Jaffe and John Suttles, attorneys with the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center, presented a detailed explanation on how the permits fail to adequately limit emissions of (1) carbon dioxide, a chief contributor to climate change, (2) small particles of soot, which has been linked to lung cancer, heart disease, increased asthma rates, and premature death, and (3) mercury, which can cause severe neurological deficits in infants, fetuses and young children.
The State Air Control Board issued two permits to Dominion in June, 2008, one for hazardous pollutants including mercury and approximately 60 other toxics, and one for other emissions such as particulate matter. SELC, on behalf of the Wise County-based Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and Sierra Club, challenged both permits.
Several residents of Wise County traveled to Richmond to attend the hearing, including Kathy Selvage, a coal-miner's daughter who has been the public face for the statewide effort to stop the coal plant, end the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining that is ravaging Appalachia, and compel Virginia to embrace clean energy sources, including efficiency and renewables.
"It seems no coincidence that Wise County was all over the news recently for the free medical clinic that drew thousands of people from my part of the state, many of them with breathing disorders. Coal dust from mountaintop removal mining operations hangs in the air every day, as does pollution from one of the oldest coal-fired plants in the state. Now Dominion is building another polluting power plant in our community. That's why we are in court today - to fight for the right to breath clean air, as well as to drink clean water and to keep our mountains whole, as God made them."
Over the last several years, the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition has raised a host of concerns about the Wise County coal plant, including air pollution and the health of the local community, water quality, mountaintop removal coal-mining, and the impacts of global warming. They were joined by 42,500 Virginians from across the state who signed petitions and sent letters and comments to state and company officials opposing the project.
As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman's office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.
The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.
Certainly makes one wonder about other forged letters arriving at other congressional offices. This is bad, very, very bad...
Ison Rock Ridge extends from Black Mountain on the Virginia/ Kentucky border and runs southeast toward the Town of Appalachia. A&G Coal Corp. wants to destroy 1,200+ acres of this mountain that borders several communities and hundreds of homes, putting lives at risk and impairing ecosystems for generations to come. Despite federal action intended to block this proposed mine, we have reason to believe that state agencies still intend to allow the destruction of Ison Rock Ridge, with only minor changes to the scope of the permit.
This message is going out across the Commonwealth today and is part of a coordinated effort to pressure the Governor to take action. Sierra Club, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and our allies are working hard on this two-year long struggle to protect Ison Rock Ridge from total destruction.
Ison Rock is the last ridge of Black Mountain in Virginia that hasn't been totally decimated by mountaintop removal strip mining--and for good reason. Along its flanks lie several communities, home to hundreds of people. Because of this, and the cumulative impact of other strip mines in the area, the EPA took action earlier this year by directing the US Army Corps of Engineers to suspend the federal permit required to create valley fills.
This action attracted national media attention, but it's not enough to save this mountain. The mining company now wants to go forward with a revised mining plan, and that application is currently pending before the state agency.
Cross-posted from the CCAN Blog Coal is in the blood of the people of Wise County, Virginia. With a population of around 41,000, the coal industry has provided steady income for an otherwise remote part of Appalachia. Situated in the southwest corner of the Commonwealth, the county boasts several small, tight-knit communities, a functional public school system, two colleges, and a thriving sense of mountainous spirit that hallmarks Appalachian living.
It is not far fetched to argue that the socioeconomic landscape of Wise County would be drastically different without the coal industry's presence there. The bituminous rock has served as the stovepipe economic model of Southwest Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia since the industrial revolution, and has brought intense development and employment to the region. Nowhere else on earth has coal played such a crucial role in the evolution of a region, and nowhere else do people's very blood ooze the stuff. It is a cultural icon.
But coal is destroying Southwest Virginia, the Appalachian Mountains, and threatening the planet itself. At the epicenter of this environmental catastrophe lies Wise, a county that is crumbling under the heavy hand of King Coal. While Dominion works to construct a brand-new power plant in the region, fueled by dirty, antiquated coal, mining corporations have worked to systemically level the region through the practice of mountaintop removal mining.
The result is not a pretty one. Several mountains have already been leveled in Virginia, some of which are in Wise, while millions of tons of rock, dirt, and toxic material are shoved into neighboring valleys, preventing streams from flowing and contaminating valuable, fresh water. Sludge ponds, a result of the extremely water-intense washing process, contain billions of gallons of useless, dangerous slurry, filled with heavy metals such as nickel, cadmium, lead, and arsenic. The fragile walls that hold back these industrial cesspools are typically made of fill material, and are prone to failure (as they have several times in recent decades). Mountaintop removal represents a triple threat to Appalachia, as mountains are destroyed, streams are interred beneath tons of rock and filth, and toxic contamination threatens the health of every community in the region.
Dendron, Virginia, has more than its share of challenges. The community of around 300, located in the southern corner of Surry County, struggles with an outdated municipal water system, crumbling sidewalks and no major businesses within the town.
Prior to the Great Depression, Dendron had been a company town of more than 3,000, fueled by the lumber industry's presence there. Private business thrived in a town that revolved around the processing and export of timber across the country. Despite its character as an industrial one-trick-pony, the town of Dendron had something to stand for, and an industry to be proud of.
Today's Dendron little resembles that historic vision of the 1900's boomtown. Largely forgotten by the industry that once supported a thriving community, and facing serious municipal and community problems, such as an unexpected $10,000 water bill, you'd think the small town would take anything at this point to give it an economic boost.
The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative assumed this to be true when executives within the cooperative approached Dendronites with a plan for a new 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant, the second largest of its kind in Virginia. ODEC presented the Cypress Creek project with the promise of new jobs, tax revenue, and the idea that one major industry would bring others to the cash-strapped community. Despite local environmental effects and immediate hazards to human health, ODEC worked to assure Dendron residents that they stood to benefit from such a plant's construction. ODEC also assumed that they'd buy into it without any major hiccups.
As of today 100 coal plants have been defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the coal rush. In their place, a smart mix of clean energy solutions like energy efficiency, wind, solar and geothermal has stepped up to meet America's energy needs. Last year 42 percent of all new power producing capacity came from wind, and for the first time the wind industry created more jobs than mining coal.
Coming just a week after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the city would end coal use by 2020, and announced the same day as a decision by Basin Electric Power in South Dakota to pull plans for a new coal-fired power plant, the Intermountain Power coal plant in Utah became the 100th prevented coal plant. The decision marks a significant milestone in the shift to clean energy.
For the past six years the Sierra Club and its allies have been running a hard-hitting campaign to expose the dirty truth about coal across the country. Tremendous grassroots pressure, rising costs, and upcoming federal carbon regulations all contributed to the demise of the 100 plants. In Virginia hundreds of volunteers turned out to public hearings, held rallies and met with officials to push for cleaner alternatives to new coal plants proposed by Dominion-Virginia Power and Old Dominion Electric Cooperative.
In Virginia, Sierra Club has teamed with the Wise Energy Coalition comprised of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Appalachian Voices and the Southern Environmental Law Center to oppose new coal plants proposed by Dominion-Virginia Power and Old Dominion Electric Cooperative.
Dominion's plant in Wise County and the ODEC plant proposed for Surry County together would emit more than 20 million tons of global warming pollution every year, along with harmful levels of soot and smog pollution, which can worsen asthma and cause other respiratory illnesses, and mercury, a neurotoxin that poses developmental risks to fetuses and children.. In addition to harming our health, these new coal plants would pre-empt the development of clean renewable offshore wind power in Virginia that could secure our energy future.
"The community opposition to the Cypress Creek coal power plant is growing and with that so will the nationwide movement for clean energy" said Julie Verdaguer with the Keep Surry Clean Coalition. "We are ready for clean energy and jobs we can be proud of having and that's not coal!"
"In Wise County, our fight continues to stop Dominion's coal plant as well as the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining that is destroying communities across Appalachia," said Kathy Selvage with Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards.
"Although Virginia lags behind much of the nation, the shift has clearly started toward a cleaner, healthier, more secure future," said Glen Besa, Virginia Director for the Sierra Club. "Basin Electric is the latest in a growing list of electric power cooperatives moving away from coal, and searching out better energy options. Old Dominion Electric Cooperative and Virginia Power should follow suit and start implementing efficiency and clean energy options like off shore wind instead of building new coal plants."
That movement has kept well over 400 million tons of harmful global warming pollution out of the air annually, making significant progress in the fight against global warming. Stopping 100 new coal plants has also kept thousands of tons of asthma causing soot and smog pollution, as well as toxins like mercury out of our air and water.
As the new coal rush ends in many states, the Sierra Club is working to replace existing dirty and unreliable coal plants, like the Wise County and Surry County plants, that are large contributors to health harming soot, smog and mercury pollution with cleaner energy options that create more jobs.
"The coal industry is still pushing forward with plans for dozens of new plants including two in Virginia and pouring money into slick advertising campaigns and lobbying efforts," said Besa. "So while the coal rush may be entering a new phase in some parts of the country, it is far from over."
Yesterday, the EPA performed a turn-around on its protection of the locations of 44 “high risk” coal ash impoundment sites, signaling a desire to make the regulatory body more transparent. Formerly protected under the auspices of national security, the ash impoundments, located in Ohio, Arizona, and throughout the southeast, have been determined to be particularly vulnerable to failure. In a time where the future of American energy remains stuck between antiquated fossil fuels and cleaner, renewable technology, concerns over proper disposal of coal ash has risen to the top of the debate, particularly after last December’s TVA sludge disaster in Roane County, Tennessee.
The reason behind this concern is, of course, fairly easy to identify. Coal slurry ponds, which may hold several billion gallons of the toxic goo, are typically held in place by earthen dams made of rock and other fill material. While typically sturdy, history has shown us that these dams are definitely prone to failure, especially when not regulated properly. In fact, the dangers surrounding slurry dams have been well known and well documented for decades. West Virginia’s Buffalo Creek Flood of 1972 destroyed over 500 homes with a 30-foot high, 132 million gallon wave of the toxic stuff. When blasting occurs near these ponds (as it does near Marsh Fork Elmentary in Sunrise, WV), the risk becomes intensified as nearby shockwaves may threaten the structural integrity of the dam.
Fly ash, though dry and therefore less at risk to flooding, presents just as serious a hazard to the local ecosystem, including surrounding communities, wildlife, and groundwater reserves. Fly ash is stored in landfills, most of which are lined, but all of which are failure-prone. Particles in the air, blown from these ash impoundments, can cause serious health problems such as asthma and other respiratory diseases. Like wet slurry, fly ash contains a cocktail of harmful heavy metals and other contaminants that present a serious threat to the local and regional ecosystem… and to human health.
“CCRs [coal combustion residues] contain a broad range of metals, for example, arsenic, selenium, cadmium, lead, and mercury, but the concentrations of these are generally low. However, if not properly managed, (for example, in lined units), CCRs may cause a risk to human health and the environment and, in fact, EPA has documented cases of environmental damage“ (EPA.gov).
Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, West VA might be the most tragic and symbolic site of American children left behind by their state government.
Forsaken by state officials and a recent WV Supreme Court decision last week, the school and its children must play amid the toxic dust of a coal silo-and soon a second one-that sits less than a football field away.
The Marsh Fork Elementary School also sits only a few football fields downslope of a 2.8 billion gallon earthen coal sludge impoundment, where Massey Energy is setting off thousands of pounds of explosives near the dam.
Every school kid in the coalfields knows Massey's reckless history with coal sludge dams.
In a haunting parallel to last December's TVA coal ash disaster, a Massey subsidiary in eastern Kentucky was responsible for the largest coal slurry spill at that point, leaking over 300 million gallons of toxic sludge into the area's waterways and aquifers.
With blasting nearby, if the 380 foot earthen dam above the Marsh Fork school broke, the children and community residents would have less than three minutes to flee.
Based in Richmond, Virginia, Massey Energy has demonstrated a merciless coveting for coal at any expense. At the 2008 4th quarter earnings call, the out-of-state company's president crowed that 2008 was the "most successful" in Massey's history, and their "very aggressive expansion plan" was executed "almost to perfection." The Virginia-based president was "especially pleased" that Massey reached an "all time record high" of $641 million in adjusted annual EBITDA.
Now laying off workers due to market demands, with 19 union-busted Appalachian mining operations valued at $2.6 billion in 2008, the Richmond company shelled out $20 million in penalties for dumping toxic mine waste into the region's waterways in 2008; Massey also paid a record $4.2 million for civil and criminal fines in the death of two coal miners in West Virginia last year.
Now let's contrast this to statements made by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative officials in regards to their proposed $6 billion Surry coal plant located 18 miles from historic Williamsburg...
On Monday, the town council of Elkton, Virignia submitted a request to Governor Kaine asking him to seek out state and federal funding for a proposed "clean" coal research facility outside the Shenandoah town. A short hop from Harrisonburg and James Madison University, the town hopes to harness the 100 or so jobs created by the project as a boost to the local economy.
Called, the Elkton Energy Research Center, the facility would focus on developing two different types of carbon capture and sequestration, both of which are not yet commercially viable. Spearheaded by county democrats, hopes are that federal cash devoted to CCS tech will find its way to the town of only 2,000 residents situated along the south fork of the Shenandoah River. The proposal would require massive amounts of start-up cash from state and federal governments, approaching the $100 million mark. Without the necessary funding, the center isn't likely to materialize.
This is a good thing. The pipedream that is carbon capture and sequestration has existed in small-scale mockups, but there are no facilities in operation at this time that sport the moniker "clean coal." One of these proposed plants, FutureGen Mattoon in Illinois, has yet to see a brick laid in its construction. A joint venture between the Department of Energy and an alliance of Coal and Energy companies, FutureGen hopes to become the first functional generating plant that fully sequesters all of its CO2 emissions. Teetering between marginal success and total disappearance, The plant is poised to become the first massive failure of the coal industry in promoting this phony technology.
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This is awful. Absolutely terrible. Its already pretty bad that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) used the anti American, anti-democracy Bonner and Associates as their PR firm even though they are known for 
They even sent 
P R E S S * R E L E A S E
Coal is in the blood of the people of Wise County, Virginia. With a population of around 41,000, the coal industry has provided steady income for an otherwise remote part of Appalachia. Situated in the southwest corner of the Commonwealth, the county boasts several small, tight-knit communities, a functional public school system, two colleges, and a thriving sense of mountainous spirit that hallmarks Appalachian living.
Dendron, Virginia, has more than its share of challenges. The community of around 300, located in the southern corner of Surry County, struggles with an outdated municipal water system, crumbling sidewalks and no major businesses within the town.
As of today 100 coal plants have been defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the coal rush. In their place, a smart mix of clean energy solutions like energy efficiency, wind, solar and geothermal has stepped up to meet America's energy needs. Last year 42 percent of all new power producing capacity came from wind, and for the first time the wind industry created more jobs than mining coal.
From 
