Direct Testimony of Thomas M. Hildebrand - Consumer Advocate ...

opinion, a focus group's phrase, and a very effective one, to justify all these
planned coal-fired plants."
James K. Martin, a senior vice president at Dominion Virginia Power, defends the
use of the term as accurate, illustrating that the proposed plant can be seen two
ways. While environmentalists view the plant as a setback in the context of
nationwide efforts to curb pollution, power industry officials such as Martin see
the plant as a step forward in the context of evolving energy technology because
it pollutes less than older plants.
For instance, while Dominion Virginia Power is asking for permission to annually
emit more than 12,500 tons of pollutants in Virginia City, the company's
Chesterfield County power station - the state's biggest air polluter - released
more than 76,800 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere last year.
Furthermore, said Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Dan Genest, a plant the
size of the one planned for Virginia City potentially could emit more than 167,000
tons of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide into the air each year if none of the
state-of-the-art technological controls were in place. With controls, the amount is
projected at about 5,340 tons per year.
"We think it's an exciting technology," Martin said of the proposed plant's
cleaning system. He also noted that the plant likely would operate at 90 percent
of capacity, meaning emissions would never hit the 12,500-ton mark.
Dominion Virginia Power wants to build the power plant on 1,700 acres of
abandoned strip mine just west of the town of St. Paul and fuel it with Virginia
coal and waste wood products.
The company, which hopes to win approval from the State Corporation
Commission by April and have the plant up and running by 2012, says the
electricity is necessary to help it meet an anticipated 4,000-megawatt jump in
demand from Dominion Virginia Power customers by 201 7.
The General Assembly gave its blessing to the plant in 2004, when it decreed as
a public good any power station in Southwest Virginia that used only Virginia
coal. Sen. William C. Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, pushed for the measure, and he
recently said he still supports the plant.
"We have to have it as part of the mix to power Virginia,'' he said, adding that the
state should also look at using more nuclear power.
The federal Energy Department regards the proposed Virginia City plant as a
potential "clean coal" operation because it would use a process known as
"circulating fluidized bed combustion technology," or CFB. The process involves