Dear Friend of the Climate
Unbelieveable as it may seem, just this week there was another coal fired power plant proposed in Virginia, this one by the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative. This $6 billion dollar plant is being proposed for Surry County, VA near the James River.
Problem:
Any one concerned with the well being our planet knows that we need to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions not continue increasing them. This coal plant proposal, in light of all the recent publicity about global warming and the role of coal in destroying our planet, shows a callous disregard for the science of climate change and for all the people who will be harmed by rising sea levels. extreme storm events and disruptions to our agriculture.
Solution:
We need to stop this plant before it goes any further. We need to send a clear strong message to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative that they must abandon plans for their proposed Cypress Creek power plant in Surry County.
Action Needed:
Sierra Club will be organizing other actions with our allies to stop this power plant, but right now you can send an e-mail to the President of ODEC, Jack Reasor, telling him to abandon this project immediate and look to efficiency and renewable energy as any alternative.
Action Needed:
Sierra Club will be organizing other actions with our allies to stop this power plant, but right now you can send an e-mail to the President of ODEC, Jack Reasor, telling him to abandon this project immediate and look to efficiency and renewable energy as any alternative.
Deadline for responding: Please take action by January 31, 2009
OPINION PIECE from Article XI by: peebles
www.articlexi.com/diary/327/dendron-va-chooses-its-own-future
Tue Jul 14, 2009 at 18:25:07 PM EDT
The cooperative, which has endlessly dispelled misinformation concerning the proposed plant (see Hope for Surry Shines through smog, 3 June), encountered a major hiccup Monday evening. As the Dendron Town Council met for its third meeting to deliberate the adoption of an ordinance that would allow the coal-friendly county board of supervisors to assume the community’s zoning rights, tensions - and temperatures - began to rise in the small side room of the Dendron Volunteer Fire Department, the only building large enough to host the crowd of more than 100. Fans reading, "NO COAL PLANT," undulated throughout, filling the room as it quickly approached capacity, and Mayor Yvonne Pierce called the meeting to order.
The last time that Dendron came to vote on the ordinance to retain its zoning rights, the atmosphere was quite different from last night’s. ODEC employees filled the June 2 meeting, creating an unbalance that went far from unnoticed. Taking up a large portion of Recreational Center’s front-row seats, ODEC’s presence was pronounced - and unwelcome.
This time, the Coalition to Keep Surry Clean, Wise Energy for Virginia, and students from the nearby College of William and Mary turned out, in force, to ensure that Dendron’s residents were given priority in the meeting hall by "saving spots" outside while locals arrived. Due to the efforts of Surry and Dendron’s concerned and active citizenry, last night’s demographic within the meeting was strikingly different from the month before. With upwards of 25 Dendron residents, supported by more than 50 folks from surrounding Surry County, gone were the suits and ties of ODEC’s Glen Allen headquarters, near Richmond. Gone also, was the attitude that a new coal plant would bring the economic boon of the 1920’s back to the struggling town. As the meeting progressed, the council made two key moves to ensure its independence as a town in determining its future.
In a somewhat surprise move, Councilwoman Misti Furr began by introducing a resolution to establish a planning commission within Dendron, to be charged with evaluating zoning permits for land within the town proper. The vote was a necessity, as the council would be expected to vote on the zoning ordinance later that evening, which would greatly diminish the town’s control over its permitting process by delegating a large portion of it to Surry County. Furr’s resolution passed, giving Dendron its own planning commission, who will have to handle ODEC’s zoning permit, provided that control over permitting stay with the town. That decision remained uncertain, further down the evening’s agenda.
Before the decision over that ordinance came to vote, residents and concerned individuals were permitted to speak before the council and audience, and as the queue began to move along, a fascinating trend began to emerge.
Unlike last month’s meeting, where ODEC garnered support from its own employees and purposefully misled low-income and struggling families, Monday’s atmosphere was one much more aware of the terrible implications for environmental, economic, and human health that a dirty coal plant would bring to their small community. At least, it seemed, some of the untruths, dispelled by ODEC over the past few months, had finally been discredited, much to the benefit of those citizens in opposition to the plant.
This attitude was reflected in the council’s final vote, as the body decided to reject any imposition by the county on the capacity of Dendron to decide its own future. With a wire-thin 3-2 margin, a great sigh of relief gripped the meeting hall as ODEC and its cadre of supporters left the hall, flustered and frustrated. Now, ODEC will be required to submit its zoning permit to the town, where it will decide whether or not the plant will move forward, free from interference by the coal-friendly county, and totally in its own hands.
What will happen now is, for the moment, uncertain. The coal industry has deep pockets, while most folks in Dendron do not. The struggle against this plant is a long way from over, and the rejection of county control over the zoning process marks but a small step in a very, very, large fight.
When it comes down to it, this small community of immense personality wants nothing more than to retain control over its own destiny. It is far too often that the smallest among us are subject to the will of the larger, and this town has set out to prove that it will not be taken underfoot by an energy giant and its allies. Dendron today carries the same character, willpower, and deliberate sense of wholeness that its ancestor once had. There is no longer a lumber mill, and a much-diminished population, but the uprightness, the sense of pride, the ultimate concern for future of this town has not changed, and likely will not.
Last night, the town of Dendron stood up and made its will known. Coal is friend to no one, it lines the pockets of wealthy men and it brings poverty and sickness into every dusty breath of those who suffer it. If the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative wants to continue to live in a past that is outdated and unhealthy - if ODEC really wants a new coal-fired plant - they will have to fight for it, and from the looks of it, much harder than they expected.
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By PETER FROST (247-4744)
Old Dominion Electric Cooperative is proposing to build a $6 billion coal- and biomass-fired power plant on 1,600 acres in Surry County, the nonprofit announced Tuesday. The power-generation plant, named Cypress Creek Power Station, is still in preliminary stages and will require several local, state and federal permits before construction can begin.
The cooperative generates, purchases and transmits power generation and transmission for 12 small community utilities, 10 of which are in Virginia. In-state, ODEC supplies power for about 390,000 customers. Officials said construction of a new plant is essential to meet energy demand that the cooperative projects will double in the next two decades.
The cooperative announced in January it was considering constructing a new power station either in Surry or Sussex counties. After several months of study, it settled on the Surry site because of its access to existing transmission lines, rail transportation and sufficient water supply, Hockman said. It still is evaluating the Sussex site, and retains an option to buy 1,200 acres of land there. Because the coal plant would cross town and county jurisdictions, both governing bodies would have to vote to approve the project before it's allowed to move forward, he said. Town and county officials are expected to begin discussing ODEC's proposal in early 2009.
A nearby rail line is essential to the plant’s plan for using coal primarily from the Appalachian Mountains. It would be mixed with a small percentage - perhaps 2 percent to 3 percent - of a fuel called biomass, a renewable resource made from grinding stumps, limbs and other detritus left over from logging and lumber operations into small pellets.
A new power-generation source is seen as crucial by the cooperative, which buys about 55 percent of its power in a wholesale market from independent producers of electricity. Much of that power is natural gas-fired generation, where open-market prices tend to fluctuate.