As you know, our Wise Energy for Virginia coalition has been pursuing two distinct legal challenges to stop construction of Dominion’s Wise County coal-fired power plant. In one of these cases -our challenge to the plant’s “certificate of need” from the State Corporation Commission-the Virginia Supreme Court released a decision today siding with Dominion.

While disappointing, this decision has no bearing on our ongoing challenge to the plant’s air pollution permits. A hearing on all of our Clean Air Act claims is currently scheduled for July 31 in a Richmond state court.

Indeed, the nationwide trend is turning against power plants like Dominion’s, which do nothing to address carbon dioxide emissions. Similar Clean Air Act cases in Georgia, Utah, and Michigan have recently been decided in favor of citizens’ groups like ours. And building on this momentum is a great development today from the U.S. EPA, which issued a proposed finding that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare. This finding means that greenhouse gases are subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. The regulation of global warming pollutants has been one of our key claims in the air permit cases, and EPA’s finding greatly bolsters our claims.

We will keep you posted on further developments as we continue to fight together for a clean energy future in Virginia. Together, we are making important strides in opposing mountaintop removal and advancing energy efficiency and have mobilized quickly to oppose the massive coal-fired power plant Old Dominion Electric Co-Operative has recently proposed for Hampton Roads. There is a lot of exciting work to do in the near future-thanks, as always, for your continued support!

Kathy Selvage
Wise Energy for Virginia

WiseEnergyforvirginia.org