Dominion stokes the coal industry, but says it’s a friend to the environment

BY ERIKA HOWSARE of the Cville Weekly

It’s a dim, drizzly afternoon, and I’m riding around Wise County with Kathy and Gary Selvage. I can see what they’re pointing out—evidence of surface mining—but I can’t see it the way they do.

The Selvages have lived here for decades, and they have seen coal mining literally change the relationship of sky to land. As we climb a winding road, Gary talks about what this spot was like before the mines. “It was forest. It was wild country,” he says. “We came up here with my dad when I was a kid to hunt.”

Charlottesville’s weekly newspaper, the Cville, provides an eye opening look at how Dominion Virginia Power is trying to apply a thin layer of green spray paint to the dirty coal in which they choose to continue to invest. You can read the rest of the article here. Erika Howsare also wrote the short piece, “Dogged by controversy: How Dominion’s shiny green image gets tarnished” which you can read by clicking here.