Two weeks ago, Governor McDonnell hosted an Energy Conference in Richmond. In anticipation of the conference, the Sierra Club and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network criticized the Governor for the lack of emphasis on renewable energy and energy efficiency in the agenda. The Governor responded by claiming that the conference agenda was “balanced” and included discussion about renewable energy. However, none of the panelists at the conference represented organizations involved in environmental grassroots advocacy. From the inside, the dominant theme of the conference came across as, let’s MINE, DRILL, FRACK, and BURN now while there is still money to be made! Oh, and EPA, please stop pestering us.
The conference served as a forum for industry voices to air their litany of complaints about the EPA and the federal government. In a breakout session titled, “The Future of Coal” the panelists included a self-proclaimed “coal lawyer,” a coal company executive, and a researcher from a $15 million coal industry-funded research program at Virginia Tech. The entire session was devoted to complaining about EPA regulations – especially those impacting mountaintop removal mining – and discussing strategy to defeat these regulations. The goal of the Virginia Tech program, called ARIES, is to call into question the peer-reviewed studies by leading scientists that have led to stepped-up scrutiny of mountaintop removal permit applications. Everyone on this panel had a deeply vested interest in the coal industry and the only mention of the health impacts of coal use were followed by lofty suggestions that the science that supports these findings is ‘not good.’
One of the keynote speakers was Mike Quillen of Alpha Natural Resources, a major coal mining company that engages in mountaintop removal coal mining, one of the most environmentally egregious industrial practices in America. Quillen claimed that the EPA is “unfairly” targeting Appalachian coal operations by blocking permits. He conveniently failed to note EPA’s reasoning for doing so, including recent peer-reviewed studies demonstrating increased birth defects and cancer rates in areas surrounding mountaintop removal mining. Rather than address these environmental calamities, Quillen suggested that the public “take the emotion” out of the national discussion of electricity generation.
Another speaker was Tom Farrell from Dominion Resources, a public utility that generates more of its electricity from coal than any other source. Farrell cautioned the audience to be realistic about the role that wind and solar can play in our energy mix. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Virginia’s average offshore wind speeds exceed the benchmark suggested for utility scale offshore wind development. A 2005 Virginia Tech study also found that Virginia could provide nearly 20% of the electricity demand with rooftop solar panels in the next 20 years. Add large-scale solar, onshore wind, and increased energy efficiency to the mix and the role that wind and solar could play in our energy portfolio is significant and real.
Farrell claimed that wind and solar power generation require more land area than other power plants. However, the whole picture regarding land use for electricity generation includes much more than the physical space occupied by the power station. Coal is continually mined to provide fuel for a coal-fired power plant, which continually transforms the land. Consider the more than 1 million acres in Appalachia destroyed by mountaintop removal operations, which is only one form of coal mining in one region of the country. A 2009 peer reviewed study published in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews titled, “Land use and electricity generation: A life cycle analysis,” determined that solar power could generate 40% more electricity than coal using the same amount of land in one year.
Questionable claims downplaying the potential role of renewable energy in Virginia’s energy portfolio remained largely undisputed due to the minimal role that renewable energy played in the larger theme of the conference. The Governor’s ‘all of the above’ mantra on energy development was faithfully repeated, yet coal, nuclear, and gas dominated the event. The protests outside of the glass-fronted conference center served as a poignant metaphor: the public is on the outside looking in, while the fossil fuel and nuclear energy interests dictate self serving policies.
