In a victory for clean air and common sense energy
solutions, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) announced that it has
stopped attempts to obtain the environmental permits necessary to construct a
1,500 megawatt coal-burning power plant in Surry County, the Cypress Creek
Power Station, what would have been Virginia’s largest.[1]
According to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative spokesman,
David Hudgins, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) more rigorous
environmental regulations[2]
were the primary reason behind the company’s decision to halt plans for eventual
construction of the Cypress Creek Power Station.[3]
However, as Hudgins also explained, the project may resume
in the future if the outcome of an appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court
opposing the EPA’s new carbon emissions reductions standards for new power
plants is sustained. Thus, the Cypress Creek Power Station is still not
completely out of the picture.
As usual, supporters of the power station cited the need for
jobs and the additional tax revenue that the power station would have generated
as arguments for Cypress Creek’s construction. And as usual, these arguments
imply that coal plants are the only means of generating more jobs and tax
revenue for Surry County.
The fact is, if the residents of Surry County and Virginia
as a whole demanded that their utilities rely more upon renewable forms of
energy like wind and solar power, companies like ODEC and Dominion Virginia
Power would eventually comply instead of constantly reverting back to coal
power as their primary source of energy generation. That is, the whole argument
regarding jobs and tax revenue lost by shuttering coal-burning power plants
ignores the other options that are available to generate energy in Virginia.
Saving lives and preserving the public welfare should also
be goals shared by private companies, not just the government.[4]
This isn’t to say that private companies should run themselves into a financial
pit. But when it comes to renewable energy, we’re talking about a financial investment that will see positive
economic and human health returns in the near future.[5]
Last I checked, that’s
a good investment.
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