Larry Gibson 1946-2012: "I will not be satisfied to be called a victim."

This photo by Wendy Johnston (used by permission) shows Larry Gibson waiting to be taken to jail  in Anacostia, after sitting in at the White House in September 2010   By then, Judy Bonds was already too sick from cancer to attend the "thousand-hillbilly march” she'd envisioned.  Larry, Wendy and her family and I were  among 2,000 Appalachians and allies at Appalachia Rising, which preceded the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement, but garnered little national coverage beyond one piece in The Hill and an AP article. The latter distorted a serious protest into to some kind of colorful neo-hippy celebration, despite the fact that 125, including Larry, chose to be arrested.  There wasn't a good news account until Judy's obituary in the New York Times.

Bo Webb told The Guardian that I should be the one to write a commentary there on Appalachia Rising. I first used Wendy's picture for the draft on my blog. I titled it "Appalachia Should Abide," which was a variation of a line "Mountains should abide" a line from "Looking Out Over An Abyss in Boone County." The line was inspired by Psalm 125:1: "Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever."

I wrote that poem for Larry , when I met him through the West Virginia Writers' Mountaintop Removal Tour in October 2006. My fellow poet Chris Green--who heads Berea's Appalachian Studies program, but was at Marshall at the time-- had told me about the tour and OVEC kind made space for someone from Virginia. I also wrote a piece for LLRX.com "Strip Mining on Steroids" that was later part of the testimony at the United Nations.

 Larry is survived by his wife, Carol, his sons Cameron and Larry, Jr. and his daughter, Victoria. He was sixty-six years old. The funeral will be private and public memorial service will be announced later. Larry's family has requested that condolences be in the form of donations to Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, which Larry founded in 2004 to support mountain communities.  September 11, the Foundation let me know that you can sign the memory book here.

I first  published  this piece at 10:42 p.m. on September 9, 2012, shortly after finding out about Larry's his death.  I last revised it at 10:39 p.m. on September 11.  There will be subsequent revisions, most recent being on September 14 at  8:52 a.m.  in order to index and link here to other folk's pieces on Larry, which will include:

• some of Larry's speeches and interviews
• words and photos from his friend Paul Corbit Brown
• an excerpt from Trish Shapiro's book
• Katey Lauer's memory of the first time she visited Kayford Mountain.
• Dave Cooper of Lexington, KY, writes about his memories of Larry (They traveled for years with the Mountaintop Removal Roadshow.)
• Rachel Parsons writes about keeping Larry's legacy
• Danny Chiotos, Keeper of the Mountains' Operations Director, talks about Larry and the Foundation he created

*

Larry Gibson lived thirty-five miles  southeast of the West Virginia capital of Charleston.  His  family had  looked up to the peaks that surrounded them since the late 1700s.  Over 300 of  his ancestors lay buried in the family grave yard.

 Like many Southern Appalachians, Larry left home to find work, returning when he retired, in his case from General Electric.The destruction started in 1986.  

I remember when they started mining here. It was a fine day: pretty sky, no clouds. All of a sudden I heard thunder in the distance. Couldn’t see no clouds, but we heard thunder. That was in spring of ’86.

By the fall of ’86, it was upon us – we could see the dynamite explosions and we were breathing in their dust.

Then by the spring of ’87, we could taste it in our mouths. It was foreign. We didn’t know what it was, or if it was legal to blow up a mountain. I mean, who does that? I just didn’t believe it, I couldn’t fathom it. But I was hearing it, and I was seeing it in the distance, and then finally I could throw a rock and hit it.

 When asked whether he had a picture of Kayford Mountain before mountaintop removal mining, Larry'd  say he had always thought, 

Why should you take a picture of a mountain?  It's going to be here forever.

By 1993, Larry put his land and the mineral rights to the coal below in trust as Stanley Heirs' Park, when he found out that his 53 acres land was worth over a million dollars an acre.  That same year Massey Energy offered Larry $140,000 for his land.  Larry didn't turn down Massey because of its bad offer, though.

But you see, for me, there's no amount of money that could buy this place, even if it was for sale. You know, you've heard of people that talk about their roots. Well, this is it, for me .   My family, the  last three hundred years came from this place...at least. How do you wipe that off? How do you make that okay?  Does money pay for that?  No. Money doesn't pay for everything.

 Massey didn't go away.  Instead it continued to pushed the trees and topsoil it regarded as "overburden" into the valleys, drilled holes and set charges of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel,  blowing eventually blowing up the surrounding releasing coal and silica dust into the air and releasing toxic heavy metals such as mercury, copper, arsenic, lead and selenium into the streams which feeds the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Larry would tell folks, 

I will not be satisfied to be called a victim. I am a survivor.

You rarely see the mountaintop removal mining  from the interstate in West Virginia.  It's hidden over the ridge.   In October 2006, when a group of writers walked with Larry up his farm path to the gate that marks the end of the 53 acres he'd preserved,  we were staring out over an abyss.  Larry told us it was "the gate of Hell."  When we flew  over later, we could see just how much was gone. 

I lost  kin in the Holocaust.  Seeing Larry's homeplace reminded me of  visiting Ann Frank's annex in Amsterdam . If Stanley Heir's Park were the annex--one family's tragedy--what lay beyond was Dachau.  The vast destruction left me tearless, hollowed me, much as Big Coal had hollowed out the land which had once been Kayford Mountain.


Because Larry refused to sell out to Big Coal,  he'd been threatened and even shot at.  The  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in 2006 that his first marriage ended "over his doggedness and the blasting and the threats to his life."

My wife left, but I could not leave this land. You pay a terrible price in this fight, but paying their price is worse.

Larry would go on to marry Carol, who  supported his efforts.  She was with him and his cousin working on the mountain this morning, according to his daughter, Victoria.  She told Ashley Craig (email) at the Daily Mail  that her father had been moving lumber from the porch and began to feel odd.  Sitting in his truck didn't help and his family called the rescue crew, which decided to fly him to Memorial Hospital in Kanawha City.  Talking about his death, Victoria said,

When my dad passed away you could still smell the mountain air on him...You could still see the dirt underneath his nails and the stains on his hands. He was working. He lived his life devoted to the mountain.

Because of Larry's devotion not just to Kayford, but to all the mountains which might be saved by its example, he lives on in all of us he inspired to fight the violence of Big Coal with non-violence.

May his memory be a blessing. May it give us strength to carry on.

Appalachians Occupy Congress!

Photo of retired underground coal miner Stanley Sturgill from Kentucky, whose op-ed, "The Cost of Being Number One in Mountaintop Removal" appeared in The Hill on 6/4/12.  Appalachia Rising reports that Sturgill was one of 22 arrested--of the approximately 4 dozen deployed--2 from VA, 7 from WV, 7 from KY and 6 from TN.

*

In a continuation of the direct actions I last reported on from West Virginia on May 24, this morning at 10:34 residents from my home state of Virginia,  joined those from three other states severely impacted by mountaintop removal coal mining to conduct a sit-in in protest of their Congressmen's  refusal to protect their communities in the offices of  Morgan Griffith (R-VA), Nick Rahall (D-WV), Hal Rogers (R-KY), and Jimmy Duncan (R-TN).

I first posted at 10:47 a.m. and am updating this,  having heard back at 3:53 pm from Lieutenant Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police that

Names aren’t yet available and defendants are currently being processed @ U.S. Capitol Police Headquarters. 

She provided an outline of places, times and number of arrests, all 21 for unlawful entry.  The number is off by one and the allocation by state is rearranged from what Appalachia Rising reported, so I'm checking back:

• Longworth Bldg., Room 1108, approx. 11:30 am  is the office of Morgan Griffith
  7 arrests (v.s.2)
• Rayburn Bldg., Room 2406, approx. 12:26 pm is the office of Hal Rogers
  6 arrests (v.s. 7)
• Rayburn Bldg., Room 2307, approx.. 12:58 pm is the office of Nick Rahall
  6 arrests (v.s. 7)
• Rayburn Bldg., Room 2207, approx. 1:49 pm is the office of John Duncan
  2 arrests (v.s. 6)

Here's a (blurry) screen shot (at 58 seconds) of this of several live videos posted at about 2 p.m.  It shows the eventual arrest of West Virginian Larry Gibson by Capitol Police.  Folks were singing  John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

And here's a screen shot  (at 17 seconds  in this video) of Jane Braham, a retired nurse who lives in Wise County and a member of  Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards.  She's standing outside Morgan Griffith's office and folks are singing her original song, "Stop Tearing the Mountain Down."

Jane explained her participation in the sit-in to Dana Kuhnline of the Alliance for Appalachia before it started:

We have no choice...My health is failing; we have some elderly people with us today. It is very hard for us to come all this way. But we are here fighting for our very survival.

 Her fellow member Laura Miller,  a retired professor who was not arrested, told Kuhnline, 

What I’d really like to see is for Griffith to get his head out of the sand and represent the people of our district instead of selling his soul to the coal industry....I’m fighting for a future and a hope that we can have a sustainable economic situation in the areas of Appalachia that have suffered because of coal. I’d like to see future generations able to stay in the homeplaces where our families have been here for centuries. We need to stop mountaintop removal YESTERDAY.

Ken Ward, Jr. of the Charleston Gazette has written in an eloquent essay about coal politics and how it seeks to ignores "[t]he solid scientific consensus about mountaintop removal’s damage to our environment — not to mention the growing evidence of its impacts on public health."

MTR's  "strip mining on steroids" results in staggering public health costs and districts with mountaintop removal face some of the highest poverty rates in the United States.  More than similar counties with no mining. Branham and the others list of demands for Representative Griffith are that he:

1. Schedule a visit before October to tour Wise County with residents of communities affected by mountaintop removal  (including Inman, Roda, Andover, Exeter, and Appalachia)

2. Cease attacking the EPA because that agency is the only one enforcing the regulations designed to protect Appalachian communities.

3. Stop slandering constituents who are working to defend their communities against the adverse impacts of mountaintop removal.

4. Represent the people in his district, rather than the coal companies, by signing on to co-sponsor HB1375, the Clean Water Protection Act.

The demands for Rayhall, Rogers and Duncan are similar.

Why do I think Griffith won't listen?  Is it because he (and Democrat Rick Boucher before him) would rather represent the coal companies?    When Griffith was running against Boucher, I wrote him on 7/29/2010:

I don't expect that you'll remember me, but I was the founding Executive Director of New River Community Sentencing and we chatted once about railroads at some judicial function. I'm wondering what your position will be on the EPA's regulation of fly ash and on supporting the Clean Water Protection Act, to stop the dumping of top soil, trees and mine waste resulting from the current methods used in mountaintop removal coal mining.

This is one place where you might distinguish yourself from Mr. Boucher and win support in the northern part of District 9, as well as a significant number of folks living in the coal fields who do not like their mountains being blown up.

 I didn't hear back until August and then it was from campaign staffer and subsequent executive assistant Mary Stafford, who wrote on 8/25,

I appreciate your email to Morgan - and I apologize that I have just now found it. We had a major email error that would not allow us to access the email account to which you wrote.

Morgan believes in a balance of protecting the environment but not to the point of onerous regulations making it difficult to do business. Fly Ash is an interesting topic to understand and treat responsibly. Do you have a more specific question I can pass on to Morgan for you?

I appreciate your patience, and again apologize for the response time.

I wrote back that same day,

Thanks for getting back in touch...my questions are as follows:

1. What is Morgan's position on the Clean Water Protection Act which seeks to stop the dumping of waste from Mountaintop removal in streams?

2. What is Morgan's position on regulation of fly ash as a hazardous waste by the EPA.

If he needs more information on these issues I will be glad to send it to him.

That was almost two years ago. I'm still waiting for Morgan Griffith to respond...

Appalachia Should Abide

Painterly photo by my friend Wendy Johnston of Athens, WV,  shows Larry Gibson of Kayford, WV (the only time I have seen him without his cap, other than in this photo by Antrim Caskey) as he gazes out the window of the Metro bus police used to transport arrestees to  Anacostia for booking.  To the immediate left, ahead of the window frame,  is Dustin White,  of Charleston, WV, who grew up in the  endangered community of James Creek on Cook Mountain.

*

I've always loved the song Peter and Gordon recorded in the 60s, "Land of Oden", about a mountain 10,000 miles high and square:

Once every million years
A little bird comes winging,
Sharpens his beak
And quickly disappears.

And when that mountain,
it wears away
Then, to eternity
will be one single day.

On  September 25  in Washington, DC, I read to folks preparing to rally, march and sit in during the Appalachia Rising protest the following Monday. My poem "Looking Out Over An Abyss in Boone County" includes the line "mountains should abide."

Big Coal has decided against almost-eternity for Central Appalachia. Ours is a war zone. To get at thin seams of coal, Massey and others detonate fertilizer and diesel fuel – the same materials used to build truck bombs. They destroy up to 1,000 vertical feet, dump the resulting rubble into valleys: hauling it away would cut into profits. And while solid mountains are practically inert, pulverised, their rock poisons air; poisons headwater streams flowing through valleys, down to the Mississippi, into the Gulf of Mexico.Top soil and hardwoods? Companies often shun these gifts from nature, bury them as "overburden", standing in the way of getting at coal.

Companies that destroy the world for privatized profits and socialized harm are amoral or immoral. A government that won't protect us from such rogues is complicit. How are we supposed to live without air, without water?

After years, I'm still surprised by the lies. Take Massey spokesman Jeff Gllenwater, who told Peter Slavin, "There's no credible evidence of coal causing cancer." That depends on whom you find credible. I asked Michael Hendryx, at West Virginia University, about Gillenwater's claim. He wrote back:

No credible evidence of coal causing cancer"?  Nonsense.  There is abundant evidence.

Coal contains trace elements of a number of known carcinogens including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, beryllium, and others.  When coal is processed at local facilities after extraction, these elements enter the local environments in the air and in the water.  Furthermore, particulate matter from air pollution such as that caused by coal mining and processing is a well known cancer risk.  Water and air pollution from coal mining and processing are well established. This is to say nothing of coal combustion, which kills over 20,000 Americans every year from a variety of causes including cancer.

There is also solid epidemiological evidence that cancer death rates are higher in Appalachian mining environments compared to non-mining environments in ways that are NOT explained by smoking, diet, age, or other factors.

In short, there is credible evidence.

Big Coal, though, has money to spread lies, influence policy. Citizens sued to protect our mountains and won under the Clean Water Act, only to have the Bush EPA and Army Corps of Engineers reclassify mining waste as "fill", in 2002 – as if rubble were gravel being used to build bridges across streams.

Since then, we have sued some more, signed petitions, made phone calls, testified at hearings, written letters, travelled hours to meet with officials, appointed and elected – all to stop this stripmining on steroids. Still, the coal industry goes virtually unchecked.

So, yes, thousands went to Washington and marched on 27 September to tell the EPA to do its job. Yes, we continued on to PNC Bank to say stop funding this obliteration. Then, 115 folks sat down in front of the White House, in an act of civil disobedience, accepting arrest, to tell President Obama that, yes, he can do something, if he only will.

Appalachia and its people predate Big Coal. There's still a remnant of "almost heaven" and we're willing to share it. Come visit, educate yourself, join your voice with ours. Otherwise, these mountains will be squandered – not at the end of time, but in less than 20 years.

Note:  thanks to Bo Webb, who encouraged Matt Seaton of the Guardian to solicit a piece from me.  This originally appeared (with British spellings and dating conventions) on October 7 as "Appalachia rises as mining razes mountains."  I've restored Michael Hendrxy's quote in full, as I have no word limit here and I find the ellipses distracting.

Take this job and shove it: former TMK security guards at Edwight treesit

Massey CEO Don Blankenship had told the AP that

The coal won’t spoil for a million years. I doubt the tree climbers will be there then.

Apparently Blankenship tells the AP one thing and TMK something else? Tonight, I got an email from Charles Suggs at Climate Ground Zero. He sent a link to a video of the almost hour-long interview (10 minute youtube version is here) with Chris Carey and Patrick Curry, two private security guards who say they walked off the job because of how they were ordered to harass Nick Stocks and Laura Steepleton.

Stocks and Steepleton are the Climate Ground Zero tree sitters at Massey's proposed Edwight mountain demolition site. August 31, they descended from their platforms in two eighty foot poplar trees, after preventing blasting over the community of Pettry Bottom since the prior Tuesday.

Charles writes,

So here's something out of the blue... Monday night I got a call from a fellow who worked a security shift at the base of the tree sit for Massey. He worked for the private security firm, TMK, that Massey hired to deprive the sitters of sleep and what not. Anyway, he walked off the job because of how they were ordered to treat the sitters and called me spillin the beans. Several others also walked off. Later that night, we got someone with a camera down to his house two hours away and recorded an hour-long interview with him and a friend of his who also walked off. They're now also in touch with our lawyers.

Steepleton and Stocks had climbed the trees within 300 feet of blasting and 30 feet of the Massey Energy Edwight Surface Mine and hung two banners “Stop Mountain Top Removal” and “DEP – Don’t Expect Protection.” Mining Safety and Health Administration regulations require that non-blasting employees all be cleared from the area before blasting can take place. You can listen to an interview of Steepleton and Stocks by Bobby Nelson on Tri-State-talk, airing on Huntington station WRVC, one of the oldest radio stations licensed in WV. (Hat tip to Heath Harrison at West Virginia Blue.)


Charles said in a news release that date about the two:

For the past five days, they endured psychological torture, verbal assault and threats. Anonymous eyewitnesses said the Massey-hired security guards were telling the treesitters they were going to rape and kill the treesitters. On Sunday night, the guards put a running chainsaw to both trees, cutting them a little bit. The guards told Steepleton today that they oday that they were going to get them out of the tree no matter what because Massey ordered them to.

Stocks descended first and at that point, according to Suggs, WV native and activist Bo Webb had talked to State Police Sgt. about standing at the base of Steepleton’s tree to protect her from the guards, but Smith said he’d have to arrest Webb if Webb went up to the sit.

I told him he’s arresting the wrong people.

Judy Bonds sent us a copy of the letter to the editors she had sent the Charleston Gazette. (UPDATE: published on September 3):

Tree-sitters Nick and Laura are my heroes. These brave youngsters tried to protect the people living - or rather, dying - below a strip mine site. Tree-sitters are protecting all people living below these war zone sites. The coal companies are the ones who should be arrested for terrorizing, blasting and poisoning people. The sitters must deal with difficult living conditions sitting 80 feet high in trees. This requires courage and skill. The workers and security guards on the Edwight site behaved like thugs in rolling and kicking rocks down the hillside, blaring air horns and brandishing a chainsaw. This 24-hour sleep deprivation tactic made the situation more dangerous. The close-by community residents can hear and see their thug-like tactics. Gov. Manchin has been asked several times to stop the violence before a serious or fatal incident happens. Massey Energy's anti-American hate fest will only incite more violence and make things worse as the governor's inaction is an indication of his approval.

TMK Security of Delbarton, WV (photo below of its offices from its site shown above) boasts

TMK Security offers a wide variety of services to fit your companies needs and budget. From armed officers to plain clothed officers mobile or stationary TMK has the solution for you. Contact us and we will be happy to discuss your needs...TMK Security Officers are a cut above the rest. All TMK officers are drug screened and have a full criminal background check completed before their first day of employment, so you as a customer can have peace of mind your property is secured by the highest quality of officer.

The firm (B) is two-and-a-half hours southwest of Pettry Bottom (A), site of the Edwight mine according to Google's driving directions:



If Blankenship is talking out of both sides of his mouth, it won't be the first time. Remember how he called his PAC, "For the Sake of the Kids." What a name for someone with a slurry impoundment sitting above Marsh Fork elementary school.

National Media writes about Coal Protest Months Later...

Photo of from Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards of the earlier attempts at legal protest --presenting a mile-long petition against the Wise County Coal plant-- before BREF and others tried non-violent civil disobedience.

In "Taking On King Coal," Time's Bryan Walsh reports for the first time November 6 on the protest against Dominion on September 15:

Nothing could sway the Dominion 11 from their mission--not the cops and certainly not the prospect of free food. Early on the morning of Sept. 15, activists from a range of environmental groups formed a human barrier to block access to a coal plant being built by Dominion in rural Wise County, Virginia. As acts of civil disobedience go, this wasn't exactly Bloody Sunday. The police took a hands-off approach and even offered to buy the protesters breakfast ...

Nothing deep here, but it's nice to see the coverage.

Richmond Police Descend on Blue Ridge Earth First! and Mountain Justice Activists Protesting Dominion Energy

Photo by Blue Ridge Earth First! For more, see coverage on Flickr. For more information, contact Hannah Morgan at 434-960-2080 or Hilary Lufkin at 804-357-4826.

Twenty non-violent activists were protesting Dominion Energy's promotion of new coal and nuclear facilities as solutions to climate change this morning when Richmond police swept in at 7:30 am to roust them. Five Blue Ridge Earth First! (BREF!) members had formed a human chain to blockade the entrance to Dominion's corporate headquarters on Tredegar Street in downtown Richmond at 7:00 am. Police also arrested seven other BREF and Mountain Justice (MJ) members at the site, all of whom were holding signs and banners and had intended to disband when the police arrived but were given no chance to do.

The protesters said the proposed $1.8 billion Wise County plant would emit too much mercury and carbon dioxide into the air, promote strip mining for coal in Southwest Virginia and cost consumers too much for electricity. The also oppose Dominion’s announced plans to consider an additional nuclear reactor at its North Anna plant in Louisa County.

Michael Martz of the Richmond Times Dispatch reported that the protest blocked traffic on Tredegar Street for "more than two hours" while Dominion employees were forced to walk to work. He reports that company spokesman Karl Neddenien said,

Dominion respects peaceful protest....However, we do not condone illegal activities, such as the blocking of the road and preventing our employees from getting to work.

The twelve have each have been charged with two class-two misdemeanors of impeding police and blocking access by emergency vehicles, as well as a traffic charge. Magistrates have set bail set at $2,000 each and BREF has asked that donations for the bail and legal defense be made through Paypal to Drumplaya112@yahoo.com or sent to BREF! care of Hannah Morgan, 1226 Stonegate Way Crozet, Virginia 22932.

Bethany Spitzer and Alyssa Barrett each had one hand locked into a weighted 55-gallon oil drum reading "We Won't Stop Until You Do." They were linked to Kaitlyn Hart and Holly Garrett, who each had a hand encased into two-and-a-half gallon bucket of hardened cement. Meanwhile, Marley Green served a counterweight to the oil drum, as he hung suspended from the Bell Isle Footbridge above the road. Other, as yet unnamed individuals, held banners that said "No New Coal Plant in Wise County" and "It's Up to Us Virginia. No Nukes. No New Coal. Renewables Now! No Dominion Over Our Democracy,"

Green explained, "Accelerating the rate of mountaintop removal mining to supply the citizens of Virginia with dirty energy is an irresponsible use of the most valuable resources of this Commonwealth. The impact of uranium mining, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear plant operations on communities across the Southeast are unacceptable trade-offs for the continuation of business as usual energy policy. Dominion should further conservation and efficiency measures and develop solar, wind, and other renewable sources of power in order to do justice to the land and the people of Virginia."

"We’ve been through the regulatory process — it’s time to take action on our own," added Hannah Morgan, a 19-year-old resident of the town of Appalachia in Wise County, Virginia, who acted as spokeswoman for the protest.

Morgan was referring to the June 25, 2008 decision by the Citizen's Air Board to grant final permits for Dominion's proposed new 585 MW coal-fired electric plant in Wise County Virginia, which you can find reported on by Chesapeake Climate Action's Susanna Murley, as well as by the Richmond Times Dispatch's Rex Bowman. (NewsTrust reviews of the latter, here.)

While the Air Board reduced the permitted emissions from those Dominion requested, it declined to address the acceleration of mountaintop removal coal mining, increased carbon dioxide emissions and other issues raised by over a hundred Virginians at a June 24 public hearing at Wise County High School.

The Virginia permit bucked a trend in other states including Florida, Kansas and Texas, which have recently canceled plans for new coal plants. Dominion plans to begin construction this week. BREF! and MJS plan continued protests until Dominion agrees to cancel construction of its proposed Wise County coal plant, to stop burning burning coal mined through mountaintop removal in its existing coal plants and to build no new nuclear facilities.

Already, strip mining and mountaintop removal mining (MTR) have permanently demolished over 25% of Wise County's land mass to get to the coal, rather than using other methods which would preserve the mountains. MTR dumps the rubble from the blasted mountains and to date buried over 1,200 miles of headwater streams across Appalachia.

Dominion's website features a page, Myths and Facts, telling its side of the story and a contact form where you can ask for more information. The Wise Energy for Virginia Campaign (a partnership of Appalachian Voices, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, and Southern Environmental Law Center) has published its own list of 7 myths about Dominion's Wise County plant, six of which still apply after last week's permits, according to Tom Owens. You'll find them below.

*

MYTH #1: The Wise County Coal Plant will be a “Hybrid Energy Center.”

FACT: When first proposed, the plant was named the Southwest Virginia Power Station. Dominion’s marketing executives renamed the project the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center. But this is no Toyota Prius. Its deplorable environmental performance, outrageous cost, and massive global warming impact would make it the Hummer of coal-burning power plants. The State Corporation Commission (SCC) has determined that under Virginia law it is a “conventional coal” plant.¹

MYTH #2: The Wise County Coal Plant will be carbon-capture compatible.

FACT: During proceedings before the SCC, Dominion executives were asked if there were any specific technologies the company had invested in to capture global warming pollution. Dominion conceded, “We have taken a look at, in a general way, [technologies] for carbon capture. But, no, there is nothing specific we have decided on this facility.”²

Not surprisingly, in granting Dominion a certificate to build the plant, the SCC rejected Dominion’s request for a financial bonus for carbon-capture compatibility. Rather, the SCC was explicitly clear – of the $1.8 billion approved to build the plant, not one penny is earmarked to address the plant’s global warming pollution, either now or at any time in the future.³

MYTH #3: The Wise County Coal Plant will be “state-of-the-art.”

FACT: Dominion is far behind the curve in addressing global warming. According to a report by MIT,⁴ only the most efficient coal plants (known as supercritical plants) will be ready to capture carbon. The proposed Wise County coal plant is not one of those – it would be an inefficient, subcritical coal plant. Dominion has no plan to capture the 5.4 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide the plant would emit every year.

Meanwhile, other electric utilities – even those heavily relying on coal – are working on technologies to capture carbon. AEP plans commercial operation of carbon capture equipment by 2012⁵ (the same year Dominion wants to bring this conventional coal plant into service).

MYTH #4: The Wise County Coal Plant will clean up Southwest Virginia’s “gob” piles.

FACT: “Garbage of Bituminous,” or “gob” is the toxic waste coal left behind by the coal mining industry. Dominion has made no commitment to clean up “gob.” Instead, the fuel for the plant would likely be newly mined coal.⁶ As a result, the Dominion plant would only encourage mountaintop removal coal mining and other devastating practices. Where traditional mining practices cut mine shafts to access coal seams, mountaintop removal coal mining levels entire mountains and buries miles of streams in rubble. It literally obliterates the natural landscape.

MYTH #5: The Wise County Coal Plant Will Boost The Economy.

FACT: While the coal plant would have 75 permanent employees,⁷ the hundreds of jobs Dominion promises would only be temporary construction jobs that would disappear once the plant is built. At the same time, the coal plant would accelerate mountaintop removal coal mining, a process that has done far more economic harm than good. Since 1980, Wise County has experienced a 28% decline in the average income and a 53.1% decline in mining jobs -- despite an increase in coal production during the same timeframe.⁸

Mountain top removal coal mining also hurts the tourism industry in Wise County, which generates more than $32 million a year in expenditures, payroll, and state and local taxes. The Crooked Trail, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, draws more than 60,000 visitors to Appalachia and Southwestern Virginia each year.⁹ The USA Today reports, “From Dickenson County to Galax, rural areas that offer winding trails, bluegrass music and wine tastings have become some of the state's fastest-growing attractions.”¹⁰ And more than 35,000 acres of the pristine Jefferson National Forest lie within Wise County, providing a “multitude of outdoor recreational opportunities: hiking, biking, swimming, canoeing, hunting, fishing, camping, boating ….”¹¹

MYTH #6: Electricity Rates For Dominion Customers Will Only Increase “Nominally.”¹²

FACT: The State Corporation Commission’s staff determined that rates would increase so much as to have a net negative impact on the Virginia economy, with a loss of 1,474 jobs.¹³ As “electricity rates increase,” the staff explained, consumers would have “less income to spend on other goods and services.” Less consumer spending hurts the economy, particularly small businesses. Dominion’s construction costs have increased $200 million since the SCC analysis was done, meaning even higher electricity rates and more job loss.

1 The Final Order from the State Corporation Commission states: “We find that this coal-fired facility qualifies, at a minimum, as a ‘conventional coal’ facility under § 56-585.1 .A.6 of the Code. …Accordingly, the Coal Plant shall receive an enhanced return of 100 basis points as prescribed for a ‘conventional coal’ plant by § 56-585.1 .A.6 of the Code.”

2 Cross-Examination of James K. Martin, Dominion Vice President for Fossil & Hydro Technical Services, before the State Corporation Commission, (Feb. 6, 2008).

3 The Final Order from the State Corporation Commission states:

We find that the construction costs projected by the Company to be incurred in connection with the proposed Coal Plant are reasonable and prudent at Virginia Power’s currently projected level of $1.8 billion. …

[W]e do not find that it is reasonable or prudent for the Company to incur any amount of costs above the cost estimates that comprise the projected level of $1.8 billion. We cannot approve in essence a blank check for Virginia Power to build the Coal Plant at any cost …

The finding of reasonableness and prudence herein does not extend to any costs associated with retrofitting, or other modifications to, the Coal Plant to make it carbon capture compatible. Accordingly, our approval herein is subject to the requirement that there shall be no recovery of any costs associated with future retrofitting, or other future modifications to, the Coal Plant to make it carboncapture compatible….

4 MIT, The Future of Coal, at pages 19, Table 3.1., 36, Table 3.7, and 96.

5 See Bruce Baine, AEP Vice President, “AEP and Climate Legislation,” (10/9/07).

6 Combustion calculations performed for Dominion by its contractor, Shaw, Stone & Webster, evaluate performance as if the plant would burn, alternatively: 100% Central Appalachian Coal; 100% run-of-mine coal; 60% Moss #3 waste coal and 40% Central Appalachian coal; and, finally, 83% run-of-mine coal and 17% wood and waste coal. These calculations were submitted as part of Dominion’s application for a federal Clean Air Act (Prevention of Significant Deterioration) permit to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

7 According to the testimony of Dominion’s Senior Vice President, E. Paul Hilton, “construction of the Plant will create at least 800 new jobs” while actual “operation of the Plant” will employ only “75 plant operators.”

8 Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration.

9 Dionne Walker, “Rural Virginia tourism: Small, But Growing Fast,” USA Today, 5/25/05. You can learn about Virginia’s Music Heritage Trail, the Carter Family, Ralph Stanley, and much more at www.thecrookedroad.org

10 Dionne Walker, op. cit.

11 Wise County Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Information.

12 Tim Craig and Sandhya Somashekhar, “Dominion Gets Initial Approval For Coal Plant,” Washington Post, 4/1/08, p. B2: “Company officials say there might be ‘nominal’ increases in residents’ utility bills starting next year to offset the cost of construction of the plant.”)

13 Testimony of Mark K. Carsley, Division of Economics and Finance, State Corporation Commission.