 |
Dendron OK's Zoning for Coal PlantBy WYDaily Staff Tuesday, February 02, 2010
A computer-generated graphic of where the coal plant would be situated in Dendron.
The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative wants to build the plant, called Cypress Creek, on some 1600 acres in Dendron and Surry County. Some residents - including William and Mary professors and those who live in the Historic Triangle - are concerned about the negative health effects the plant would have because of mercury emissions and more; ODEC officials say its technology amounts to the cleanest coal plant available and disagree with those who say otherwise. The Surry County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the zoning changes Thursday night. The small town would get a huge economic boost if the plant were to locate there. Read more about the history of the plant here. |
|
Copyright © 2010-2011 WY Daily. Davis Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Website by Web-tactics
Website by Web-tactics
Comments
Quoting Jake:
Jake, thanks for your comments.
Fossil is only cheaper as long as you ignore the indirect costs such as health cost, environmental damage, lost farm land productivity etc. etc.
With better environmental legislation with some real teeth in it (fines, carbon tax etc.) to help offset these indirect costs and a few more years research into solar/wind and battery technology, the tables could easily be turned so that clean energy would be cheaper.
This would benefit everyone, regardless of political persuasion in the form of better health, lower health costs, cleaner water, cleaner air, more productive croplands, less mountain top removal/destruc tion, less/no need for offshore drilling (it is only getting more valuable while sitting in the ground, and year by year easier and more environmentally sound to retrieve).
What happens with the fossil fuels run out, what will we make plastics and fertilizer and all the other products we consume when this valuable resource runs out. Think sustainability, think conservation, think recycle, or just think Mr Farmer (not)!
Conservation, Tidal, wave, Thorium Fission (do some research), Fusion (just took a big step towards becoming reality - NIF), wind, solar. But for Surry, the answer would be biofuel where you can have your cake and eat it too! Get the taxes for a much cleaner plant and put the idle farm land back in service, Mr. Farmer. Or is it Mr. F. Troll .
So just who is this "Farmer". At least (s)he is well outnumbered here in history land.
Even the applicant admits to 117 pounds of vaporized mercury released directly into the air, each year and every year. Then there are the tons of NOx and SOx gases as well as the tons and tons of concentrated toxins in the form of coal ash.
Between the smoke stacks and the fly ash, this plant will release far more radiation than the antiquated Surry Nuclear Power Plant!
Perhaps Louisa needs to study the issue a little more with her mind instead of her heart.
The money that this will provide Dendron / Surry County is just another addiction like heroin. The more you have, the more you spend, the more you need. Just like the boat JCC and many other counties are now in. Money corrupts.
There are widespread regional consequences (including crop damage due to increased ground level ozone) that we all will pay for through decreased productivity, increased taxes and increased health care costs as well as lower quality of live due to pollution, other environmental damage and heath issues. Yet this decision is left in the hands of those who will profit from the damage to others even against the will of the vast majority of informed citizens. And this is in America, think what is happening in China, India, etc.!