Bristol Herald-Courier opposes new coal-fired power plant proposed for southwest Virginia

Though the U.S. Forest Service has dropped its opposition to Dominion Power Co.'s proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia, that doesn't mean the region should welcome the plant, the Bristol Herald-Courier said in an editorial this week.

"Pollution from the plant still poses a threat to the health of those who will live in its shadow. Their lives are every bit as valuable as the health of a forest 100 miles away -- even if they don’t have the clout and influence of the U.S. Forest Service to make their case," opined the 38,000-circulation Media General paper on the Tennessee- Virginia line. For a blog item on Dominion's deal with USFS, click here.

"Dominion argues that its plant will use the newest technology and be much cleaner than the older plants" in the region, the editorial says. "This is true. If the Dominion plant replaced the older plants, that might be a decent trade. But such a swap isn’t in the cards. This is addition, not subtraction. Dominion, which doesn’t even provide power to this region, wants to construct the Wise County plant to meet energy demands in fast-growing Northern Virginia."

The fight over the plant is "one of what will likely be dozens of battles between and power companies planning to build new plants in rural areas," says the Daily Yonder, which has this picture of the plant site.