Virginia coal counties may get wind power stations

Debra McCown of the Bristol Herald Courier writes from the town of Appalachia, Va.: "Coal is central to this region’s past and part of its future, but a new future is taking shape on the strip-mined ridges." While a coal-fired power plant "rises skyward on one end of Wise County, a field of wind turbines proposed for land on the Virginia-Kentucky line is signaling this region’s potential for a shift toward green energy."

Dominion Power, which is building the coal plant neat St. Paul, is expected to join with BP Wind for permits to build up three wind-energy generating stations atop the county's Black Mountain and on East River Mountain in Tazewell County, which borders West Virginia. Other sites are being considered. (Read more)

The partnership "believes it has found wind energy sites that sidestep two of the main objections to such projects — ruination of scenic views and inappropriate land use," reports Jeff Lester of Coalfield.com, the site for Wise and Dickenson County papers. "Because of the region’s very steep ridges, the sites under study are all but unseen from developed or heavily-traveled areas, they say. And while many mountain communities object to disturbance of pristine ridgetops or potential land grabs against reluctant residents ... virtually all the land under study is reclaimed ridgetop strip mines or actively mined sites owned by Penn Virginia Resources, with almost no homes nearby." (Read more; subscription required)