Oct 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rex Bowman Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

A $1.6 billion coal-fired power plant proposed for Wise County is touted by the utility company that wants to build it as an eco-friendly "clean coal" model of environmental design.

But if built to the company's specifications, it would be one of the biggest air polluters in Virginia, according to documents filed with the state.

The plant would give Dominion Virginia Power an extra 585 megawatts of power, enough to support 146,000 new homes.

The proposed Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center would be allowed to pump more than 12,500 tons -- or 25 million pounds -- of pollution into the air each year if Dominion Virginia Power goes through with its plans. The pollutants include nitrogen oxides, an ingredient of smog; sulfur dioxide, a major cause of acid rain; and carbon monoxide, which can pose serious breathing problems for those with respiratory ailments.

The emissions are in addition to the 5.3 million tons of carbon dioxide the plant could discharge annually, according to company officials. Carbon dioxide, though recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a greenhouse gas, is not regulated as a pollutant.

Dominion points out, however, that the Wise facility would pollute less than older plants. Dominion is allowed to call the power plant a "clean coal" operation under rules laid down by the U.S. Department of Energy, which is encouraging utilities to use certain coal technologies by giving the technologies the environmentally friendly sticker.

But environmentalists fighting to stop state approval of the power plant say the "clean coal" label, though sanctioned by the federal government, is a deceptive marketing practice that could dampen opposition to the plant even though its construction could spell disaster for the ecosystem of Appalachian Virginia.

If approved by the State Corporation Commission, the plant would join other coal-fired power plants at the top of the list of roughly 2,000 polluters monitored by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

"Any time the utility industry adopts a really effective messaging strategy, it makes our lives more difficult," said Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices, one of several groups opposing the power plant. "The label of clean coal is, in my opinion, a focus group's phrase, and a very effective one, to justify all these planned coal-fired plants."

James K. Martin, a senior vice president at Dominion, defends the use of the term as accurate, illustrating that the proposed plant can be seen two ways. While environmentalists view the plant as a setback in the context of nationwide efforts to curb pollution, power industry officials such as Martin see the plant as a step forward in the context of evolving energy technology because it pollutes less than older plants.

For instance, while Dominion is asking for permission to annually emit more than 12,500 tons of pollutants in Virginia City, the company's Chesterfield County power station -- the state's biggest air polluter -- released more than 76,800 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere last year.

Furthermore, said Dominion spokesman Dan Genest, a plant the size of the one planned for Virginia City could potentially emit more than 167,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide into the air each year if none of the state-of-the-art technological controls were in place. With controls, the amount is projected at about 5,340 tons per year.

"We think it's an exciting technology," Martin said of the proposed plant's cleaning system. He also noted that the plant would likely operate at 90 percent of capacity, meaning emissions would never hit the 12,500-ton mark.

Dominion wants to build the power plant on 1,700 acres of abandoned strip mine just west of the town of St. Paul and fuel it with Virginia coal and waste wood products.

The company, which hopes to win approval from the State Corporation Commission by April and have the plant up and running by 2012, says the electricity is necessary to help it meet an anticipated 4,000-megawatt jump in demand from Dominion customers by 2017.

The General Assembly gave its blessing to the plant in 2004, when it decreed as a public good any power station in Southwest Virginia that used only Virginia coal. Sen. William C. Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, pushed for the measure, and he recently said he still supports the plant.

"We have to have it as part of the mix to power Virginia," he said, adding that the state should also look at using more nuclear power.

The federal Energy Department regards the proposed Virginia City plant as a potential "clean coal" operation because it would use a process known as "circulating fluidized bed combustion technology," or CFB. The process involves dumping limestone into the boilers with coal to capture sulfur dioxide and reduce nitrogen oxides emissions.

But Kathy Selvage, a Wise County resident and member of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, says no coal-fired plant that would be among the top polluters in the state has a right to call itself a "clean coal" power station.

"People can call something anything they want to," she said. "I can look at someone with gray hair and say they have purple hair. But others have got to look for themselves."

Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or rbowman@timesdispatch.com.