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Cause for Concern

   Written by on January 9, 2014 at 2:53 pm

Editor,

Recently I talked with some railroad construction workmen here in Keysville. They mentioned an upcoming March decision on the possibility of shutting down the Clover power plant. Concern was raised that if the plant were to be closed, the Buckingham Branch railway would no longer have sufficient business to continue its local operations.

Our community should be seriously concerned about this possibility. Not much has been heard about this in the community, or in the news. This potential closing of a power plant brings with it important issues:

First of all, what are the reasons a modern power plant would be closed? Literally hundreds of coal fired power plants are being closed across the nation—-are the ever tightening EPA regulations overly excessive and extend to even the most modern plants?

The second issue has to do with the effects such a closure will have on the railroad’s business.

We have so many problems with these potential events; it is difficult to know where to begin. Certainly, the images that the media has presented on the air quality and global warming caused by carbon based fuels make these power plant closures a climate change necessity. These non-scientific arguments on global warming make me ill. Today, I believe that the images of steam from the cooling stacks are put forth as pollution, which is absurd. There is certainly still all manner of “pollution” in the products of combustion, but they are not a major problem as touted by the talking heads. There is a difference between the old dirty soot that the stacks emitted compared with the white steam we see today. Yes, there is certainly CO, SOX, NOX and more, but the levels are not the Greenpeace global killers that the media presents.

Further, this federal government seems intent on destroying any and all of the jobs that result from living life on this planet. In small counties like Charlotte, jobs like those at the power plant and the railroad are important to the employment picture, and also to county revenues from business, commerce and employment taxes that will disappear. And yes, the cost of electricity will necessarily skyrocket….thanks a lot for the political agenda.

Finally, I don’t see the climate change crowd putting solar panels on their roofs and getting off the “dirty” grid. With megawatts less power being produced, the rest of us will have to suffer if overloads occur, and as the price skyrockets. Today, science and common sense are being out-weighed by emotional illogic.

If this closure of the power plant is about to happen, as a community, we need to know, so that some of us can discuss this with the decision makers and/or the state politicians. As a community, we need to ask at both the State and Federal level and hope our concerns will be heard.

Steve Miller

Keysville

 

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All Letters to the Editor in The Southside Messenger are printed exactly as they were received. We make no corrections or changes for any reason. If there is an error in the letter, it will be printed as received and remains the responsibility of the writer.

About Evan Jones

Evan is the Assistant Editor at the Southside Messenger newspaper in Keysville, Virginia.

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