Coal Association President Chris Hamilton said the 300-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline would displace coal-fired electricity generation in North Carolina.
Environmental groups have opposed the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and they’ve had some success blocking it in court.
They may have an unlikely ally: the West Virginia Coal Association.
Coal Association President Chris Hamilton told Sen. Bill Hamilton, R-Upshur, and a member of the Economic Development Committee, that the association had supported the pipeline in the past.
But Chris Hamilton said the 300-mile natural gas pipeline would displace coal-fired electricity generation at four power plants in North Carolina.
“So you’d be against it now?” Bill Hamilton asked.
“Yes,” Chris Hamilton said.
“Unfortunate, thank you,” Bill Hamilton said.
The committee then approved Senate Bill 188, which would expedite permitting for natural gas projects in West Virginia.
Chris Hamilton encouraged lawmakers to modify the bill with language that gave equal favor to coal and natural gas for electricity generation, but the committee voted down the effort.
The 42-inch diameter pipeline is a priority for state leaders, including U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last year gave the pipeline’s builders a four-year extension to finish the project.
Hamilton said Senate Bill 157 could help do that, by funding the Coalfield Community Development Office.
The West Virginia coal industry’s top lobbyist says mine companies are having trouble finding workers, and he’d like lawmakers to help recruit and train them.
Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, told members of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee on Tuesday that West Virginia coal mines could hire several hundred workers, if it could find them.
“You know, we ought to be recruiting people from around the country, bringing them here and providing them land and opportunities within our industrial sector,” he said.
Hamilton said Senate Bill 157 could help do that, by funding the Coalfield Community Development Office. That office has been dormant for at least a decade, Hamilton said.
The state employs about 13,000 full-time mine workers. Coal production has been up in the past year, but the industry has been limited by its ability to find new workers.
The committee approved the bill and sent it to the Finance Committee.
The funds would come from coal severance taxes, which have increased with the demand for coal and higher prices per ton.
Appalachian Power told its Virginia customers last month that the solution to reducing their monthly bills is to increase renewable power and move away from coal and natural gas.
Updated on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, at 12:40 p.m.
Appalachian Power told its Virginia customers last month that the solution to reducing their monthly bills is to increase renewable power and move away from coal and natural gas.
When Appalachian Power told customers in West Virginia of the coming rate increase in April, renewables were not mentioned. Neither was a reduction in coal, which supplies 88 percent of the state’s power.
“Incorporating more renewable sources of power into the company’s energy mix is another step in reducing customer fuel costs,” the company told Virginia ratepayers in September. “As Appalachian Power adds more renewables, there is less need for coal and natural gas to generate power.”
If approved by their respective states’ utility regulators, Appalachian Power’s customers could see their monthly bills increase by $18 to $20 a month.
The sharply higher cost of coal and natural gas is behind the proposed rate increases in both states. Appalachian Power’s Virginia and West Virginia service territories share power generated by the John Amos plant in Putnam County and the Mountaineer plant in Mason County.
The company has sought regulatory approval in both states to make environmental upgrades to keep the plants operating past 2028.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission has approved the upgrades, but the Virginia State Corporation Commission denied them.
Virginia’s Clean Economy Act requires a transition toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. West Virginia has no such requirements.
Appalachian Power’s energy portfolio is 6 percent renewable, according to the company.
Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said the savings from a renewable energy buildout was “highly suspect.”
“It’s unfortunate for AEP to denounce the use of coal with its Virginia ratepayers when it’s the reliable, baseload power from its West Virginia coal fleet that allows for the higher percentage of renewables to be developed in Virginia.”
AEP is American Electric Power, the parent company of Appalachian Power.
Phil Moye, a spokesman for Appalachian Power, said the company is “multijurisdictional,” referring to the different states in which it does business. The company serves about 1 million customers in West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee.
“While legislators and regulators strive to act in ways that are in the best interest of their respective states,” he said, “the states’ approaches often differ.”
Moye said the Virginia Clean Economy Act imposes renewable targets West Virginia does not have, with a goal of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050.
Moye added that the company is adding renewable resources in West Virginia to meet the demands of new commercial and industrial customers.
Appalachian Power is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
This story was updated to include a response from Appalachian Power.
The first thing that strikes you about the Mountaineer power plant is its sheer size.
Its stacks rise more than 1,000 feet over the Ohio River floodplain, almost as tall as the Empire State Building. Its massive cooling tower can hold 8.5 million gallons of water.
A 20-story building houses its 1,330-megawatt generator. It produces enough electricity to power a city of a million people. Or more than half of West Virginia.
Mountaineer has been generating electric power since Jimmy Carter was president.
But due to changing environmental regulations and the competition from natural gas and renewable energy, time could be running out.
Virginia’s Corporation Commission, however, rejected it.
The regulatory snag shows the limits of what supporters of West Virginia’s coal plants can do to keep them from shutting down as the country moves away from fossil fuels.
‘Closing of a Culture’
Shutting down the plant would deliver an economic blow to Mason County. It employs more than 150 workers and supports other jobs in the community. Local schools depend on tax revenue from the plant.
Upstream, coal mines in northern West Virginia supply the plant with its fuel, which is delivered by barge. Those jobs are at stake, too.
“This is closing of a culture, this is closing of a community,” said Rick Altman of Wheeling, who’s been a coal miner for 44 years. “This is closing of a generational lifestyle that has really fueled this country.”
When Mountaineer opened, coal was the nation’s dominant source of electric power. Four decades later, natural gas dominates and renewables are catching up.
Coal plants like Mountaineer are becoming more expensive to operate. American Electric Power, the parent company of Appalachian Power, has two other coal-fired plants in West Virginia: the John Amos plant in Putnam County and the Mitchell plant in Marshall County. They face the same pressures.
The company has set a goal of becoming 80% carbon-free by 2030. Reaching that goal will require more coal plants to shut down.
President Joe Biden wants the nation’s power supply to become carbon-neutral in 2035. That’s five years before the West Virginia plants are scheduled to shut down if they are upgraded.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that drastic action is necessary to curb the most devastating impacts of global warming — which in the Ohio Valley would mean less predictable weather, more flooding, and second-hand impact from coastal displacement and global disruptions.
One path forward: Replacing the coal plants with carbon-free sources of energy.
Gypsum and Molasses
It isn’t only the jobs at the power plants, the coal mines or the barge companies on the line. The plant produces and consumes other materials that contribute to the local economy.
Fly ash is collected and hauled off by the truckload. It gets recycled in concrete and asphalt.
The exhaust is filtered through a huge drum that spins with powdered limestone and steel balls.
“We mix limestone and water inside of that drum that’s got them rotating balls in it,” said Brett Watt, the plant’s senior maintenance superintendent. “And it crushes this limestone up to where it’s a slurry. It’s actually finer than the coal is.”
That removes sulfur dioxide and produces gypsum, which is used to make the drywall.
Probably the strangest part of the process involves molasses. Yes, molasses.
It’s used to grow bacteria that eat mercury and selenium.
“We bring in tanker trucks of molasses to feed the bacteria,” said Brian Mabe, the plant manager. “There’s, you know, a living organism that removes that.”
The plant’s closure would be bad news for the drywall plant and the molasses maker.
Curtis Tate
/
WVPB
The stacks at the Mountaineer power plant in Mason County, West Virginia
Fossil Fuel Allies
One thing the plant, and most like it, can’t remove from the exhaust stream is carbon dioxide.
West Virginia lawmakers have made an effort to bolster the state’s remaining coal-fired power plants. This past spring, they passed a bill that makes it harder for coal plants to shut down.
Gov. Jim Justice has also taken steps to save the state’s coal plants. He reactivated the dormant West Virginia Public Energy Authority and appointed fossil fuel allies to serve on it and find ways to keep the plants from closing.
“We know these plants won’t run forever,” Hamilton said. “You know, we’re looking for about a 20 year run. Maybe a couple of decades.”
Justice also appointed the former top coal lobbyist in West Virginia to the Public Service Commission, which regulates coal plants. Justice himself owns companies that mine coal.
The federal government is poised to spend billions of dollars to reclaim abandoned mines in Appalachia, and that could help communities that are losing jobs.
Altman started working in the mines when he was 19, and he said he’s heard the promises before. As more power plants and coal mines close, he said, the government needs to step up.
“Don’t just have a plan and say, ‘don’t you worry.’ I’m 63 years old. I got laid off the first time in 1979. You know what I was told by the government? ‘Don’t worry about this, we got you covered. We’re going to educate you, we’re gonna do this.’ I’m still waiting for that to happen. I’m truly waiting for that to happen.”
Representatives of the coal and gas industry as well as solar are expected to speak at a public forum in Martinsburg next week. The forum is about energy and how it relates to West Virginia’s economy.
This forum is titled, “Flipping the Switch: the Business of Energy and West Virginia.” Panelists include Mike McKenchnie, president of Mountain View Solar in Berkeley Springs; Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association; and Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association.
Julia Krall is the chair of the Student MBA Advisory Council at Shepherd University and the organizer of the forum. She hopes it gives people living in the Eastern Panhandle a chance to ask questions.
“I feel like this is an opportunity to bring together some of the decision makers who spend a lot more time in Charleston and kind of forget us over here a little bit,” Krall said, “and really get the people who are making decisions and making policies about our energy choices in the state and actually putting them in front of the public and really creating this community, sort of dialogue where questions can be answered, and you know there really can be a connection between the decisions that are made and how they affect our economy, our local businesses, and so on.”
“Flipping the Switch: the Business of Energy and West Virginia” will begin at 7:00 PM, Wednesday, March 25th at the McFarland House in Martinsburg. The forum is free and open to the public, but registration is required due to limited seating.
