Warren County Report

The contract propels the town into a municipal association designed to help fund construction of a new American Municipal Power electrical generating plant in the Ohio Valley. In return for their financial commitment to the AMP-Ohio project, forecast to come on line in 2011, participating localities have been promised locked-in energy purchase prices that will not fluctuate wildly with future market variables. That is supposed to translate into lower costs for customers over the long haul.

Stung by an energy market fluctuations that radically raised its power costs two years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a council majority reasoned better safe than sorry in purchasing a base source for 30 to 40 percent of its future power needs.

However, Councilmen Stan Brooks and Eileen Grady joined Public Hearing speakers Tom and Kristen Adams in asking at what actual cost such “safety” was being sought.

Her young child in tow, Kristen Adams told council coal has been identified as “the dirtiest fuel source” and linked Ohio Valley coal-powered power plants to “the haze we see over the Skyline Drive.” She linked coal pollution to issues with the health of the Shenandoah and other rivers in the Shenandoah Valley and pointed to the destruction of communities economically linked to the coal mining industry due to arsenic byproducts being dumped into the sources of their water supplies.

“While that is happening in Appalachia, they are our neighbors … There is no reason to be in a hurry, I ask you to do the right thing,” Adams told council.

Her husband was more succinct.

“We try to avoid being engaged with such things, but fools and their follies, sometimes they take you with them,” he pointedly told council.

In voicing the majority opinion and trying not to appear “a fool” leading anyone toward folly, Bret Hrbek predicted coal would remain the major source of American energy for years to come.

“I continue to say it is far off to be able to use alternative sources as the primary source of our energy needs – “I don’t expect to see it in my lifetime,” council’s youngest member said. Hrbek also cited improvements in coal industry emission levels since the 1970s.

Responding to a question from Vice-Mayor Tim Darr, town Director of Energy Resource Management Joe Waltz pointed out that the AMP-Ohio agreement to provide for about 30 percent of the town’s base power needs did not preclude the search for alternative energy sources to help provide town power. Waltz said coal provides 50 percent of the nation’s base power needs, with alternative sources providing 12 percent. And of that 12 percent, Waltz stated that hydro, or water generated power, still accounted for an overwhelming 10-percent of that number.

“We can still look at alternative power sources, wind, biomass, solar – but that is still only providing a small portion of that 12 percent of alternative energy supply,” Waltz observed of the current energy marketplace.

Waltz was recently giving his current title in the wake of the town renaming its Electric Department, the Department of Energy Resource Management. Waltz was serving as the town’s Director of Public Utilities and was originally hired as head of the Electric Department.

Council opposition

Brooks and Grady reiterated earlier points they had made at a December work session on the AMP-Ohio plan.

Brooks joined the rest of council in lauding Waltz for exploring energy options to prevent a recurrence of the town’s 2006 energy cost surge.

“But what is the real cost – to the health of our citizens; to the planet as a whole; to the future??? It’s hard to calculate these things. And this is a small blip on the radar of the entire discussion [nationally and internationally]. We all have our own moral decisions to make – not to say anyone on council is immoral. But what is the incentive to move away from coal as an energy source if we are still funding the building of these plants with a 50, 60-year life span? I think we need to demand something different,” Brooks concluded.

In stating her opposition to the contract, Grady cited Hrbek’s reference to the “pipe dream” of a significant rise in alternative energy sources in the foreseeable future.

“Think of all the pipe dreams this country and the world have had, all the inventions no one previously envisioned that have changed the world … We need to be problem solvers. We as a society need to expect better … If we don’t say ‘no’ now [to coal as a primary source of power] it will never change,” Grady said.

Wind and waste options

While Gene Tewalt said he believed the contract addressed current realities, he added that the town could be in a position within “a few months” to pursue wind power as one option to provide a source for some of its bulk power needs.

Last the year the town attracted some initially negative response when it acknowledged exploring the possibility of contracting with a company that builds plants that burn solid waste to make energy. That company, Energy Answers, claims its process is environmentally friendly and has been successful in environmentally sensitive areas, including the midst of cranberry bogs in Massachusetts.

It would seem that when it comes to the acquisition of power, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t pursue the path of least resistance.