Griffith Tours Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center

Press Release

Today, Morgan Griffith, the Republican candidate for the 9th Congressional District, visited Dominion Virginia Power's Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in Wise County.

The clean-coal power construction site is employing over 1,800 workers and is an economic boost to Wise County and the surrounding counties in the coalfields of the 9th District.

"I was very pleased today to be able to tour this amazing construction project that is over 70 percent complete and has employed so many men and women of the 9th District," says Griffith. "In the year that
Congressman Boucher is trying to pass Cap and Trade in Congress, it's important that Southwest Virginians can still count on coal as being an important tool in the nation's energy mix."

Virginia City will be one of the cleanest power stations of its kind. The circulating fluidized bed unit will use coal and up to 20 percent biomass for its fuel.

A Virginia Tech economic impact study concluded that the station will generate about $440 million a year in tax revenues and other benefits for Wise County. When operating, the facility will consume 2 million tons of coal annually from local mines.

"If Boucher and his friends, Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Waxman and Congressman Frank, are successful in passing Cap and Trade -- we will have to give up on building more clean-coal plants such as the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center," says Griffith.

The company says the site will be fully functional by the summer of 2012.

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