WISE — Republican legislators in Southwest Virginia on Friday leveled broadsides at former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine for a campaign ad referencing a new power plant in Wise County. Kaine is waging a campaign battle for a U.S. Senate seat against former Republican Gov. George Allen in the November elections.
During a Friday teleconference, state Sen. Bill Carrico, R-Grayson, and Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, charged that Kaine takes credit -- and deserves next to none -- for Dominion Virginia Power's new Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in St. Paul.
Construction of the 585 megawatt, $1.8 billion, coal-fired power plant began in 2008, near the conclusion of Kaine's term as governor, and was completed and began operations earlier this year.
Kilgore and Carrico said Kaine's record of "unwavering" support of the Obama administration's energy policies, including the failed cap-and-trade initiative that the legislators describe as unfriendly to the coal industry, belies the former governor's claim of support for the coal industry.
Kilgore said Kaine's campaign ad, touting the new power plant, glosses over the truth.
"When I first saw the ad, it was unbelievable to me that Governor Kaine would take credit for the power plant over in Virginia City," Kilgore said. "We had to fight Governor Kaine's (air quality) board to even get the permit (to build the plant). I don't remember Kaine's administration there to help us fight the air board. Under (the Obama administration's) EPA we couldn't even build this power plant today."
Kilgore said the EPA has created a "no jobs zone" in coal-producing regions like Southwest Virginia, "and I don't understand how he can take credit for a power plant he had very little to do with."
Kilgore said during the plant's groundbreaking in 2008, "I don't recall even seeing him there."
The Dominion facility was made possible by legislation spearheaded through the Virginia General Assembly by former state Sen. William Wampler Jr., R-Bristol, and championed by all Southwest Virginia legislators of both parties, Kilgore said. The legislation provided incentives for a utility to build a power plant in Southwest Virginia provided it burned Virginia coal.
"The legislation we're talking about when I was in the (House of Delegates) was under the (former Gov. and current U.S. Sen. Mark) Warner administration," Carrico said. "When it came down to actually starting the (construction of the new plant) and all the environmental (lawsuits) that came about, Tim Kaine was governor at that time and silent throughout the whole process. He would not step up to the plate and move this forward."
Kilgore and Carrico pointed to recent layoffs of over 600 coal miners by Consol, and earlier layoffs by Alpha Natural Resources, to back up their claims of an assault on the coal industry by the Obama administration and supporters of the administration like Kaine. A soft coal market has been blamed on last year's mild winter and utilities cutting back on a need to restore stockpiles.
"Some of that is due to market conditions," Kilgore said. "But the reason market conditions are relevant to this situation is the EPA encouraging people to switch to other sources of energy."
Carrico said Kaine has "unwaveringly supported" Obama administration policies costing over 40,000 coal industry jobs nationwide.