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For over the last I 00 years we have had a carbon based economy. For the next I 00 years we will have a 

carbon constrained economy. Then we might have to live without carbon fuels at all. Without 

constraints on how much Carbon we put into the atmosphere, we will not only run out of this resource, 

we will be unable to breathe our air and drink our water. I know, as I live within a mile of the Coal Fired 

Power Plant that has been the center of controversy since two citizens produced a report showing that 

the plant was producing particulant matter that was harmful to citizens. Why did they suspect that their 

was a harmful substance being emitted from the Potomac Generating Plant, once owned by Mirant and 

now owned by the GenOn Corporation. Because every morning they woke up to dust on their 

windowsills or on their cars and wondered where it carne from. 

The source was obvious, and probably rrom some vantage points in OC you can see the stacks that rrom 

1949 have generated power for our region, but have also been a powerful generator of pollutants. The 

plant said that they did not have large particles, and they did not have small particles, without measuring 

the particles in between. But the obviousness that the plant emitted something was on the stacks itself. 

A kind of skirt to catch the particles before they fell back into the plant. It was not until1989 that they 

were granted a special use permit, as before they had been a non-conforming use, not even regulated. 

After Elizabeth Chimento and Poul Hertel's report came out, there have been steady efforts to close the 

plant since 2004. Their permits have been attempted to be revoked, and their ability to operate limited. 

In 20071 spoke in rront of the State Department of Environmental Quality which was having hearings on 

how the plant should be regulated, and a solution was found. Build smokestacks that were higher so the 

plumes would blow farther, just far enough to be outside Alexandria. Then the citizens might stop 

complaining. Thankfully these taller stacks were never built. 

But this one plant has become the poster child for why there is no such thing as clean coal. You could 

put a chemical like Tron in, but that also might have bad effects, and has not been studied enough. You 

can use steam to catch the particles, but this was never implemented. And there are two other parts of 

running a coal plant that you cannot see rrom Washington OC, but have an affect on other parts of the 

country. First the coal has to come from somewhere, and probably comes from mountaintop removal in 

West Virginia which are ruining streams and valleys, which might be where we get our oxygen to offset 

carbon in the future. Secondly, coal does not bum clean through but leaves ash, and this ash is put in 

Ash pits somewhere far outside of Alexandria. And I am sure the disastrous ash pit spill in Tennessee a 

couple Christmas's ago has already been mentioned. 

So if we are not polluting our waterways and our air when we remove the coal, or when we burn it, we 

risk damage when we put the waste in an ash pit. Coal is not the energy source of the future. In just a 

few short months, thanks to the Sierra Club, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and all the people in Alexandria 

who worked on this, our coal fired power plant will close. But all that work, and the clean air we will 

regain will be negated if new coal fired power plants open in Wise County, in Surrey County, on the 

beautiful Isle of Wight. l would rather see wind turbines on the mountains, if they are still there, and 

across our seas, if they are still clean, then see one more coal fired power plant built. The jobs of the 

future should be in clean technology, and there is no such thing as clean coal. 

Boyd Walker 

1307 King St. 

Alexandria VA 22314