By Jen Lawhorne

On a Thursday evening in early September, over 70 people crammed into a restaurant in Chesterfield County. They weren’t just there for the eggrolls and shrimp toast offered by Chen’s Chinese Restaurant — although plenty was eaten, and it was delicious. The community members were preparing for an Dominion Energy open house on its proposed methane gas plant at a hotel conference room about 100 yards away.

The county residents representing Friends of Chesterfield, CASA, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Mothers Out Front, Appalachian Voices and Chesterfield NAACP planned to bring hard questions to Dominion’s softball presentation. They were not impressed by what they saw at the open house. 

“It’s Greenwashing 101,” said Muth. “It’s not even that interesting.

Walker already had experience opposing a Dominion project — the canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline — that was planned to run through a family home in Buckingham County.

In a monumental 2010 study from the Clean Air Task Force, the city of Richmond — immediately north of Chesterfield — was ranked 15th for metro areas in the country for its high mortality rate attributed to exposure to particulate matter pollution from coal power plants. Virginia ranked sixth nationally for its per capita mortality rate associated with coal power plant pollution.

Opponents speculate that Dominion believes that building on the former coal plant site will excuse the utility company from going through the conditional use permitting process with Chesterfield County officials. Despite Dominion’s change in plans, community members remain adamant in their opposition to the plant. 

Friends of Chesterfield believe that emissions from the methane gas plant, which Dominion plans to call the “Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center,” will harm residents living near the plant who have already been burdened with decades of Dominion’s coal plant pollution. 

Methane gas pollution is known to have a detrimental effect on air quality by creating ground-level ozone — the main ingredient in smog — and particulate matter pollution.

Advocates also question why Dominion cannot meet its expected growth in energy demand with clean energy sources like solar and wind power.

Duane Brankley lives within two miles of the Chesterfield Power Station in a neighborhood that he moved to in the 1960s as a child. He recalled the roof of his mother’s trailer being coated with black soot from the coal plant. 

“The sidewalk outside the porch just turned black,” he said. “We didn’t worry about it because how could you scrub something that bad off?”

Brankley said he was happy that Dominion had closed its coal-fired power plant, but he opposes the proposed gas plant. “Anything they produce in the atmosphere — that it burns — it will be here.” 

Community members and nine state legislators who publicly opposed Dominion’s plans say the methane gas plant violates the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires the state’s electric grid to transition to 100% clean energy by 2050. The VCEA also set a 2024 deadline for the closure of most of its coal-fired power plants.

The nine Central Virginia legislators, which include state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who represents Chesterfield, said in a press release, “Dominion Energy’s current pursuit of permits to build a new gas-fired power plant in Chesterfield County undermines the state’s transition to clean and renewable energy.”

Chesterfield resident Aliya Farooq lives within 2.5 miles of the proposed gas plant and is concerned about Dominion’s compliance with the goals set by the VCEA. 

“Why are we investing this kind of money into a gas plant that is going to pollute our air and is not going to get us close to our carbon neutral goal?” she asked. 

Farooq, who is also a board member of Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, said 2,000 children die globally from air pollution and she is concerned about the harmful effects of the gas plant’s emissions on nearby residents. 

“We as a community need to work toward solving that issue [of air pollution], not adding to it,” she said. 

Chesterfield NAACP President Nicole Brown wants to know why Dominion Energy is still using fossil fuels to provide energy and why the company is still burdening low-income minority communities with pollution.

“For Dominion Energy to be a billion dollar company, they definitely have a social and fiscal responsibility to provide clean energy,” she said. 

During an April 24 rally against the gas plant, Martin held up a placard with a map of a proposed site of the gas plant before Dominion decided it wanted to build at the Chesterfield Power Station. She pointed out an elementary school within 2 miles of the proposed site and mentioned a nearby community center. 

She said 6,000 people live in the immediate area surrounding the proposed site. “Sixty percent of those people look like me,” she said during the rally. “Why are we burdening the same Black and Brown people with pollution?”

Chesterfield community members are asking the county board of supervisors to hold a public hearing and to vote on Dominion’s proposed gas plant, which it has declined to do so far. 

“They just have not had a vote, I think that is critically important,” Farooq said. “They are here to advocate for us, as their community, as their constituents. That’s why we are asking them to have a vote on this gas plant because it is going to directly impact us.” 

Friends of Chesterfield is asking people to join them on Sept. 25 for the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors meeting to demand that the board hold a public hearing and vote on the site suitability form required for Dominion’s proposed gas plant.