Let's Make a Deal

First of all, I am back from the Greenpeace Quit Coal Summit in Chicago and it was AWESOME! I will need a few days to process all of that awesome, but when I do I will definitely share it here.

In the meantime, I thought I might do a post on where we are geographically. After trying to describe to folks over the weekend where in Virginia the plant is proposed, and where in the community the plant is proposed, I thought it might be a good idea to give a little perspective on both. (I think some folks thought we were in Appalachia. We're not.)

Usually what I tell folks is,

"We are just across the James River from Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg,"

or,

"We are half-way between Richmond, VA and Virginia Beach,"

but, what usually gives them context is,

"We are the county where the Michael Vick dogfighting ring was operating." Everyone's heard of that.

Yup....that's us.

Here's what it looks like on a map of Virginia--we're the county in red:

Here's a close-up of the Hampton Roads area. The yellow circle is the proposed plant. The red lines are the waterways with existing mercury advisories (i.e. don't eat more than 1 fish a month from these waters, etc. As you can see, we've already got a lot of mercury in our water.):

This my friend Helen:

This is her ancestral home (on the main street in the town--pop. 300):

This is what her home will look like should the plant be built, literally, in her backyard (hers is the house on the left. Her in-laws live in the house on the right):

 

 

The land where that plant might be built is currently farmland. Now it is zoned for "business." How's that for an understatement? Is a coffee shop the same as a factory? Is "business" the same as "heavy industry?"

Would you want that in YOUR backyard? To send electricity to other communities, counties, states?

If you were Helen, what would you do?

And how many other "Helens" are there out there? People who are directly and negatively impacted by electricity generation.

When you flip on your switch are you doing this to someone?

Do you know? Do you care?

What if you wake up one day and find out that you are the next Helen?

Will people care?

We'll care--me, Helen, and a whole bunch of others.

Call us. We'll have your back.

In the meantime we just ask that you have ours now.

Deal?