Local Sierra Club Group Protests New Power Plant in Southern Virginia

Earlier this month, members of the Mount Vernon group of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club joined hundreds of other Virginians in Richmond to protest the construction of a natural gas plant in Brunswick County.

Dominion Virginia Power will seek a permit from the State Corporation Commission in Richmond on April 24 to build the plant.

The April 14 demonstration protested Dominion’s plant proposal, which the Sierra Club said demonstrates an investment in unsustainable energy and carbon-polluting fossil fuels.

Participants in the demonstration performed the Electric Slide en masse to Marcia Griffiths’ 1976 song “Electric Boogie” to urge Dominion to “slide” toward clean energy.

"This Earth Day the best thing we can do for our communities is to stop Dominion's poorly planned fossil fuel plant, and invest in clean energy instead," said Phillip Ellis, a field organizer with the Sierra Club who works out of the group’s office on Mount Vernon Avenue.  

Ellis said thousands of Virginians have asked the SCC to consider the long-term consequences of Dominion’s proposals. Testimony to the SCC in regards to the plant suggested that energy efficiency would be a cheaper and safer option to meet the Virginia’s power needs, he said.