Despite years of failing to convince the Commonwealth of Virginia or the federal government to shutter Genon’s Potomac River Generating Station in Alexandria, the Sierra Club is pressuring D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray to file a special petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would put the power plant on a fast track to permanent closure. That move would be extremely unwise, since the federal government itself is dependent on electricity generated at the plant and the Sierra Club has no realistic replacement. Previously owned by Mirant, the plant was shut down in 2005 after the D.C. Public Service Commission filed a pollution complaint. But an emergency order by the U.S. Department of Energy quickly got it back online — albeit running with just two of five generators. In 2006, the plant was allowed to operate at full capacity again.
In 2007, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., asked EPA and Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality to stop work on a $30 million smokestack project designed to disperse pollutants faster to lessen their effect on local residents. In a 2008 letter to the Alexandria Health Department, William Cibulas, director of the Federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, stated that computer modeling “overestimated” residents’ exposure to pollutants and, as a result, “we cannot determine at this time if a public health hazard exists.”
