A natural gas -fired power plant. (Stock photo via Getty Images)
The company that had been pushing to build an 1,100-megawatt natural gas power plant in Charles City has announced it will abandon the project.
“NOVI Energy cares deeply about the communities it serves and the affordable, reliable power facilities it helps build,” a communications firm representing the company told The Richmond Times-Dispatch, which reported the news Friday. “After taking feedback from the community and assessing the changing market, NOVI Energy has decided not to pursue the C4GT power plant.”
The project had been plagued by delays, local opposition and was embroiled in a dispute with Virginia Natural Gas over a failed plan to supply the plant with gas.
“Construction of a new natural gas power plant in Charles City County would bring significant environmental, health, and economic implications to the region,” U.S. Rep. Don McEachin, D-Richmond, who represents the area, said in a statement. “This project would have risked endangering the health of residents, particularly members from frontline communities, low-income communities and communities of color, who disproportionately suffer the health effects of harmful, toxic pollution.” Charles City, which is home to another large proposed natural gas power plant project and a landfill, has been for too long “a sacrifice zone where the community’s well-being has been exchanged for wanton industrial development,” said Gustavo Angeles, environmental justice program coordinator for the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter.
“Today’s victory reinforces that we can meet our energy needs without relying on fracked gas. The cancellation of the C4GT is one less investment in the further destruction of our clean water and communities. Instead, we can continue to invest in the clean energy solutions that are creating jobs without placing our long-term public health at risk.”