um my name is Vince Maiden I recently
took over as the Director of the state
Energy Office for Virginia energy I live
and work in Richmond now uh originally a
Southwest Virginia native if you can't
tell from my accent uh born in raised in
Smith County and I'm kind of glad to be
back here with folks uh participating in
this event I volunteered to be here I I
wasn't asked originally to be here
because I think it's very important to
participate in these type of community
dialogues and I want to thank everybody
for taking time out of your life to be
here I know you got other things you
could be doing and we really appreciate
you attending uh it's a beautiful
evening and you're in a room talking to
us so it's important um tonight we've
got the format uh we're going to have
some presentations but there's a
logistically on the questions we you saw
the cards the note cards out front so if
you have questions write those questions
down as we're talking if you think of
questions write those down we'll collect
those questions and once we get to the
Q&A session uh we'll go through those
questions there's also a handout that's
in the back and on the front table for
those who submitted questions in advance
thank you uh some of those were highly
technical questions and it's good to
take our time and answer those we've
given you a handout we may run into some
very technical questions that can't be
answered tonight if we do we'll take
those back and provide them to you and
answer those questions but we will be
here uh after this speaking part to
answer your questions uh until till
you're ready to go up to 8:00 or maybe
longer so uh do thank you for coming out
um the first uh speaker we're going to
have tonight is uh Daniel Kesner uh but
I'm going to go over a few things uh
before we get to
Daniel uh
so we're on the why are we here slide so
these are why we this is our our view of
why we're here so we really there's
hundreds of billions of dollars
available in the federal
funding that a lot of times communities
like Southwest Virginia communities and
Rural communities historically have been
left out of we believe that we need to
really get our fire share of that money
into communities like this we don't want
to miss out you know I've been in the
communities and lived in communities
where we always seem to miss out so
that's one of the reasons that that I
feel like we're here uh
many of the programs are targeted toward
energy communities so in these resources
if you're an energy Community which a
lot of Southwest Virginia is an energy
Community you have a better chance of
getting additional
resources Virginia as I mentioned is
seeking more than its fair share that's
when one of our directives is that we go
after this Federal money that can
benefit our citizens and our
communities um I'm going to throw up a
map of the energy communities and you
can see what I'm talking about from uh
for Southwest Virginia so these are
really coal mining and fossil fuel power
plant communities so if you have a
retired mine uh a retired uh energy uh
production facility all those count a
lot of these are brownfields I worked a
lot for DEQ for two decades at the
Department of Environmental Quality some
of it in aington and I spent the last
six years before coming to energy doing
brownfields Redevelopment a lot of the
resources in the time that I spent was
in Southwest Virginia trying to help
those communities and having these kind
of dialogues for what the communities
want and want the communities need so
I'm really happy to be here tonight and
I am going to turn it over to Daniel and
we're going to have a series of speakers
we're going to try not to take up too
much of the time so we can get to your
questions all right thanks Vin I
appreciate that um as Vince mentioned
I'm Daniel Kesner I'm the economic
development program manager for Virginia
energy
with the agency going on 23 years just
in the building right up the hill here
in bigstone gap um with the former
Department of Mines minerals and energy
and now Virginia energy uh all the work
we've been been doing here in Southwest
Virginia I'll talk a little bit about my
program a new program and and some
initiatives and some work we're doing at
Virginia energy that I think may have be
be of interest I'll be I'll be brief but
hopefully if you have any questions
we're always uh available to answer
those and can contact me anytime and
again I'm just just I'm here in bigstone
gap this next slide Vin talked about the
funding opportunities um you know a lot
of this is as a result of
legislation the bipartisan
infrastructure law and the inflation
reduction act those two pieces of
legislation infused a lot of a lot of
money out there a lot of funding
opportunities and many of those funding
opportunities have targeted energy
communities so you know Vince said more
than our share but at least our fair
share if not more right and I think
that's one of our one of our goals when
we go after grant opportunities I know
there's a lot on here and it's it's
difficult to see uh but that bottom
number you know this is our current
Grant plan to try to you know we're
pursuing over a billion dollars and
federal funding opportunities and a lot
of that across Virginia but particularly
Southwest Virginia so a lot of a lot of
funding for a lot of different programs
and I'll go into a few of those uh but
really you know these funding
opportunities um are to support Economic
Development and clean energy
transition so you know a lot of the
energy communities a part of that
criteria is are those communities that
have been impacted by the downturn of
coal economy uh those definitions and
things we provided the website there but
at energy communities. goov that's part
of the White House's inter agency
working group on coal and power plant
communities a lot of good resources
there
uh some current projects and I'll just
mention Economic Development uh and what
I do uh we started this in in 2020 with
a focus on repurposing M lands there's
over 100,000 acres in the Southwest
Virginia coalfield have been impacted by
coal mining um many of these properties
you know we've worked with them for
years through our pering and a long
regulatory history dating back into the
60s so we've got a lot of experience and
a lot of data around these old mind
sites and even current mind sites
and they' worked on post mining land use
issues for many years um you so that was
part of what we wanted to do with
economic development is see what can be
done and repurpose a lot of these Minds
sites and that that repurposing although
lot we talk a lot about energy projects
includes Industrial and Commercial
manufacturing Recreation a in some cases
so it's really all the above but you
know those evaluations are done through
the mining program for permitted sites
at former permitted sites and also
abandoned mind lands so that kind of
encompasses all the 100,000 acres of
abandoned of of M land of former M land
in in Southwest Virginia and one of the
programs that some of you may have heard
of it's been going on for some time is
our abandoned mind land economic
revitalization program uh since 2017
when that began as a pilot there's been
over $56 million U obligated for
projects in South West Virginia in the
coalfield and there's already 42
projects funded and uh and I think 10
have been completed and many others are
closing on on being completed and we
have we have a an opportunity out there
right now if you go to Virginia Energy's
website you'll see that we have uh you
know soon we'll be asking for uh
projects to be submitted for the next
round of funding for abandoned mind land
and finally for our current projects I
want to mention a specific uh pot of
money that's been set aside as a resort
of the bipartisan infrastructure law and
that's really for enhanced abandoned
mind land Reclamation projects and
that's through b and it's a substantial
sum of money that Virginia is going to
be getting annually um to accelerate uh
Reclamation of abandon mind lands in the
region uh additional roughly $22 million
will be used to look at more large scale
uh maybe Watershed base but it provides
funding to take care of a lot of the
historically uh historic M problems from
the abandon mindand program which is all
those Coal Mine features left over prior
to a August 3rd 1977 so there's a
definition there that we have to meet a
few future projects and some that we're
excited about I want to highlight those
uh one of those is our uh solar for all
and this is in progress uh we're we're
working we've put together a full
application for this this funding uh
it's $250 million it's a US Department
of energy Grant um really excited about
that and that's really for residential
solar installation uh maybe some uh
storage and some Community solar and
some other things but really excited
about the workforce piece with that
where there's some training dollars 8
million will be set aside um for you
know residential training for Community
solar and storage Workforce so really
excited about that opportunity uh we
don't have it yet we're waiting uh so
we're we're keeping our fingers crossed
but many of these funding opportunities
are competitive some are are formula or
kind of guaranteed amounts but other are
are competitive and these are all over
the country and and a lot of folks are
competing for these but we feel like we
have a great chance for this another I
want to mention is a training
residential energy contractors another
Workforce training opportunity uh
training grants for electricians hbac
Auditors and installers uh really
excited about the opportunity to get
Workforce training out of some of these
federal dollars and with that
Vince thank you Daniel
yeah yeah and a lot of these programs
will run through the state energy office
and there's really just too many that
are in the works uh to talk about but
there's a lot of different benefits from
home Energy rebates to to uh to
opportunities to uh improve your Energy
Efficiency in your home those are going
to be great programs that are going to
help a lot of people and uh we just kind
of wanted to highlight some of the other
components like Workforce and getting
all this on the ground it's going to be
complicated there's a lot of federal
bureaucracy but I can tell you I've seen
our staff in the state Energy Office is
working tirelessly to try to make sure
we get these funds and we can get these
funds out to Citizens and they they
really deeply care about the work they
do and the work we do in the energy
office and about Southwest Virginia and
other rural communities across the state
um the next topic we're going to talk
about is sighting of energy communities
which uh I think you care a lot about
and I'm going to bring up Mike
skiffington who's our chief operating
officer and long-term employee with the
Department of Minds in energy now
Virginia
energy Thank You Vince good evening
everyone thank you very much for being
here as Vince stated I'm Michael
skiffington and I'm honored to serve as
the Chief Operating Officer for Virginia
energy based out of our Richmond office
I've been with the agency over 14 years
now and uh almost 25 years of State
service and um just a couple of minor
administrative notes want to make uh
clear for everybody here that this
presentation is going to go on our
website uh in the not too distant future
the handout as well we'll have an
electronic copy of that available on our
website um so uh keep keep your eyes
peeled for
that so I want to talk a little bit
about the sighting process for energy
projects of of any kind uh and how that
generally works here in
Virginia so in addition to housing our
state energy office in Richmond and our
state geologic survey in Charlottesville
Virginia energy right regulates all
Mining and gas and oil extraction in the
Commonwealth and that currently includes
approximately 32 coal mines and 8,000
gas Wells here in Southwest Virginia and
also 440 mineral mines um all across the
Commonwealth but but what we do not do
is we do not regulate the sighting or
permitting of any energy uh any
generating
facilities and how the sighting process
typically start start S is with
something that's called the
interconnection process and these are
procedures and standards to ensure that
new generation resources of any type can
safely interconnect to the electric
power system to the grid uh to start
sharing those electrons and that process
um is dependent upon the type of
generation that is uh being applied for
so transmission level interconnections
are that are generally greater than 20
megawatts uh those are regulated by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and
also and those are implemented by an
organization called pjm and what pjm is
is a regional transmission organization
and they basically regulate and operate
the grid for parts of 13 states in the
midatlantic and Northeast and Virginia
belongs to excuse me Virginia does
belong to
pjm projects that are less than 20 megaw
at the distribution level are typically
regulated at at the state level by the
state Corporation Commission which is an
independent state agency that regulates
uh public utilities and many other
aspects of Commerce in the Commonwealth
these proceedings uh for interconnection
uh as I'm going to talk about in a
second are very detailed very technical
and take a very long time uh public
participation opportunities in this
particular space are limited but they
are uh much greater in other areas of
the sighting process and I'm going to
talk about that in just a
second so here's an example of uh how
the interconnection process works uh pjm
typically requires three separate highly
detailed highly technical studies um and
as a result of all that analysis that
has to be done of those studies it can
take anywhere from five to seven years
for any kind of project to get all of
the necessary approvals and it might be
a little bit hard to see uh but what
we've got on the graph there is a sample
of two projects that have been permitted
and if you look in the First Column of
the of the top project the application
was submitted in April of 2016 and went
through all the procedures at the at pjm
at the local level and at the state
level and finally went into service in
January of 2022 so that particular
example almost 6 years and in the bottom
example uh seven years from December of
2016 to December of
2023 and
um so all of those processes are
obviously very fact specific and very
sight specific to the project that the
developer is interested in pursuing so
there's no you know it's not a one- siiz
fits-all and it's not everything all
processes take the same amount of
time so when you consider sighting um
I'm going to talk a minute specifically
about solar because the goals that are
contained for solar in the Virginia
clean economy Act uh dictate that most
of the new energy that's coming online
is going to be a a a solar so we a solar
project so we wanted to talk a little
bit about how that process generally
Works uh first uh a developer needs to
get local land use approval and that the
land use process in the in the
Commonwealth is does happen at the local
level and localities some localities are
passing zoning laws that prevent large
Solar Development in some areas and some
localities have been uh welcoming solar
projects with open arms but they they M
each locality maintains control over how
the land is used uh in that
locality and then we have state
permits um and that is a uh a process
that has two Avenues to it and the first
is it can go through the state
Corporation Commission that I mentioned
earlier they issue what is known as a
certificate of public convenience and
necessity or cpcn and that's typically
uh can be any sized project can go
through this process but a project that
is over 150 million excuse me 150
megawatts must go through this process
there is a public hearing as a part of
that process where the public can
participate and offer their comments as
to the viability of the project and the
Commissioners at the SEC have to rule
that the project is in the public
interest before that cpcn can be uh
issued the Second Avenue is through
What's called the PBR or the permit by
rule process that is regulated by the
Virginia Department of Environmental
Quality for projects that are under 150
megawatts those are eligible to use the
PBR process which is designed to be an
expedited process to allow more
renewable energy to come onto the grid
and there are uh a 30-day public review
and comment period associated with that
and a public hearing is also required
so and the plan as part of that process
uh several agencies are involved along
with the EQ to review um the PBR
application to determine that it meets
all the requirements that are
established in laws and
regulations there is also a land
disturbance permit that a solar
developer needs to apply for and that
that includes erosion and sediment
control it includes storm water
management and a plan for storm water
pollution
prevention and finally a decommissioning
plan where the solar developer has to
enter an agreement with the localities
to discuss what happens when the project
reaches the end of its useful life what
happens to the panels what happens to
the soil in terms of making sure it is
St stabilized and revegetated for when
the project is over and the panels are
gone
now we're going to talk a little bit
here about nuclear
sighting uh and and the public
participation opportunities that are
contained uh within that process uh at
the local level again localities with
their land use Authority uh typically
will have public meetings and public
hearings for um any sort of large sort
of sighting opportunity for any energy
project uh there's also the cpcn from
the uh State Corporation Commission that
that might be necessary uh de may also
uh issue some permits but primarily uh
nuclear energy is related or excuse me
regulated at the federal level by the
federal nuclear Regulatory Commission
the
NRC and we're just going to talk very
briefly about some of the requirements
that exist um it's a very lengthy and
detailed process as you might imagine
and currently uh I know there's been a
lot of talk about small modular reactors
the but at the RC the currently the
typical or um uh traditional nuclear
plants and smrs are have these same
regulatory requirements and we've listed
a few of them here uh must be in a low
population area must be on bedrock and
uh geologic concerns have to be taken
into account along with seismology
meteorology and hydrology uh Virginia
energy is committed to getting nuclear
deploy nuclear energy deployed to help
address uh the oncoming generation gap
with respect to uh energy facilities in
the Commonwealth as fossil fuel uh
plants are currently required to be uh
shuttered by 2045 under the Virginia
clean economy act uh the site specific
current criteria as I've said is the
same for traditional reactors and
advanced small modular reactors and it's
governed by the federal uh nuclear
Regulatory Commission we could talk for
hours just on that alone but for a high
level view of the sighting requirements
uh we will leave it there for right now
Vince thank you thank you again for
coming thanks
V so you know in that in that
presentation you heard a lot of the
things that we don't do and a lot of the
things that are maybe future
opportunities for public engagement
permitting processes I worked in
regulatory for 24 years I've been part
of a few Lively permitting processes
even here in Southwest Virginia uh there
are a lot of regulatory steps to permit
any energy facility
uh but I don't think your dialogue here
is being lost because I think it's
important for us to hear from the
community how they feel how the
communities what you want uh early in
the dialogue even when we're not uh the
prime primary permitting agency we do
have a stake in energy and we like to be
able to share with you so you learn from
us and we learn for you that's what I
hope we get out of this but with that
I'll get to issue of the day and we're
going to ring up director ly Davis who's
going to talk uh about our nuclear
update and then we're going to get into
the Q&A which is I'm sure what you came
for perfect well thank you Vince um and
I just want to Echo uh everyone else's
comments I appreciate everyone coming
here this evening uh it is a gorgeous
day it's probably one of the first Warm
evenings uh in a little while so for
yall to join here and uh share with us
is greatly appreciated for this dialogue
uh so nuclear energy
there we go okay so nuclear energy isn't
obviously new to Virginia Virginia has
two facilities today North Ana and Su
today they provide 3.2 GW of energy
about 30% of the energy supplied in the
Commonwealth of Virginia uh we have
significant business clusters in
Virginia specifically in Lynchburg two
of the largest national and I would even
say international players in nuclear
energy are bwxt and fratone both located
in
Linburg the atomic physics and nuclear
research being done whether it's by our
universities whether it's by jayab we
have a history of being on the Leading
Edge of some of the nuclear
research and of course our us Nuclear
Navy uh I'm actually from Virginia Beach
so I grew up with probably 40 nuclear
reactors off the coast of of our Ocean
Front any any given
day so how do we uh how do we get here
and this started back in October of 202
2 when the governor announced his
moonshot and the moonshot had three
pieces the first piece of it was he
wanted to deploy a nuclear reactor for
energy an SMR a small modular reactor he
wanted it within 10 years which put us
at
232 and he wanted to make sure that we
deployed the nuclear supply chain in
Appalachia and there's a very important
reason for that you see nuclear energy
isn't just about power generation for
the governor it's about the next
generation of families in Southwest
Virginia Southwest Virginia used to be
the Hub of energy I would say for the
Mid Atlantic if not the whole east coast
and it can be once again and that's what
the governor sees is that huge Economic
Opportunity that we'll talk about here
in just a couple
minutes so why
nuclear 2020 we had the Virginia clean
economy act when when the Virginia clean
economy act rolled out it was
anticipated that Virginia was is going
to experience as well as just about
every other state in the nation a power
demand growth of 1 to 2% year-over-year
that didn't hold true that
1.2% is now estimated to be
5.6% it's a three-fold increase of what
we anticipated and threefold more than
any other state in the nation so the
governor had his 2022 energy plan it's
an All-American all the above energy
plan and when the governor says all of
the above he means all the above you all
about a billion dollars in Grants that
we've been taking down from the feds
some of it for solar some of it for
Energy Efficiency some may be for
hydrogen some may be help with the
nuclear side but the governor believes
that the only way we're going to fill
that 5.6% year-over-year growth is by
utilizing all the resources that
Virginia can put together for energy in
the
Commonwealth and that basically gets us
to where we want to be with utilizing
our our nuclear our solar and all the
resources the demand is the important
part of the equation it's truly why
we're here I mentioned the 5.5 or 5.6%
year-over-year annual growth it's
expected to Peak at 42,000 Mega by
2034 almost double current
levels and we're trying to meet the low
growth and the zero uh um emissions
goals that virgin that via has and
mandated by 2050 for both sides of the
Commonwealth and with alco's success
even more can come to this
region this is a in an important chart
so Mike mentioned the inter
interconnection piece and from time to
time people come and they say Glenn the
pjm Q is huge look at all this power
that's going to come into the pjm Q
basically the 13 states that we are a
member of 252,000 megawatts as of April
23 Glenn look at how much of this is in
Virginia over 60,000 megawatts in
Virginia alone aren't we going to be
fine but here's the number that matters
our historic completion rate of these
projects is
5% the reason it's 5% is because
Virginia doesn't control the
interconnection queue like Mike Mike
mentioned it's out of our hands it's at
the federal level additionally when you
start talking about six or seven years
to go through that Cube sometimes by the
time you get permission either you've
got zoning issues you've got supply
chain issues or other concerns develop
that it cannot no longer be completed
and so that's why although we may get
excited about how much energy might be
sitting out there from a wind or solar
or a nuclear potentially in the future
it's that 5% completion rate that is
very
concerning so the support that we gotten
from the federal government is very
important and I think the quote from the
US sec of energy says it the best the
continued deployment of nuclear energy
is essential to confronting climate
change we have an administration at the
federal level that is Allin on
confronting climate change and and clean
energy but they've recognized in
numerous occasions that the only way
we're truly going to get there is with
nuclear so much so that they've put over
$400 billion in Department of energy
Loan program office funds to help States
reach that goal not including the IRA
tax incentives which come to billions
more the state federal state support for
nuclear energy has been enormous uh it
started out in 2020 with the clean
energy designation and some funding for
research and in 2023 the VIN Hub which
is going to help lead when it comes to
research for nuclear in the Commonwealth
of Virginia and $4 million into the
power Innovation
fund so what are we doing now in the
department of energy when it comes to
nuclear there's two important pieces of
the equation the first is we're meeting
consistently with developers technology
providers there's so many different
Technologies out there for nuclear they
all tell a good story who are the ones
that we need to be looking and talking
to the most which are the ones that a
utility or a private entity may bring to
the Commonwealth and we want to be in
front of that the second is looking at
identifying existing Supply chains
because every time the governor talks
about power generation it doesn't matter
if it's solar or wind or nuclear he
talks about the supply chain not only do
we want to have that New Power
Generation to make sure that when you go
home every night and you hit that light
switch your lights come on but we want
to make sure we get the thousands of new
jobs around these new Industries
standing up to help grow our economy in
the
Commonwealth one of them obviously is
the small modular reactors they have a
very small footprint significantly lower
cost than our traditional
reactors significant siding
flexibility much safer design and
significant Economic Development
opportunities it truly is an expansion
and Innovation that is essential to our
carbon free reliable
grid so every so often we go out and we
talk to groups and they ask us some of
the questions that really are important
on people's minds and even when I go to
some groups you know in in the
communities I get these same questions
the first one being will Virginia choose
or when will Virginia choose to put in
SMR where's it going to go and the fact
of the matter is Virginia will not be
choosing a site we will not be choosing
a technology there are two entities that
will bring an SMR to the Commonwealth of
Virginia one will be a utility the other
will be a private company the
Commonwealth of Virginia itself has no
say in where it goes and uh and what
technology is going to be utilized the
second is the nuclear is not a clean
energy source and that is deniably Truth
uh false it is significantly clean the
Biden Administration has come out and
said it truly is the one clean energy
source that helps combat the climate
situation that they have facing
us oops there we go um spent nuclear
fuel will be stored underground in Coal
Mines completely false we're not looking
to store spent nuclear fuel in Coal
Mines interestingly if you were to take
all the nuclear fuel in the history of
this nation and put it all together it
would be it will cover an area the size
of just one football field and 10 m deep
that is all the spent nuclear fuel in
the history of of the US so what happens
to this fuel role today these are in
concrete casts they're buried on the
ground it's interesting what's going to
come around though the department of
energy is actually talking about consent
based sighing they're looking at putting
out an RFP where localities and states
can bid to be able to take nuclear waste
and they're looking at that for two
reasons the first is obviously there's
money attached to it from the federal
government the second reason they're
looking at it is they believe that there
will come a time when we will recycle
nuclear Fuel and when that happens that
new industry will stand up where that
spent nuclear fuel happens to be and so
that's what the doe is looking at is
these areas that are will willing to
raise their hand already and say we are
willing to take it because of the
Economic Opportunity and future it holds
and lastly is a question if we just
deploy more deploy more solar we don't
need nuclear solar is a tremendous
resource when coupled with battery
storage it's a tremendous opportunity
for the Commonwealth but when the sun
doesn't shine when the wind doesn't blow
the lights still need to come on nuclear
isn't always on 24/7 365 day a year
dispatchable resource it is the
foundation of a clean energy
economy but here's I think a slide that
kind of sums up the important part up
until now we've talked about a lot of
facts a lot of figures that I think are
very important to energy but when you
look at this slide this is The Economic
Opportunity I mentioned that the
governor the governor is very passionate
about Southwest Virginia when he talks
about wanting to bring the nuclear
economy to Southwest Virginia not just
about power generation it's about the
next generation of families in Southwest
Virginia constructing a a SMR can
provide up to 900 jobs during that 4year
construction period it can provide 300
jobs year-over-year after that the
economic output could be $500 million a
year and the average wage is
$85,000 a year that could be a game
changer for Southwest Virginia but let's
just not talk for a second about the
deployment of reactor let's talk about
the supply chain itself
when you look at fratone one of the
leaders when it comes to nuclear R&D and
processes they're in Lynchburg Virginia
they did an expansion a few months ago
the governor went down there as part of
the expansion announcement they
announced a $50 million expansion
515 new jobs average starting pay
$90,000 a year that's a game changer
when it comes to Southwest Virginia and
you take it a step further you see it
used to be that when you looked at new
nuclear energy maybe you look at okay we
get the reactor and the jobs maybe we
get the supply chain and the jobs but
there's so much more to come with it
just the other day Google Microsoft and
new cor announced a joint partnership
where they're going to combine that
their load to get advanced technology
including a ASMR inside the PGA
marketplace now you may say what does
that mean well that means that they're
looking to bring Google and Microsoft
data centers and so you have the an
opportunity but what really is exciting
is newe newe is one of the largest well
probably the largest steel manufacturer
in the nation it's one of the hardest
Industries to decarbonize it has a ton
of carbon footprint and they're looking
to decarbonize their steel industry by
using nuclear to power their furnaces
and so not only would a reactor
potentially coming to the come with of
Virginia mean the jobs on the reactor it
can me hundreds and hundreds of new jobs
in a new Manu steel manufacturer
opportunity for the come withth as well
and that's really what the future holds
and what this opportunity for all of us
to get together and have conversations
allows us to talk about so with that
I'll just say again I appreciate your
time and Vince we can move on to the
questions so thanks for your patience uh
and setting through our presentation so
uh I know a lot of us have been to
church so uh there's this young
gentleman in the back that's got a hat
if you have a question on your card uh
we'll try to come around and collect
those uh questions from folks and begin
answering those questions so uh U
anybody
R and if your uh question is going to
take an hour to answer because it's
really technical we'll try to get you a
written response but uh we'll do our
best to answer everything that you have
and if you uh come up with one while
we're talking just raise your card
sir thank
you all right I'll go ahead since I have
a couple I'll go ahead and get started
so uh this is for our a steamed panel I
think Glenn you're going to answer quite
a few of these but uh wouldn't a nuclear
waste leak be more detrimental than
whatever pollution comes from our coal
a new B waste Le would be
devastating thank God
we thank God that you know I'm
[Music]
from safy mechanism I you know it's
undeniable that it would be devastating
but that's why there's so much oversight
on safety by the nuclear V commission
there is nothing harder to s in this
nation than nuclear reactor uh and so
yes it would be devastating thank God
for the safety mechanisms I think this
one kind of relates uh to what that
question was is what are the
environmental and human risk associated
with nuclear plants and at what
radius so this is where we might want to
get a little technical on some of the
stuff but um the re actors today have an
epz Zone basically an emergency Zone uh
that's mandated at 10 miles the smrs
will have a much smaller uh Zone I've
heard it's significant you know
significantly smaller and could be six
acres we're waiting for the NC to come
down with that um and uh but once again
the key on this when you look at these
reactors they're what they call walk
away safe they can't have a meltdown it
gets into the whole how these are built
the safety mechanisms when there's an
issue with them they atically shut
themselves down these are not the
traditional reactors that you may you
know think about from the 70s so when we
talk about the re it's not just of what
if it's of what has been done so that
you don't have these same concerns that
we had the 70s and I would say really
these conversations where I think i'
like to answer these questions EV is by
um taking that and we'll take that back
we'll Supply some of that safety
analysis be great to share that
definitely take that down um and you
know and we're not saying there's not
environmental risk nobody's saying that
for a nuclear release I mean I worked in
the environmental field did a lot of
risk assessment over over time there is
a risk but there's a reason that nuclear
industry is highly regulated and it's
because of if it does escape there is
human health risk and there's risk to
the environment so nobody is is is
arguing that at all so um I we'll switch
it up a little different direction but
uh what local sites are being considered
we talked a little bit about this that
we don't exactly pick the sites but I
know there's been some studies so when
you want to take that one but but the
the answer is none I mean what important
is what sites are being considered by
entities that could develop anmr and the
answer is Department of energy does not
know of anything we have not had AO we
have not had Dominion we have not had a
private company come to us and say we
would like to start the investigation
process with the NT on a disar land
there orig one that's what I really
appreciate about the questions that were
asked before we got here and our team
took them but a lot of those questions
depend dep on the location of the
reactor the technology of the reactor
and that is something that we don't know
because no inity has come forward and
said we want to do this technology in
this place once it happens a lot of
questions I think become very important
uh we have to have those conversations
but as at this moment there's no partiel
of land in the Commonwealth that has
been identified as for deployment of a
reactor that's under uh
consideration I'm gonna keep hitting you
here Glen so uh we got a lot of
questions so thank you for taking the
time and writing them down this does
actually help us when we go back to make
sure we're providing you information
that you need uh can you expand or
explain a little bit uh Glenn on why
there was such an
underestimated uh need for electricity
why why we miss the Mark what's driving
that demand uh that we're seeing in the
growth that we're trying to meet Now
with uh some some new uh development
that's a wonderful question um
data centers and AI uh the if you look
it's a graph that we have we want to
include this graph ran got it if you
look at the forecast going back to 2020
you get all these graphs that you know
they all look about the same and all of
a sudden I think it's 2021 or 202
actually two I think it just shoots up
all of a sudden um or through 23 in and
it's because of estimated uh uh growth
in uh data centers in Northern Virginia
well data centers are just not more than
Virginia anymore they're looking at some
other areas and now ai has grown a lot
quicker than people anticipated AI is a
lot more data intensive or energy
intensive than just a traditional data
center uh and that really has ramped up
the demand curve for the Commonwealth of
Virginia we we're the data center
capital of the world is a huge economic
driver for us we want to stay that way
and that we're going have to rise to the
occasion when it comes to the uh theand
allocation for uh growth of energy as
well we go a little different uh
Direction here with regulatory uh type
stuff that you know we don't necessarily
oversee but uh you may have some insight
on LY so you know the state the regul uh
State Corporation Commission has seats
that are sometimes all filled or not
filled or uh and then they change those
seats like uh is are these kind of
decisions that are made at that level
going to be heard over and over again
because the seats change or is there any
control over how many times a decision
say to deploy a facility would go in
front of the commission now um so just
because there's a roll over in judges
there there are three SEC judges and
what they may be referring to is for a
couple years um we only had one
permanent judge um we now have three
judges by the way and but uh just
because a judge May roll over there for
six-year terms um and just because a
judge May roll over doesn't mean you
hear a case over again uh every Power
generating facility goes in front of the
FCC uh Mike talked about the CPC in
process uh the FCC has the demon in the
best interest of the ray uh and then
they can approve it or they can deny it
uh they also uh get involved when it
comes to race and rate recover and uh
and rs uh and charge recoveries as well
so um it all go through the SEC U it all
do through them
on all right thank you
um so Will fision based nuclear energy
become obsolete as Fusion Energy
develops and I'm going to interject a
little bit here so I started my career
as a young scientist let's just say 25
26 years ago uh even though I look much
younger uh and even then you know I was
super excited about Fusion and the fact
that it was 10 years away and it always
feels like it's 10 years away but I
still continue to be excited but uh
Glenn what are your thought on that uh
you know you know I I don't think
anything gets outdated you know um
becomes obsolete uh you know I I'd love
to see that one day that technology one
day um who knows when that day may be uh
in the interim we've got to make sure
that the lights come on you know uh you
know going around the state people may
disagree on what what technologies we
should use for power uh they may
disagree on what uh Technologies should
be decommissioned for power everyone
agrees 100% that when they hit the light
switch the power should come on and so
we're looking at the technology glal
today the Innovative technology right
around the corner to make sure we meet
that demand and should new technology
come on board My Hope Is and this
Governor will sit here and tell you that
we want to be first in everything uh so
hopefully we stay in the first if that
technology should overse the commercial
level as well and I will say you know a
lot of us with AI hitting and energy
demands ramping up now we might think
it's bad there's probably a future that
none of us can really think about maybe
some of our kids are starting to think
about and some one we may not like with
some of the the growth but you know I
think Fusion at some point becomes I'm
continuing to be hopeful uh a solution
to some of our energy problems so thank
you for that
question uh there's so many good ones
I'm just going to keep on rolling here
uh so if there was a leak of waste so
we're back to a release uh would it
would it possibly contaminate the coal
seams that may be nearby preting
preventing and obtaining or yeah
obtaining of the coal in the future so
would it uh basically K kill any
leftover coal mining would it
contaminate those zones and I think some
of the sighting stuff that Mike talked
about would sort of prevent this but
yeah yeah I mean you know is this this
once goes back to risk so there's RIS
with everything we do you know there's
um there's a risk that when we leave
here this evening God forbid you're
driving home there's a risk that you get
in a bad car accident thank you sir
you're going to leave here tonight we
still going to drive home but there's
always at risk like V said everything we
do in life has a risk the question is
how big is that risk and that's what the
state with the EQ that's what the SEC
that's what the nuclear Regulatory
Commission that's what your local
government is meant to make sure that
that risk is as close to zero and
honestly to be completely honest with
you with the NRC it has to pretty much
be zero uh before they will commission
such an opportunity so yeah there's a
risk of a lot of things but in life what
we have to do is we have to ra risk ver
reward and I can tell you the reward is
tremendous because the alternative is
one day you're going to turn your light
going to turn your lights on and they're
not going to come on we've we've seen
rolling blackouts I mean how many
remember Texas all right I mean you know
people died out there because of the way
think the lack of power being able to
get around we we see rolling blackouts
in California
no one in Virginia wants that so we we
have to be safe but we also have to
continue moving forward to make sure we
fill that energy
demand thank you for that uh you guys
are good I hope you P you know when the
tithe plate comes around I hope you're
this good too so uh are the
uh sorry for that so are the reactors
meant to prevent any
possibility of ever utilizing our our
coal production here here again and I'll
end with exactly what we said we want
our
coal I mean actually Vince you're
probably better than Daniel's probably
better for that one I mean Cole has
always been important to this area I
think Daniel you know you really have
been in this industry for a long time
Daniel and I have known each other for a
long time but he's lived the energy
landscape in the coal fields and worked
at at the at the agency for a long time
so Daniel what's your thoughts on that
well you know this is working okay I you
know the coold being mind in Virginia
right now for for the most part is coal
makes steel right so um metalurgical
coal production um will remain will
always be a need for it most of the coal
that's being mined right now um a lot
for export but it is for steel
production primarily and we see that BR
continue we see a need for for C uh for
steel
production thank you Daniel there's a
lot of excellent questions so thank you
for taking these in so um I guess this
is for nuclear will
will the will this increase our uh the
utility cost for our
citizens um so it depends of what this
is right um we don't know where it's
going to be built we don't know who's
going to build it um we don't know the
technology that's going to be used we
don't know what the ask is going to be
in front of the SEC I can tell you that
the governor said numerous times that he
will not do this the way that officer wi
was done he will not put the rate payers
at risk um will it impact the the rates
of a repair i i i that that is the
perfect question to ask once an entity
comes forward a utility comes forward
and says I'd like to build an SMR at
this location using this technology uh
that is one of the first questions I
would I would you know I would think
that would be
asked all right and uh I've got one I'll
take a shot at answering and then I'll
toss it to you guys uh so are the pjm
delay delays do they apply to nuclear
facilities as well as solar and wind so
if a nuclear facility needs to connect
to the grid that process will take time
just like other facilities if it's a
solution say a data center Google has a
bunch of data centers and they want to
do a let's just call it behind the meter
solution they don't have to worry about
that interconnection that becomes a
different story and those delays may or
may not apply to that site
so thank you for
that
utilities I mean I know
my dad who's here he complains a lot
about the AE rates he's right down here
so don't blame him for anything I say
he's a really nice guy just the
opportunity you know to see me coming
out of Richmond
so let's see what the next one is some
of you guys right like me but some of
you write
better how can you say nuclear is clean
the waste will never go
away so when you say nuclear is clean
it's the power generation piece um is
clean and it's not just me saying it
it's the Biden Administration saying it
it's you it's it's everyone saying you
know saying it and it depends on how you
want to Define clean I mean so the same
the bat been had let's say of a wind you
know um you need to produce the blades
those blades are not made without carbon
emissions there's a footprint to every
blade that's on that on those turbines
every solar panel you see there was
carbon emissions to create those solar
panels when they need to be retired
there will probably be carbon emissions
regardless of what we do with those
blades and those solar panels so yes
every if you trace something from its
beginning of a molecule to whatever it
is to its retirement there's probably
going to be an impact somewhere but when
you look at the energy itself is it
energy does it have a carbon footprint
that's how they Define clean does it
have a carbon footprint is it carbon
emitting and the answer is no nuclear is
not noncarbon emitting which is why
you've got the Biden Administration
putting up so much money and saying that
the only way we have a true clean
economy and include clean energy plan is
with nuclear fuel or with nuclear
power and uh this one is will uh say
where will this new keeping on the wayte
SC where will it go so a lot of you know
nuclear facilities they store their
waste in Cask on site at the this time a
lot of you probably remembered all the
hubub about trying to find a place for
all this to go in America at one time
but there was never a a one location
solution so it would be managed on site
until there's an alternative solution
which doe mentioned earlier is looking
for those type of solutions so you don't
have to manage that waste on site
there's some optimists who think that
that waste will be usable and that we
can continue to uh to take advantage of
the benefit of that material along term
uh so hopefully there's some value to
that waste at some
point who will build a SMR facility in
our area I think we've all talked about
this there you know there's not been a
there's not been a company chosen to
decide uh none of the utilities have
picked anybody I think it's uh there's a
lot of innovation going on uh with small
modular nuclear reactors um and uh it's
to be determined who's going to build a
successful small modular reactor as
Glenn mentioned the governor always
wants to be first so he's always been
interested in doing that in
Virginia I'm kind of giving you a little
time to uh if I can answer it unless
y'all get tired of hearing from me I'll
kick it back to him
um so are you proposing a waste
facility uh in our
area um you know so I mean we're not
even proposing right now an SMR in your
area there's no entity that's come to us
and said we want to build an SMR in
Southwest Virginia um and once an entity
comes to to come and says hey we have a
technology we'd like to look at sites
and we think we found a site we want to
start this process then this whole
process of Citizen engagement again
starts and we have to talk about the
waste and mean what's interesting is
depending on the technology the whole
conversation of waste is completely
different the the type of fuel is
different based on the reactor in some
cases the the length of time that goes
before it becomes waste is completely
different and additionally you've got
the doe looking for Solutions this
consent based sighting you know what
comes of that when we talk about
reactors we're still 8 to 10 years away
from potentially having an SMR anywhere
in the Comm withth of Virginia it's just
it's a long process and it's meant to be
a little of lengthy process because of
ensuring significant citizen engagement
at every level so those conversations
will be had but you know in six seven 8
10 years I don't know what those
opportunities for Waste may be but it
could be send it to another state that
has raised his hand and said send it to
us we'd like
it all right I'm going I'm going to bust
up the nuclear party here somebody's got
other questions not nuclear uh so you
know there's been talk of blue hydrogen
projects uh carbon capture and storage
facilities and they refer Data Center
Ridge uh Daniel you want to share a
little bit about is there anything
really happening or can you show it on
the map I mean where are we with that
type of discussion there was a blue
hydrogen uh project that uh was being
proposed and it was u in in Wise County
there was one being uh looked at that
hasn't happened again it's another
long-term type of project uh it was
included as part of the uh agency's
carbon safe ation and carbon save is a
uh US Department of energy funding
opportunity that's ran through the
national energy technology lab and that
that program looks at uh CO2 emitters
the sources of CO2 uh and other sources
uh you know we looked at regionally some
that exist or some potential one which
that was a potential uh CO2 emitter and
it was for a carbon storage feasibility
study uh carbon safe uh you can find it
through Doe's website and National
energy technology lab uh we we proposed
a phase two uh project where it's
essentially looking at feasibility of
storing carbon underground in deep
geologic formations a lot of these
projects have have been occurring across
the country for many years and there's
different phases to each of these carbon
storage facility studies and this is
this is that phase two but really that
it's looking at more at the the sign s
uh the potential storage capacity and
any anything related to uh the next
phase of the study which would look at
you know how CO2 could be stored in that
capacity so that's that's really what
that was related to and what was there
anything else in that V ition carbon
capture yeah the carbon capture is part
of that carbon Safe program where it's
looking at you know potential carbon
storage facilities uh Virginia has some
geology it's actually stacked ologic
formations uh this is deep underground
um that may be suitable for carbon
storage so that's what the department of
energy is looking
at and um here's a question I'll answer
is is a nuclear plant in uh Southwest
Virginia a
certainty I would say there could be one
it's a possibility in our future but
there's no certainty there's no site
there's no location and the other
question I think is as a philosophical
question could public opinion or
disapproval stop development I mean I
think America's been built on dialogue
opposition people voicing their opinion
I think it could that that dialogue can
always influence decisions so I don't I
don't think that's ever going to be you
know out of the equation we're here
hearing from you we ask you hear from us
we want to hear from you and I think
that's just dialogue and I think it's
healthy for us to have that
dialogue so why does it matter so why
does it matter if an area is low density
and populated so I guess that that
question is why is that a requirement is
it because it's dangerous is it because
uh for nuclear siding it's so right now
um for example with the the reactors we
have um it's a 10 m what they call an
epz Zone it's just it's a mandate uh
from the NRC uh that it has that uh
should something happen that's that's
just the mandated area that has to be
clear uh for that to be cited uh it'll
be a much smaller parcel uh a much
smaller mandate from the NC with a SMR
but there still will be a mandated
area all
right cards keep on
coming all right some of these are
repeats that's why I'm skipping some of
them so uh
so I think this is a sighting when we
talked about uh how can you build a
nuclear power plant on abandoned M lands
when you can't even build a house on
them too
unstable I think the answer is you
you're Daniel you want to answer that
one yeah yeah lot of factors go into
even sighting anything on my land a lot
of it's how the material's been handed
on site you know but there fuel material
um even a lot of solar projects we've
looked at the some consideration about
how solar can be installed on on M land
um you know there could be void space
and material could be large Boulders so
geotechnical studies are are being done
on a lot of for solar projects um and I
think there's a lot of a lot of that
work and study need to be done to
consider any site for anything but
certainly for any nuclear facility a lot
of that has to be taken consideration uh
but again sites vary quite a bit Mel
sites uh some sites are down at Bedrock
some sites are you know on more field
material it really just depends on each
situation and where that that mindsight
is at and U and how it was reclaimed it
was and uh so there's a lot of sighting
considerations around stability uh and
that will require geotechnical work to
determine
that so which one which one of you gave
me the blank card I can't read your mind
so
sorry I it was the exact same question
but yeah I'll try to do
that uh the front car crossed out some
switch into the back
one aren't nuclear plants targets for
terrorists I mean I I we've had two
nuclear plants you know providing 30% of
our energy and they've never been a
Target
um you know I mean the last targets we
had were the Empire or um you know was
911 and the you know the buildings we
had there and then of course the
Pentagon uh I mean everything's a target
for a terrorist right now once again
it's about safety and and that's why I
think it's really important because you
may be surprised on how safe these
things are even if something should
happen like that uh it's amazing when we
talk about walkway safe um and let's
let's we'll get that answered out
because it the answer to that question
is extremely deep with the safety
mechanisms built in even if something
like that should
happen yeah and I appreciate the snark
in this one but uh is the governor going
to put one of these reactors in his
backyard you know I would tell you that
if I I I grew up in Virginia Beach um I
I am very proud of the area I grew up in
that uh that I was raised just like go
are very proud of this area and you have
amazing state senators and delegates I
will tell you that if I could put if if
a reactor were to come to Hampton Roads
or to Virginia Beach I would be the
first one out there saying we'd love to
have that economy the answer is yes not
because of the power generation I you
can put a reactor just about anywhere
and get the power generation like I'm
like I mentioned for the governor an
smmr opportunity in Southwest wasn't
just for power generation it was about
the next generation of families in
Southwest the reason why it's it's such
an amazing opportunity the reason why
there are areas raising their hand and
saying we'd like to have another reactor
is because they understand that these
things are are enormously safe they
understand the enormous economic
opportunities that come with them and
that's why the governor he's he's so
passionate about Southwest Virginia and
that's why he talks about in Southwest
Virginia was he knows that Southwest
Virginia if it wants it could be the Hub
of energy again just like it was decades
and decades ago it's there for the
taking it's it's not it's not a pipe
dream it it's you know the this has
always been seen as the energy Hub of of
the midatlantic and and the and the east
coast and there are industries that are
looking for a place to come that they
need the land that they need the
workforce that they need water they need
so many different things and it's
sitting here in Southwest Virginia and
to go back to the other question I was
asked and Vince's answer yes public
opinion will make a difference and
that's why I think it's so important to
have these types of dialogues because
it's important for everyone to
understand the facts and the
opportunities before that decision is
made because that decision is in front
of you and if you want to do it it not
only will public opinion maybe kill an
opportunity public opinion can also make
one happen and that's what's in front of
you
all so uh there was let me find it
trying to group some of these while
we're on a roll so there's a question
about uh the SMR and whether 300 jobs
question mark is that a real number and
uh we're I guess they're trying to
figure out is that is that right is that
number right 300 actual operational job
it's so it's estimated number depending
on the technology the numbers are all
over the place so we kind of just kind
of took one in the middle um you know
are there
significant opportunities and jobs
around in SMR yes there is you know is
it 150 is it 300 depends on the it
depends on the uh the technology depends
on who the operator is um but what is
not questioned is that there are jobs
what's not question is there has to be a
supply chain what's not questioned is
that that that there is a multiplier for
every job created for an SMR the
estimate is that there's about two and a
half jobs indirect jobs created you know
if there was we talked about fratone
growth of 515 employees all of a sudden
in Lynchburg making uh starting pay of
$90,000 a year could you imagine if
around wi Virginia right now there was
515 new jobs all of a sudden announced
with a $90,000 starting salary how many
more restaurants would be opened up how
much more would you know the grocery
stores what what would the man be what
would the other jobs the spin-off jobs
created around that that's the
opportunity um and so no I can't give
you a hard number that I can promise you
on my firstborn that is going to be
exactly right but I can tell you that
there's a heck of an upside and it's not
even just a job that's related to
related to the
reactor yeah here's another electric
bill question will this decrease our
outrageous electric bills I think with
all energy production we've all
experienced increases and from
increasing gas prices uh historically we
burned a lot of coal prices would go up
and down we've all seen our electric
bills go up and down I don't think
there's a number because we haven't
built it it hasn't been proposed on on
what a nuclear facility uh but we also
have seen prices tend to go up uh yes I
will say something because here's here's
the important portion I mean over time
we've seen utilities build facilities
and that gets pass to the repair but
what we haven't seen and what's being
talked about and Vince you mentioned
that if you ago power behind the meter
you know a or or a CSP a competitive
service provider there could very well
be a private entity that comes to
Virginia and says I'm going to build
nuclear I've got a set of investors and
by the way my electrons are cheaper than
the electrons you're buying today and
Dominion says great we'll do a public
we'll do um a purchase agreement for
those electrons and we'll give those to
our customers and if there's lower cost
to us it's a lower cost to the customers
now I'm not saying that your electric
bill is going to go down I'm not saying
it's going to go up what I am saying is
depending on the technology depending on
how it's done depending on the
Innovation available 10 years from now
is going to decide those and those are
the questions that when there's an
opportunity in South West Virginia those
are the important questions to ask and
at that point you probably get the
answers that are
important this C got three part question
and one of the ones you asked earlier
why are you call nuclear uh energy plan
of radio kind that y there two I think
get the CR of what a lot of people feel
thinking why are you talking with
investors and keeping people in
Southwest Virginia in the dark why are
you saying thatr are affordable nucle
one of the most expensive electrical
generation so let's let's talk about in
the dark first um so our conversations
about developers are just what's the
technology what are you all doing
there's a lot of Technology out there we
we want to be able to be in the note so
if an entity comes and says hey we have
a technology and we have a partial land
we don't want at that point as a
department of energy be running around
trying to figure out what they're
talking about right so we're not keeping
in but the conversations about Investors
we the investors are talking if there's
investors it's a utility or private
company going to investors going to New
York and trying to get money for these
and those conversations they're not
disclosed to the Department of energy
nor do they need to be right that's
that's the private company conversations
um so that's as we mentioned it's not
the state that will decide what to bring
and when to bring it and where to bring
it is the utility of the private sector
uh Vince what's the second
half so that was in the dark so why are
you saying that smrs are affordable when
nuclear is the most expensive to
generate electricity
so um first off and and so Ryan the uh
the gentleman over there with the ball
cap may look very young but I would put
him up against any modeler that works at
just about any nuclear company I know um
and so we've modeled and no nuclear has
a lower cost of energy than a lot of
other sources lower than
wind but I'll tell you what's what's
important to keep in mind is um it's not
always about the cost so let's say for
example and we all know what happened
over on the west you know the west side
with Utah and and Idaho there was um a
um a a reactor That was supposed to be
built uh scale reactor and it was going
through it had ctive runs and it stopped
now it didn't stop because of Technology
new new uh new scale is the only reactor
that's been through the full NRC process
technology sound what happened was they
had significant cost of runs and the
consumer the buyers of that energy were
consumer buyers and the cost per
kilowatt hour was too high for them to
be able to get the demand that they
needed for the off for for entities to
want take this
power but what's interesting is what
we're looking for in Virginia is power
for is for data centers and the price
elasticity for data centers is much
higher if you could talk to any data
center talk to a Google talk to a
Microsoft talk to a standard power
they'll tell you it's not about cost
it's about reliability the most
important thing to a data center is will
they have access to the power they need
when they need that power because they
signed something called 59 agreements
that their commitment to their customers
net data center has to be on
99.999% of the time so it's not about
the cost of a kilowatt hour that's not
the most important thing so when we'll
talk about is it affordable depends on
who the customer is and there are data
centers today Google you probably saw
recently Google Microsoft and new scale
this is um extremely important um they
they came together as a partnership and
they put out an RFI that they want to
come to an area in the PJ Marketplace
and they want to bring on new Innovative
power generation including smrs and
they're willing to pay more for that
electron than what they might be able to
get today because one they want cran
energy two they need it reliable
247 so they're already out there saying
we want to be able to bring this to an
area in the pjm marketplace and we hope
it's Virginia for their data centers and
for that
new uh uh uh steel manufacturing
facility that that new scale is looking
to bring or that new C is looking to
bring
I've got some on not Pap so
I'm I'm going to my notebook paper on
here uh you say nuclear in Southwest
Virginia is for the betterment of future
Generations in the region why do you
assume that it's best for our
communities and and uh without asking
our opinions and and such uh I believe
you haven't if you if you believe you
haven't assumed as as such please
provide a rebuttal I mean from my point
of view we are here today having a
dialogue we are here listening to the
communities I think the governor has
shown that he's listening to Southwest
Virginia but I guess Glenn what would
you say in rebuttle to that uh comments
and question that the poverty rate
across to Virginia is 10% that the
poverty rate in some areas uh in
Southwest Virginia is high as 29% that
opio addiction and overdose deaths are
higher in Southwest Virginia than
anywhere else but they don't have to be
open addiction is a function of poverty
a lot of things are function of
poverty and this brings a potential
economic boom that comes once in a
lifetime we have seen many times a
population shift and a demographic shift
in parts of the country and it happens
because of new technology and a new
industry Southwest Virginia has the
opportunity to land
a new technology inside of a new
industry and grab jobs that could be
$90,000 a year for thousands of jobs in
Southwest Virginia that's why I say that
now it's I'm not going to make the
decision should have come here and your
voices are going to be very important on
whether an SMR comes here or whether a
supply chain manufacturer comes here but
the reason why I say it's a huge
opportunity is U so i' I've been to
Southwest Virginia probably 30 some
times since 2016 I had two Statewide I
used to be in the general assembly I've
been invited in the homes invited in the
companies I've sat around tables with
families talking to children and been in
schools and what has always bothered me
the most as a legislator is looking at a
child knowing they're bright they could
be have an amazing future but knowing
what the odds are when I go around the
cth of Virginia and I meet children who
always bugged me was it's that child has
such an opportunity to achieve the
American dream but I know what the odds
are for that zip code and it's not
because of you know it's not because of
the parents that it's just it's it's the
resources available and so that's why I
think this is important because all the
things that challenge Southwest Virginia
are things that Economic Opportunity can
make a huge dent in and that's why I
think this is one of them but once again
you're going to make that
decision I'm going to read a this is a
comment but I'll go ahead and read it in
the spirit of reading all the cards I
came here against nuclear plants in our
area
I'm now at least on the fence please
just keep us informed was the message of
this
speaker I say it says I came here
against nuclear plants in our area I'm
now at least on the fence just please
keep us in informed thank you thank you
for that comment that so um I was
talking to one of the people in the
media earlier and they said um you know
why haven't we had these conversations
before and I'll tell you it was a little
bit of a miscommunication or or Miss
Miser understanding you see you're not
going to see a reactor for 8 to 10 years
right and so the thought was is you know
do you really want to come out and have
conversations when we can't tell you
what the technology is a lot of the
questions that were asked earlier we
appreciate that and some here today we
we can't answer because we don't know
where it's going to go we don't know
what the technolog is going to be but
the fact that you all want to come
together and talk about it this early
thank you because it's all about the
dialogue to be able to have this
dialogue so far in advance is going to
put things so far ahead when an
opportunity
arises in Southwest Virginia and it is
about that two-way dialogue so I
appreciate the comment and and really
excited that we do have this
opportunity going to go back to some
long form answers here questions far
Southwest Virginia citizens are
concerned about remotely operable smrs
and data centers to possibly spawn
across the region and that these will
not create many permanent jobs or or
local jobs what is your response so once
again it goes back to who's the
developer what's the technology I mean I
can't tell you that there won't be
remote and I can't tell you there will
be remote I mean the technology changes
over time we I mean we all have a
computer the size you know what used to
be a whole wall in a government building
uh for computer is now sitting on your
wrist right now right so things always
change but what I can tell you someone's
got to build that reactor and that's
jobs and someone's got to have create
that supply chain and that's jobs and
then someone's got to provide the
restaurants and everything that trickle
down scenar in that job so I I don't I I
know that there's jobs associated with
it I can't tell you the technology but
once again this is a question that needs
to be asked if someone comes forward and
says we want to build this technology on
this piece of land in Southwest Virginia
and this is a very important con uh
conversation to have at that
point so um is Virginia energy
researching health and environmental
risk on nuclear implementation in
Southwest Virginia so the answer is no
uh we're definitely not the prime uh
person on environmental health and
environmental risk uh even DEQ with
nuclear facilities uh the nuclear
Regulatory Commission oversees that they
have people that that that are invested
in that through the permitting processes
there's continuous research in the
federal government about those risk that
inform the safety of the facilities but
that's not our uh in our wheelhouse and
we wouldn't even have the staff to do
that type of
analysis so given nuclear break Daniel
this looks like maybe your territory so
and I like the fact that somebody knows
there's 100,000 acres of abandoned M
lands down here I say that a lot so uh
Daniel must be messaging or somebody
knows what they're talking about here uh
so how many of those acres are privately
own and what is the responsibility of
those owners the cost for
Reclamation is a Reclamation question so
privately privately owned how many acres
thereabouts and what if you can't answer
that question what what is the
responsibility of those owners yeah and
there is a lot of private you know
privately owned the state doesn't own
any M land of Virginia Southwest
Virginia so all the land is privately
owned but I think the question is really
talking about maybe corporate ownership
of LGE large tracks of land in Southwest
Virginia and we all know through the
mining history there you know natural
resource companies own a lot of a lot of
property uh throughout Southwest
Virginia now as far as the Reclamation
requirements um you know you know if
it's a permitted site you know the
service mining control and Reclamation
Act and our regulatory program oversee
that those Reclamation requirements as
part of the permit uh so you know since
you know we talked about Abandoned mind
land and that definition of August 3rd
1977 that's the date that's used to
determine whether it was an abandoned
mind land or not but since the permanent
program uh for Smacker the surface
mining control Reclamation Act
Reclamation requirements for for all
mining has has been
regulated um now I think you might be
talking about conditions of some sites
that have set and haven't been reclaimed
yet those permites are still responsible
for that
Reclamation um so I think there's been
questions about time frames and stuff so
there there is a regulatory process U
and requirements and there's also uh
Reclamation performance bonds so there's
a mechanism for ensuring that those
sites get reclaimed but I think that's
was there any other part of that I think
you got it
so so have you worked with any local
Grassroots or political interest groups
Community groups I think uh uh to get
input from those groups so I would ask
uh who
here participates in a community group
our Grassroots organization or a
political interest group I mean I've
done that in my communities so you know
we're here uh and and you're here so I
think this is part of the dialogue it's
early in the game for this subject and
this subject matter you're here because
you care right you care about Southwest
Virginia you care about the issues that
matter you we're here because we want to
hear from you and we want to share
information and I think that's going to
continue Glenn are we going to continue
to have this dialogue we have four more
of these the governor actually announced
it yesterday uh but Mike already had it
planned we have four more of these town
halls in Southwest Virginia already
planned one of for the next four
months um
Mike as as we talked about the first
meeting they're going to be moving
around the C fields the next one we
haven't scheduled yet it's probably
going to be mid late April is probably
going to be in Flint we anticipate uh a
meeting in brundy we anticipate a
meeting in Gate City uh we
anticipate somewhere else that is
escaping me right now but um uh we we
serve all the citizens of Virginia all
the citizens of the whole field and we
feel it's important to get out to as
many as far away all parts of the region
as we
can
not Scott County has been historically a
coal producing
community so uh we're going to switch
off a nuclear again for a minute uh for
our Hydro power lovers uh why have you
not mentioned Hydro
power and in Virginia we don't have a
lot of Hydro power at this point and uh
there's been some interesting proposals
to do pump storage and things like that
but Daniel Glenn you want to weigh in on
Hydro power and why that's not a big
thing here in Virginia the technology
and Innovation around like pump storage
hydro pump storage Hydro uh for those
you're not familiar with it typically
it's surface reservoirs and I think one
of the largest ones in the country is in
Virginia and Bath County uh so that's
one older technology that it's being
looked at again to provide power during
demand so um you know if you're
traditional you want talk about
traditional Hydro I me you can I was
going to I was just going to mention
it's Hydro is amazing um out in the west
coast it's a ton of hydro uh it's just
we don't have in many cases the what the
top topology and and other things
necessary uh to kind of have it built
out the same way they haven't and and
once again it's we don't control what
gets built right it's there there are U
building companies uh they come and say
we want to build this power generation
they go to the SEC and say here's what
we want to do here's the amount of power
it's going to provide here's what it's
going to cost to build it and here's the
impact on the rate payer and the SEC
says yes or no um and uh it's not
something that you know the Virginia
Department of energy can get in and say
we want you to do this go do
it you know I heard an interesting U
story the other day there was a there's
apparently there's an Indian tribe that
has Hydro power that they're moving
aggressively to solar because they want
to take out their Hydro dams to restore
the ecosystem and that is a Community
Driven advocacy decision to actually get
rid of Hydro power in favor of solar so
I think you know Hydro comes with its
other problems when we Dam up an area
that ecosystem has changed and it's
changed forever so I think that would
come with a whole different interest and
Virginia there's just not been a lot of
opportunity they're kind of expensive
projects to build in this day and age uh
and they may not be as favorable
cost-wise as they once were when some of
the early ones were built so um so this
is a two questions similar uh uh answers
probably here so you keep saying that uh
you Virginia energy has nothing to do
with SMR sites why did you put $50,000
into a study to identify seven potential
sites the second question was if no
entity wanted to build here then why was
it published in our newspapers that they
there were seven areas here named by
yankan and others well so well I mean
there were 50,000 there was $50,000 put
into because a locality asked for it um
I mean that's locality said we want to
do this uh would the state contribute it
we thought it would be great to have
more information uh whether it's for the
citizens uh to be able to see you know
what sites is there even an opportunity
here potentially if something were to
pop up if an entity were to come to
Virginia and say i' like to be in
Southwest Virginia is there even a place
that they could even potentially look at
so Virginia put in $50,000 because we
were asked why was it in the newspaper
because people reported on it right um
but that's why you information's never
just like dialogue is never a bad thing
I don't think information's ever a bad
thing either and that's why that was I'm
sure done by the
locality so this this question back to
our favorite subject nuclear um so you
say that there's um the nuclear is clean
energy and it's going on to refer to the
waste and suggesting that the SMR waste
would potentially be more uh harmful or
at higher levels of radiation and uh
reference to the Stanford study uh on
the on the on that waste generated from
potential smrs which are not quite here
yet so any thoughts on that I'm not sure
how to answer that one yeah so I we have
to look at that um we'd have to look at
that study I mean I I don't know what
fuel they're talking about there isn't
just one type of fuel now for these smrs
um so we have to go look at that um I
you know it's it's it's clean power uh
but as far as we look at the waste
scenario what is you know the impact of
the waste it depends on what the
technology is and and honestly what the
opportunities are with the waste 8 10
years from now you know we've mentioned
a couple of times uh can it be stored on
site of course we see that done today in
these HED concrete casks um is it going
to be site based uh um um or consent
based sighting quite potentially um how
much waste depends on the technology so
it's a great question it's just a
question for when an entity comes and
says we want to do this we've decided on
the technology and we want to do it at
this location and then I think that's an
important question to
ask this is another question about the
300 jobs uh associated with SMR that uh
We've answered
previously uh can't we meet data center
hydrogen and Bitcoin
demand uh causing these increases in
Virginia by requiring that these
industries oper operate efficiently and
provide their own resources and energy
instead of placing the burden on the
existing rate payers and
businesses so there's the question part
of
it so this is really about uh so if data
centers the generation of hydrogen
Bitcoin if that's all driving our
demand uh so why don't we instead of
putting it on the rate payers uh create
uh for Force those Industries to have to
produce the energy instead of burdening
the rate payer okay so so two scenarios
there um so first if if let's say um uh
utility builds uh an SMR obviously
they're going to charge for that power
for a data center right so they're going
to Bear build uh bear the huge brunt of
it because of the power they're using
but exactly what is said there is
exactly what might happen there are
discussions of data centers coming and
looking at nuclear smrs um behind the
meter in other words that it's a it's a
it's a power generation opportunity that
it never goes across the grid that it
literally connects into that data center
and supplies the power to that data
center um and that would do two things
uh one it does become the it's it's the
cost is burdened by the data center
secondly that burden is no longer needed
if it's an existing data center that
uses uh Power Generation behind the Grid
it's the demand taken off the grid which
helps with the reliability of the grid
going forward so there are a lot of
solutions we're looking at and that is
one of
them there a couple comments here talked
about data center demand but they also
pointed out that the data center in wi
county has four
employees and I don't know the facts on
that one so I can't answer that
one
yeah yeah Daniel can and this is
something you know we probably should
get back to you on answer on but there's
a lot of differences and data centers I
think a lot of ones people are thinking
of are like Bitcoin operations they're
not all Bitcoin operations a lot of it
is tied to the Internet of Things what
how those data centers are used and what
they're used for U you know you
mentioned artificial intelligence AI you
know the increase in that what's going
on through the internet of things but I
think you know we can look at answering
that question a little bit more because
depends on what the data Center's doing
um depends on security around what data
they manage and handle um depends on the
scale and the size of it you know some
of the larger Data Centers do employ a
lot more folks uh so I think a lot of
the northern Virginia data centers we
don't I don't have the data in front of
me but significant difference based on
scale and what goes in those data
centers as far as the number of jobs so
I think that that's something that needs
to be looked at and answered as well so
everybody understands those differences
because I don't know all the differences
I just look at some of the data but
there is some information there I think
we need to look at
[Music]
sh
inform this com I came hear in favor of
a reactor I want to grow but I also want
my hometown to remain safe don't let us
down uh amen I mean it's I mean
ultimately that's what it's about right
I mean you you want the growth you want
opportunity for the Next Generation but
you don't want to sacrifice safety and
that's why it's important to have this
dialogue I mean all these questions
about safety are are questions that need
to be answered you're not going to feel
safe you're not going to feel
comfortable with the technology until
you get to ask those questions and and
get answers and probably do more
investigation and that's why it's so
important for us to start early because
you're right the person who wrote that
question it's um it's a huge opportunity
you want the better for your community
in the future and the and the in the
Next Generation but you don't want to
sacrif their safety for it and that's
why it's important to have the questions
answered and the community being is
probably one thing we all can agree on
we got a lot of different opinions
probably in this room but that safy if
you don't agree with that worri about
you we want everybody that we know love
and about
live we should do this in a safe way
done we can support it we need to keep
being active and and
and and Vince just there may be a
document out there that we can supply
with the owner meticulous requirements
and details from the NRC when it comes
to sighting and SMR I mean it's when we
talk about safety once again I mean
there I mean there's a federal
Regulatory Commission out there that is
basically a sole job is to be the one
that going to license these things and
ensures the safety of the operation of
these things so um and I'll tell you the
the first lady that you everone to see
about that April can you please stand up
April wait or at least raise your hand
April so v-neck was created 2013
April okay okay okay so V so um the um
Virginia nuclear BN cons Consortium
there we go yeah and so um so it is the
entity in Virginia um that is the um it
is it is the only entity basically that
goes and represents the nuclear industry
uh educationally um researching
velopment right now it is the entity
that will be sending up or starting the
VIN Hub that we talked about uh but I
would tell you when it comes to expert
someone an expert that probably knows
just about everything on industry and
some of the players is April in the back
uh and so as things move forward you
will be probably talking with April or
others from her organization as well um
because in a bipartisan manner uh the
come of Virginia stood up VIN Hub just
to make sure that we started going down
this route early uh to get the necessary
information to uh to get Virginia
started but in a responsible and
reliable manner
so last week board supervisors me a
young woman whose family has been here
for five generations that she would move
if the reactor comes here uh is this do
we want this uh do we have to leave get
to feel safe from reactors and you know
leaving to me is a personal thing for
Southwest Virginia I grew up here I left
to take a job
opportunity I missed home I came back
and worked here some more more and then
my family and I left again and I really
found that I could serve this area
through my work in Richmond and the
different agencies in Richmond just as
well as I could here so though I miss
home I found a new home in the suburbs
of Richmond but I don't think anybody
wants to see an out migration of people
whether it's because they feel unsafe or
whether they feel like they don't have
opportunities or because they've lost
hope so I don't think anybody in this
room or anybody on the stage wants to
see that type of thing happen and that
we would want want people to feel safe
if this is deployed I would hope that
all the right steps by all the
Regulatory Agencies would help people
feel safe and they would have the proper
dialogue before it ever happened thing
how many of you have had family members
that have left because of opportunities
how many of you have had children that
went away and didn't come back because
of the lack of opportunity a lot of my
friends when uh after college they
didn't come back to Virginia Beach I so
um a good chunk of my family is from
this place called not Sol North Carolina
right across the border uh uh on the
eastern part of Virginia uh today it's
still one stop by town There's a grocery
store that used to be called Joneses cuz
Joneses owned it uh one uh bar called
pearls while learn to she pool with my
grandfather uh the only bar there um my
my uh cousins when they grew up there
they had one goal in life and that was
the leave and how sad was that that that
was the goal was to leave the area they
grew up in and and I mean so you have to
look at some places and and is that
situation does it exist in Southwest
Virginia are there people that they love
being here they want to be around their
friends they grow up with their family
but they move away not to come back
because the opportunity of their family
is not in Southwest um so I I'd hate to
see anyone leave especially because they
brought in SMR but at the same time how
many people are leaving because there
isn't the opportunity today and can an
answer as the the nuclear industry be an
opportunity to to plug that Gap I think
it may be but once again it's something
this community has to look
into so this is another one back to the
cost why are we not talking about the
expense of nuclear it's the most
expensive power this one says the
levelize cost analysis of nuclear it's
the most expensive at utility scale sure
data centers want it and they want us to
pay for it why should this fall on the
rate payers um do you have anything else
to add the previous answers along those
lines so I don't know if briyan can
actually do this uh in a manner that's
can easily so he's got a spreadsheet
that doesn't work on half the computers
we have in our office um that models
this stuff and the levelized cost of
energy
um uh modeled out um but I will tell you
that it is cheaper than wind um that it
is Affordable that that large companies
like Google like Microsoft they want
this they will say that's not as cheap
as any other electron they can buy but
it's a requirement for them they want
clean energy and they want it reliable
we have companies that um overseas
companies that are talking to Virginia
that they want to come in headquarter
here but there's one mandate can they
get all the energy they need cleanly and
the next thing they'll say we'll pay for
it we will pay for it but can we get it
so it's for a resident cost is very
important right for those you know on a
budget cost of energy is very very
important but when it comes to Economic
Opportunity it's not always about the
cost of energy for all the players
because sometimes like with data centers
reliability is much more important than
the cost and they're willing to pay for
it about can you be 100% sure that we'll
never have an accident or from uh the
storage of nuclear waste I think
nuclear's had a really good safety
record we talked about this nothing's
100% nothing we do is 100% risk-free uh
and U I don't know if anybody has
anything else to add no no it goes back
it goes back to you know there's a risk
you're going to get hit by a car when
you walk out of here tonight right it's
a very very small risk but there's a
risk but you're going to do it anyway
and it's the same thing you can look at
the history of uh of the safety of of of
our reactors we have in Virginia you can
look at the analysis that we will send
out uh after this on the safety uh uh uh
uh metrics and and processes around this
and make the decision yourself but you
have to weigh with the with the Economic
Opportunity is it do we want to fill
that 5.6% annual year-over-year Gap with
dispatchable reliable affordable clean
energy or do we want to exper experience
brownouts in four years in the comth of
Virginia and that becomes the question
so it's it's it's a risk reward scenario
and I will tell you like with a lot of
things in life the risk is very little
and I'll go back to saying that the
interc is basically going to almost it's
going to be basically zero for the
interc to prove it to begin
with back to SMR so this question is say
doesn't modular mean that the smrs would
be factory made to cut cost so how can
we count on these construction jobs
unless the SMR Factory is cited
here so depending on the technology some
are more modular than others uh is it's
rather interesting a lot of people call
them uh small modular reactors because
of the technology and and the size and
that sort of thing um but somewhere more
modular from the factory than others but
there is still the demand for the
constru the construction jobs to put it
together here or if lot of it does get
built on site like I mentioned before I
can't guarantee you that it's 900 jobs
to set these things up are there jobs of
course there are are there jobs to
maintain these things operationally of
course there are is there a supply chain
of course there is um but depending on
the technology the operator the
developer what those exact numbers are
are going to fluctuate uh but there's an
upside this is a uh the nation is
importing storage technology this is
this is a storage question what energy
storage opportunities are being con
considered in Southwest to complement
solar and wind what new Innovative
technology for storage can be considered
uh or a pilot for here here so there's a
lot of storage there's storage being
deployed on the grid in Virginia there's
a lot of exciting Battery Technology
that's going to be become a real part of
the solution and really help our Energy
Future I think that there's so many
possibilities for longer duration
storage The Innovation really excites
our team of folks that look at this kind
of technology in the state Energy Office
uh does anybody else want to weigh in on
storage as a solution and it's
particularly in Southwest Virginia yeah
and I I think there's a lot of
opportunity for solar Plus Storage in
Southwest Virginia as a new Solar
Development happens a lot on U
previously mind land that there could be
opportunities for storage to go along
with that solar opportunity uh and I
think we're going to see more projects
that include storage as the overall
project for solar in
southw so didn't new scale get permit
from the NRC to control up to 12 smrs
remotely uh if they arrive from a
factory and buil here wouldn't those
jobs be remote to the
region from NRC know the new scale in
general didn't they get permission from
the NRC to control up to 12 smrs
remotely and if we had those here
wouldn't those jobs back to the office
take one that one back to the office
we'll give that one to Ryan uh back in
the office and uh I that's that's going
technical Ann I don't know the answer to
that one off the top why do you tout the
number of jobs uh that will be created
for nuclear you're add you're addressing
jobs for construction constructing SMR
but that does not benefit Southwest
Virginia they would be constructed
elsewhere in a factory like in Lynchburg
there would be no benefits to the people
of Southwest Virginia I think you've
talked a lot about
it um
yes we need Federal funding but data
centers and nuclear actors do not bring
economic uh boost for Southwest Virginia
about four to five people work in the
data center at lson Pine airport smrs
are constructed elsewhere and would be
remotely operated where are the jobs
where's the revenue and the benefits to
the people in Southwest Virginia so
that's that's another question about
what are the benefits to Southwest
Virginia the one the one thing that has
not been mentioned yet and this about
data center
so before I was in the state legislature
I was on the Virginia City Council for 5
years we went after getting data centers
we were finally successful there is
tremendous tax revenue from data centers
tremendous and when you talk to U the
government people they'll tell you it's
kind of a great win um a ton of tax
revenue but you don't have to build new
streets and new schools uh it's just
kind of money without the what's usually
tied to trying to get that money and
building new infrastructure um so Data
Centers do come with a lot of tax
revenue uh so there's money Associated
there as far as the revenue and
opportunity related to the um to smrs I
think we kind of addressed that it's I
mean there are jobs for construction
once again how many who knows there is
the supply chain that comes how much
gets built on a site of an SMR depends
on the technology and the developer so I
think we we kind of handle that one
each Revenue over jobs for some
communities may be important I think
it's a balancing act and those are
really local decisions a lot of times
and locals have a lot of say what's
permitted in their area through their
local zoning authorities
so our SMR is a done deal from Southwest
specifically in Wise County uh I think
we've answered that it's not a done deal
it's just has started yet hasn't started
so
uh why did you do the feasibility study
Virginia energy didn't do the
feasibility so why was that feasibility
study done that we supported with some
some State funding that's the um uh
little whis oh yeah so that's what we
mentioned where we we we asked to uh put
money into it uh and and we did and it
was I think it was helpful information
to have just the the concept of you know
are there sites that could even be
viable
so here's another one operation of SMR
300
question so Virginia has more data
centers than anyone in the world
it's driving up our energy to my why
does Virginia need these data
centers a couple things um like I
mentioned with smrs there's a Workforce
that comes around it same thing with
data centers if you look at Northern
Virginia there are a lot of tremendous
jobs around those data centers a lot of
high paying jobs around those data
centers there's a lot of Revenue that
goes to those localities because of
those data centers the we are the data
center capital of the world we want to
be this and stay the data center capital
of the world does does it take energy
yes it does does it bring us a lot of
Economic Opportunity definitely you want
to talk about a supply chain so I can't
remember off the top of my head how
often those servers and and that
Hardware swaps out of some of these data
centers but it's pretty constant and
those aren't cheap racks and servers
that we've got in there um so it is a
tremendous economic driver uh for that
region and for our state
so does Virginia energy believe nuclear
is the only viable option to avoid
brownouts I believe I think Virginia
energy believes also and and the I tell
the governor believes that you need to
have always on 247 dispatchable power to
avoid a brown out the Virginia quein
economy Act made sure we got rid of all
of our coal it made it all out the door
if mandated that in
2042 all of our natural gas 245 all of
our natural gas goes away what is our
BAS loine when the sun's not shining and
the wind's not blowing and you can't
have natural gas and you can't have coal
where do we get our energy
from and that's the problem so yes given
the law in Virginia right now with the
Virginia clean economy act yes to avoid
brown outs to avoid rolling blackouts we
need nuclear you need that Basel load it
it is the foundation of A Clean Energy
System there's a place for wind there's
a place for for solar it's why the
governor didn't say that we have a
nuclear energy plan but we have an all
the above energy plan there's a place
for everything but there's got to be
that Foundation that when some when
something else isn't working when
there's any place for DEQ right and DEQ
is going to get involved in the
permitting your local government is
going to get involved with permanent and
Zoning um uh uh NRC is going to get
involved but when I say that it's not
the state of Virginia the state of
Virginia can't go and say we want this
technology built on this piece of
property and make it happen we we don't
have that ability and nor can if if
unless there's a law passed um but if
something is on a piece of property that
is pered and go for zoning in the
locality and the NRC says yes and DEQ
says yes the Virginia Department of
energy can't get up and say hold on the
three of us don't like this um so so
it's you know there's a place for
everyone but no it's we don't have the
ability to make something happen or beat
the power to stop it from happening it's
at some of the underlying concerns and
sentiments uh isn't this more about
shareholders pockets and the than it is
about the concern for people here aren't
we important enough even though we have
a low population there're safer ways
than the opportunities that come with
SMR yeah so so and this is why I
appreciate the dialogue because my my
question would be what are there safer
ways right yes you're the r payers
you're the most important thing when it
comes to utilities they more important
than the shareholders um and you should
be now do the utilities always think
that way you know I'm not going to
answer that sometimes maybe obviously
there's a shareholder concern but the
rate pays are important but the most
important thing the most important thing
is the one thing that Utilities in
Virginia are mandated to do is produce
enough energy for the residential use
and the consumer use of of entities in
the Commonwealth of Virginia uh uh and
the corporate use in the Commonwealth of
Virginia and so um that's what they've
got to do so when it comes to um you
know the repairs are important but the
power has to be someplace and you're so
important that the power has to be
produced and when you say this isn't
there safer way to ensure that the
lights always come on that we don't have
a rolling blown out in conjunction with
Thea which got rid of all of our coal
and getting rid of all of our natural
gas I can't think of one I know it's not
solar I know it's not wind
so you this is another clean clean is is
nuclear clean question you call nuclear
clean yes may be carbon free but you
don't want to talk about what's required
the radioactive waste why I want to talk
about it I think once an entity whether
it's a private entity or utility comes
forward and says we want to build
something with this technology on this
piece of property there needs to be
discussion and and there will be a
discussion and I'm sure youall will make
sure there is a discussion about the
waste how much how often where is it
going to go it has to happen we we just
can't answer the questions right now uh
with that so we definitely want to talk
about it but the answers you're looking
for um how much is going to be generated
how is it going to be handled is it
going to be shipped how often is it
going to happen that depends on a whole
bunch of decisions that are yet to be
made by entities that have not come to
the table
yet so this is another am R remotely and
are let me read see if I can read the
question here if smrs can be controlled
remotely can't they potentially be
hacked what are the dangers that present
to us and I wish we had we you know had
our whole staff here we do have a
brilliant lady that works a lot on
energy security there are other folks at
our emergency response headquarters in
Richmond there are people in the SEC say
corporation commission working on these
issues this is a pretty complex issues
but I think there's always concern about
any technology any Energy System your
phone anything could be potentially
hacked so I think this is a real concern
for people I think it would probably be
better if we answered that one with some
information on a website and get these
folks out additional information on it
because there's a lot being done on it
and a lot being thought about and
planned for yeah well not only that but
today I mean you know we have 30% of all
of our power in Virginia on nuclear and
never mind the fact that the rest of the
power we have can still be hacked right
cyber security is probably the number
one threat to this nation I mean the the
the talking points have always been that
you know if we ever have another world
war it's not going to be fault with
ships and planes it's going to be fault
you know cyber you know across the
internet uh and and Via hacking um so
our utilities today are already tasked
with making sure that they lock down
their sites Dominion has an amazing
facility uh that we got to tour uh
solely set up to make sure and to to
address the hacking issue so would it be
an issue with the nuclear yes it would
be just as much of an issue as we have
today with the two nuclear plants the
gas facilities the solar society and the
other stuff that we have it it's it's
been important for decades and decades
we always continue to be
important this one the Sunbright M
project to p a data center are they
requesting an SMR in
Duffield no I really don't know anything
about that project that'll be one we can
look into I haven't been approached
about that project
um I I know that one of the sites in the
feasibility study was done that way but
other than that you know that we don't
we haven't been informed on that
project and if I can so I know what's
going on at 8:00 and one thing that we
promised is we will be the last people
out of this place if they happen to kick
us out at sometime around midnight we
may have to do it in the parking lot um
but we we I mean we're we're committed
to being here till every question is
answered but if some of youall can't
stay please I mean we don't we didn't
set an end time for a reason um this
dialogue is very important answering to
questions are very important so we're
going to stay here but if you need to go
feel free but we will be the last people
out of this
door if you have urg question trying to
get is talking a lot and if my voice
goes I got a bottle of water so um so
while no site has been identified for
SMR development Southwest Virginia has
been advertised as a
viable uh site and solution without our
permission without the permission from
the public of Southwest Virginia
especially far Southwest Virginia if you
don't know there is a distinction
between far Southwest Virginia and
Southwest Virginia I think it was partly
because the New River Valley started
getting jealous and wanting to call
theel Southwest Virginia but you're in
Far Southwest Virginia
now
far well um so we have a whole
department called the Virginia
Department of Economic Development its
one goal is to Market Virginia far
Southwest vir Virginia Southwest
Virginia
Southside Eastern Virginia um it that's
his job the Governor's job the
governor's main job um I say one of his
main jobs is to Market and be the
salesperson for Virginia ultimately for
something to happen in an area the
locality is going to have a say the
citizens are going to have a say but the
most important thing is to see and help
make sure that opportunity even becomes
into existence to even give you the
opportunity to take advantage of an
opportunity if one were to exist so yes
yes every day we have a department we
have a governor that believes in
marketing Virginia and bringing Economic
Opportunity and ultimately when the
opportunity arises the citizens of that
area is going to have a tremendous voice
on uh on how it goes
forward so there's also you may hear
sometimes you're in
great which is
another and the
Beautiful so have you heard
en I have
not we will try learn yep what was that
in pipe energy in in pipe you
heard yeah we'll look into
that
isn't will get the supp job isn't it
likely we did the SMR without the gr job
the talk a lot about it sure well what I
mean so
I so I would say that when things get
negotiated and I can tell you the
governor's already made this point EXC
me that when when if a entity wants to
come and bring an SMR he wants the
supply chain he's been very direct about
that and I would expect that if an
opportunity were to be available for
Southwest Virginia that a locality that
Southwest Virginia would say look we'd
like to have the power if you're
comfortable with the with the uh
facility the SMR we like to have the SMR
but we want the supply chain make it
part of the negotiations is there a
chance you might end up with an SMR
without the supply chain yep if you're
comfortable with it if there's still
enough Advantage for Southwest Virginia
but at the same time there's a big
opportunity that you can get the supply
chain with it and it's part of the
negotiation in some
cases back to our data centers why do
data centers not I say why don't data
centers pay a fair price for the the
power they use why pass on the cost to
residential customers so I so I would
say that they pay a fair price so much
so that this is the interesting thing
we're at today with data centers so data
centers um so I'm just going to throw
power out just it don't it doesn't mean
just round numbers so let's say you have
a data center that wants a gwatt of
power it doesn't mean they're actually
going to use a gwatt of power see
remember that 59 thing I mentioned where
if they have a client it's going be on
you know 99.999% of the time and they
take on new customers all the time
inside the data center so a data center
literally will go to a utility and say I
want a gigawatt set aside maybe they
just use 500 megawatts of that but they
say they will pay for the full gigawatt
now what's happening right now is you
have utility saying we can't give it to
you we can't give you more than you use
because we can't create enough but when
you talk about due data centers pay
their for fair share they are offering
to literally pay for electrons that they
probably will not use just because they
have to have in reserve because the
promises and the commitment they made to
the
customers this is a nuclear question too
but I think this is something you've
cared a lot and talked about so uh why
doesn't our why don't our leaders bring
jobs and programs here without
jeopardizing our beautiful mountains
while dangling a carrot but potentially
endangering us with nuclear waste I
think this may get into job training job
Workforce Development that are not
around nuclear is that something that uh
you think it's important for Southwest
Virginia a couple things so Daniel
talked about that billion dollars right
and and how much of that every Grant
typically comes with um a lot of uh
Workforce Development dollars and every
Grant by the way that you saw up there
the every piece of that that billion
dollars has a 40% justice 40 requirement
me basically 40% of that has to go to
underserved communities which Southwest
Virginia qualifies as so a good chunk of
that you're going to see them to
Southwest Virginia so yes we we this
this Governor is very passionate about
Southwest Virginia he has been since he
I I ran in the primary for lieutenant
governor with the governor when he was
running I got to know him very well he's
very passionate about Southwest Virginia
he made promises for Economic
Opportunity in Southwest he plans on
delivering that's the type of person he
is but at the same time when you see an
opportunity it's going to be Broad and
that's for these smrs now I'll tell you
that if an SMR requires you to cut down
on your mountains say no I mean it's
beautiful now I don't expect that to
have they're not going to make you do
that but but there's a beauty here that
don't want to interrupt and and I'd say
that an SMR is not going to interrupt
your beauty it's going to it's going to
enhance the opportunity for this region
but that's for you to decide when that
opportunity arises but this isn't an
either or it's a both and you can have
your beauty keep your beauty grow your
Economic Opportunity and and and keep
the the Next Generation here and that's
what we're trying to
do comment that I'm going to read that I
almost missed on the back of this card
one of the problems here is that this
area has has always suffered from
extractive Industries companies that
come in make their money and leave
that's part of the
problem right yeah um yeah it look
there's a history of Southwest Virginia
you know I I don't need to tell you
youall lived it right um and and so when
you but you're looking at every industry
has a a flow there's always a beginning
there's always an end right whether it's
it's the the candle the you know pick
the pick whatever right textiles North
Carolina manufacturing before a lot of
the manufacturing with to China there's
always that the Ford plant in off
Virginia where I lived shut up or shut
down one day just basic almost over
night and we lost a ton of jobs y'all
felt to with the core industry the the
question isn't will they stay forever
and ever and ever the question is is can
you use them for the time that that
industry is flourishing can you be in
the beginning and and write it to his
high side and create so much Economic
Opportunity that if if there were ever
to be a decrease that that Economic
Opportunity has created other Economic
Opportunity in Virginia Beach we have a
three-legged stool we've got agriculture
we've got um uh defense spending and
I've got tourism and we've able to use
one to build the other so if if we
decrease one we've got the other two I
would say that the goal isn't to just
say bet the whole future Southwest
Virginia on on nuclear on the nuclear
industry I would say that if there's a
whole bunch of Economic Opportunity here
let that be the foundation let that be
the springboard to create the Economic
Opportunity to create the jobs to to
bring revitalization back to the area
and then use that revitalization to grab
that next industry as well and should
one of those Industries because of
political climate or whatever uh be
impacted well you've got one or two or
three after that as well so
yeah the same comment earlier about new
scale and the 12 smrs but the question
in here was would these jobs remote jobs
end up in Richmond or Columbus Ohio so
Dominion or a headquarters well I mean
they couldn't appear right I mean once
again this is a you know uh that that
new skill thing wasn't a Virginia thing
right that new skill thing was a
different state so um but but it's it's
developer in
technology
question for asking um will the energy
benefit the people here Southwest
Virginia or go somewhere else so the
energy generated here will it benefit us
here well so first and foremost yes I
mean it would benefit to people here um
I would tell you that probably benefits
people uh further out because you know
power generated here you don't have to
have some power going west that power
can now probably go east because you're
generating more here so it's ful a
rising tide that lifts All Ships power
generation additional power generation
anywhere in the Commonwealth is going to
help the Commonwealth as a whole um and
so it's uh it'll generate the place
where it's at as well as other areas and
and and just so we just just to kind of
understand how reliable we are and the
dependent on different things um we
don't generate enough power today for
Virginia we import a lot of our power
we're the whole pjm uh uh Marketplace
that was mentioned uh that's 13 states a
lot of power comes from other states on
a on a regular basis a daily basis um so
when we look at you know will it help us
yes because we're not even
self-sufficient on power today if if
something were to happen to for five six
states as you go north they have a a a
serious storm that takes out their gas
generation sun's not up and and you know
the wind's not blowing um they've gotten
rid of their coal and we can't import
power we're going to have a problem um
so we are already relying on other
states today and their decisions uh so
any additional power we have here
definitely helps
Virginia this is a multi-art question
trying to get to the questions here I
think they've all been asked uh you
mentioned the grants and opportunity for
low population areas will these low will
low population areas benefit from energy
generated by reactor will the people
here be people around these areas be
expected to pay additional taxes and
then another question about where is the
5.6% growth coming from um you want to
take those uh the first uh stab there on
the taxes and additional taxes
associated with it yeah so there may not
be additional taxes we kind of talked
about this before I mean if it comes
from a private entity via PPA um you can
see no additional taxes doesn't have to
show up in rates for that perspective um
it it depends on how it's brought yeah
as part as growth I mean I think
obviously centers is a big part of it
were to reach a clean energy economy
which a lot of us want right a lot of us
want to see that kind of economy and we
want to have that in our lives a big
part of That's electrification So
electrification and decarbonizing the
electric grid and our continued uh
acceleration into electrifying Our Lives
is going to drive demand uh data centers
is just the biggest most glaring one uh
you know we drive a lot of Demand with
these things that we all love you know
because we're generating a lot of the
need for these data centers and uh
there's just a lot of changes coming and
I think that growth is that growth
estimate is probably going to be real or
even worse well and and the growth
estimate came from uh Dominion IRP um uh
that they had out there as as well as
PGM has recognized it so it's not the
Virginia Department of energy saying is
5.6% it's it's literally the utilities
themselves as well as uh as well as the
PJ but but pjm uh that oversees energy
transmission uh saying that this on the
back meeting with major developers
who oh
um yeah yeah so yeah who we talked to so
I mean I can get through a list of I
mean you've got new scale and you've got
htech and you've got GE Hitachi and
you've got I mean it's it's when I first
come aboard I mean I reached out to all
of them I I think I reached out to April
and said April can you set up meetings
with some of these people um and we're
continually touching Bas because there's
so much change in the technology uh you
almost a monthly basis so I mean one
thing I can tell you is you've got a
very passionate uh and dedicated team at
the department of V Virginia energy
these guys here today so many more in
the bigstone Gap office in Richmond in
Charlottesville um and what's so
important to all of us is we've got to
know what's going on uh so when
something occurs that we're ahead of the
game uh so I I couldn't run you through
I too many a list as far as number of
mediums and and that sort of
thing let's see sure lots of big
businesses like data centers want to
come here uh so we can subsidize them
with tax breaks and incentives and pass
it on to the rate player payers is that
true um a lot about yeah but but so I
mean if a data center wants to come here
the first thing they're going to do is
they're going to go and talk to you the
local government right and the local
government is going to you know have to
decide now Virginia Beach we um we
decreased the tax on um on um uh uh um
uh um shoot the materials and the tools
tax yeah yeah the tools tax um because
we wanted to attract more data centers
because we knew when they came they paid
so much in property taxes and real
estate taxes it wasn't funny um and so
we wanted them so yes we we did a
discount do you all have to that's going
to be up to your locality but I would
also mention don't forget it's not just
data centers I mean new Corp and this is
just a couple days ago one of the
largest steel manufacturers in the
nation have said that they want to
decarbonize their industry and so they
are going to come to one of these 13
states where there can be a Advanced
Energy U including smrs that they can
utilize to decarbonize their steel
manufacturing so when we talk about you
know SMR brings the data center an SMR
could bring the largest steel manufactur
steel manufacturing uh entity in the US
uh there's just so much additional
opportunity that the amount of companies
um clean hydrogen there's so there are a
number of companies that we've talked to
there're European companies a lot of
them uh some of them are other parts of
the US that they want to produce clean
hydrogen for a number of reasons uh part
of it sometimes they want to export it
because hydrogen is really key over in
Europe and we won't get into all that
and one of the easiest ways to produce
clean hydrogen is from nuclear pink
hydrogen and so we've got a whole bunch
of entities that are looking for how
where they can go to set up shop to to
fabricate electrolyzers and fuel cells
for the production of pink hydrogen
clean hydrogen from a from an SMR uh for
sale so you know we may talk about data
centers because it's in the news it's
the easy thing to talk about but but SMR
clean power is going to bring a lot more
opportunity than just the data centers
this is the comment without a question
so it's it's not true that onshore wind
or solar is more expensive than nuclear
check Lazard levelized cost event so
write that down
did you say onore onore okay well we'll
look into that I mean that's that's
going to be a Ryan question and we'll
get back to that I mean I I we've looked
at the levelized cost of energy but but
once again remember whether it is or
isn't there are off-takers there are
customers like data centers and and
newor and others that don't care what
the levelized cost of energy is they'll
pay more because the most important
thing is not the price it's the
reliability and in these European
companies that we're talking to that
want to come here it isn't the price and
in some aspects is under their liability
they will not come unless it's clean
they literally have mandates inside
their companies that they are to be 100%
clean by a day certain and they will not
come to a state unless they can get what
they call Rex which is basically
verification that they can buy clean
electrons
um this is really a this is about about
the format so where's the dialogue we
have to write down the questions instead
of orally asking now that's dialogue so
I would argue that this is great
dialogue and this is great dialogue we
cannot ignore you've written it down I
have these they'll be in our office you
you've put them in writing we're going
to we see them so I think this is
the well I have a lot of
Stack begin well they just have come up
here so I didn't pick any order I I can
tell you we're not leaving until they're
all answered I mean that's we we are
committed to be here and I don't care
what time it goes till we can't
necessarily be here
okay so what was your question is there
what did you WR on the thing it was
quite it was quite detailed I want to
know about the jobs I want to know
specifically what jobs there will be
what the pay is going to be what are the
education requirements for these jobs
frankly I don't believe that there are
going to be local jobs so I want you to
prove to me that there are in fact going
to be local jobs that are paying well
right that's diue okay so so I would
would say so there a couple ways to look
at this can I tell you that there's
going to be exactly 300 jobs uh annually
year year with ASR here no it could be
less it could be more um it depends on
the manufacturer depends on the um uh
depends on the technology um are they
jobs uh are they jobs that uh require
degrees so there's a recent study done
actually the lorenco study that just
came out with supply chain uh looked at
this uh they predict 50% will require
Bachelors or a lot of Industry
experience 50% will not require a degree
um so um when you look at the uh the
average salary is estimated
$85,000 would I use empirical evidence I
would I I look at what just happened
over in Fatone uh with those 515 new
jobs with this average starting pay at
$90,000 um a lot of the questions you're
asking because I don't know where the
SMR is going to go I don't know who the
manufacturer is going to be in the
technology it's hard to answer and give
you that exact what I can tell you is
it's worth this conversation going
because all the hope is that one day
some an entity a private entity a
utility will come and say I'd like to
develop in the in the uh Southwest
Virginia area I'd like to use this
technology and then these specific
questions with that you like specific
answers can be asked and the right
people will be on the stage who know
what they're going to do and can answer
them for you but I can tell you yes I
mean there's there's got to be jobs you
can't build it without jobs you can't
maintain it without jobs um and uh and
and and there has to be a supply chain
to support it so it's but I I can't go
any further and you know
numbers were coming and I do think that
you know this format is allowing us to
answer a lot more questions we have
gotten into than other formats there's
some people that I know I'm pretty
extroverted I love to talk and ask
questions that wouldn't ask a question
unless they could write it down so I
don't think this is a bad format I think
this has been a great dialogue even
though it was not vocal back in and
forth I think this has been a great
dialogue so so you keep talking about uh
safety and
smrs when none have been built and none
have operated what are your facts so
this is I got to go back to we we'll
send this out uh we'll send this out um
with the details around the safety and
how they differ from traditional
reactors uh it's it's very in depth very
technical um but I I think it's worth
the read and did the nuclear Rory
Commission in 2023 lower the regulation
on small
new not to my knowledge I mean uh I mean
there's only been one SMR that's
actually gone through the full NRC
process uh and that's new scale um and
no now the the the regulations are
different because the technology is
different between a traditional nuclear
reactor that we may see at Sur in northa
and what an SMR is so they had to it had
to be you know it had to be created
around that new technology but no they
didn't redu
uh the uh the requirements this one may
be the locals may know the answer to
this one better has wise County's local
government approved data centers and
smrs being built in wi
County I can answer that Daniel
yeah foring C intentions to get rid of
natural gas sort of force us to turn to
smrs so this is because fossil fuel is
going away is that what is forcing the
move to SMR yes D do you want to talk
about how much energy used to come from
uh from coal and the we used to have
yeah I think I think many of you are
aware that you know coal was for a long
time the leading source for power
generation uh in the United States not
just Virginia and so in you know part of
what you were talking about GL is the
clean economy act and it was you know by
2045 you know that a lot better than me
answer that yeah I by so by you know by
2045 the Dominion territory has to be
completely clean uh by 2050 the uh appco
area has to be completely clean uh all
coal is going to be completely gone all
natural gas will be completely gone um
so the answer to the question is yes uh
it it it really hurt the Southwest uh
Virginia economy uh when coal went away
and it hurt the the future reliability
and affordability of our grid uh and we
have to find a new base load power uh
and that's where smrs come in and can
help fill that another local issues
question the data center mental Gap has
been there for four years and Wise
County is not able to meet the money
demands and they are threatening to
raise our taxes question mark I don't
think I know the answer to that Daniel
know so so according to several local
Realtors most land and property sales
have recently has been out ofate people
drawn to our beautiful mountains and way
of life you guys let the secret out
didn't you um what the what did the eyes
sours like data Cent won't and smrs have
an adverse uh effect on those property
values and I guess the beauty of the
region is the question well well I I
guess you know it depends on one where
it's cited um you know that makes all
the difference in the world right and
then also you know one of the most
important things I would imagine when
you're looking to move to an area is how
reliable is the power how affordable how
reliable um but but the the biggest
question is the the the impact of the
beauty and Daniel if you want to talk
about more the sighting stuff and and
kind of are mind L and all yeah I think
a lot of times the sighting
considerations about you know even data
centers
um there's a lot of flexibility I think
locality that works with those companies
coming in a location and making sure
that you know it's cited
appropriately um and in think even
thinking of M land there's a lot of
beautiful land out there that was
previously mine um I'll say that and
there's a lot of land you know working
through post mining land use you know
over 20 some years now U that's going to
go back to unmanaged Forest and there's
a lot of uh pristine areas um that you
maybe don't want to sight things there
so I think sighting considerations
locally play a part and you know and and
and the is isore piece of that too is U
maybe there's requirements about
Aesthetics around like data centers but
sighting those more appropriately and
working with locality and getting
Community input for sighting I I think
it's really important process when
anything is located in these
communities this is kind of to our
exciting discussion where we shared some
of the things that were our
responsibility weren't our
responsibility says when confronted with
questions more applicable to other
entities such as the NRC Virginia energy
is quick to disregard we do not we don't
we do not as a public entity is why is
Virginia energy not asking those
entities questions on the citizens
behalf if you are why is there a lack of
communication well there's there's
nothing to ask right yeah because
there's no project um and those
questions will get asked and and the NC
is going to ask them I mean once again
the the the NRC process is one of the
most I I meticulous processes and
difficult processes to get through um
and it's not because they don't just
talk to you it it's because there's a
the it has to be completely safe and
they go and check every little piece I
mean your land has to be perfect and
when I say perfect it's it's me Mike can
you talk about we were talking about
earlier the meteorology and those I mean
all that stuff that comes to play it's
it's not just a area right it's geology
seismology meteorology hydrology uh that
and that's just a small fraction of the
list of of requirements that the NRC has
in place um but but we at Virginia
energy as a state agency uh have no
control over what those Federal
requirements are but they do exist and
they are extensive and we can provide
additional information on our website uh
to demonstrate that but as you see it's
pretty intense so when companies learn
that they that we have nuclear reactors
in our area do you really believe that
they will bring their companies here so
I think this is saying that nuclear
actors being here would be a bad thing
and people would not want to bring their
companies here I'll tell you that
Virginia has lost companies because they
don't have enough clean energy for them
so I I can't do it in reverse and say
you know will they definitely come there
when a company locates there's a number
of reasons why they want to locate right
it's it's Workforce is very important um
uh the university component to some can
be very important um uh lifestyle can be
very important uh when it comies look at
come into an area transportation there
are some companies when they call vedp
they the thing is we need to be within X
distance of an international airport
period end of story and if you're not
they're not coming um but we have had
calls numerous calls that have come in
that have said we need x amount of clean
energy and if we can't do it they don't
come they go someplace
else if to them it's clean and that's
what matters to
them so here's one on another Grant a
little different subject uh but related
uh did Virginia energy give a grant to
the to wise C County industrial park to
develop the elim farm for more data
centers and if so how
much W County did receive an abandoned
mindand economic revitalization grant
for elim Farm it is not specific for
data centers it's just site prep um to
add additional acreage and for whatever
industry the application did not specify
that was for data centers it was just
for uh you know expension and site prep
for the industrial park if I can clarify
something just for the last question
just for clarification um because I we
don't have to debate what clean is the
companies that call the ones from Europe
and others that you know they want
non-carbon emitting is what they so they
consider claimable with but when they
look for Define it for what they Define
is we want a we don't want a greenhouse
gas footprint and we want non-carbon
emitting uh power supply so that's the
way they Define it and that's solution
for radio waste we have solution for we
don't need to be promoting more I can
appreciate that but that's a
conversation we have to have when we
know what technology is going to be
looking at coming but that's clearly I
mean it definitely need be a
conversation this is
a where is the goal to bring solar
energy manufacturing jobs Southwest we
hearing about the job nuclear what about
the jobs that we are currently
Outsourcing opportuni today southw help
power of commonweal with wind and so
100% uh I believe I believe this is
still the case that there's only one set
of solar panels that's manufactured in
the United States um they're Chinese
solar panels so yes um now to get so if
if there were entities that wanted to
manufacture solar panels talking to vedp
uh you better believe that they're
talking about you know let's talk about
Southwest Virginia let's talk about
Southside they're they're they were
going to they will help find areas for
this and and like I said South Southwest
is always on the table for those types
of conversations but there has to be a
company that is looking to manufacture
solar panels in Virginia uh and
unfortunately today they're
overseas we mention Community meetings
for the next few months does that mean
decision is going to be made soon or or
why the meetings for the next few months
so reason those meetings are they are
they said
no I I right now I don't even know that
there's there to my knowledge there's
not a question out there that needs a
decision the reason why we've set these
next four months of meetings is because
youall have asked to have a dialogue and
a continuing conversation and we've
heard you and the governor's heard you I
mean the governor literally called me
yesterday at 6: a.m. and said what's the
schedule for y'all going out to
Southwest Virginia and I gave him the
schedule I said it's the next four
months and here's where we're going and
he was part of his conversation
yesterday the governor wants to make
sure that there's a dialogue he you know
the the ini
the thought was is we we weren't
proactive to come out and talk because
this is a 8 10 years down the road once
an entity says we want to build one in
Southwest Virginia and as of right now
no one has come and said we want to
build something in Southwest Virginia so
we didn't start a dialogue then
obviously there was an interest in
starting a dialogue that we heard from
the citizens here we had our first um
meeting in in January there was a
concern that it wasn't the format that
was desired which we heard you um and we
said okay uh we couldn't come in
February session was going in February
um all my team had to be in Richmond as
quickly as things moveing in uh in
session but we said in March we're going
to start up again uh so the reason why
we're having uh four of these is because
we want to make sure that we're keeping
up with our promise to continue the
dialogue and as long as people come out
we will continue having them remember
what dialogue is it's a
conversation so and I and I will so I
will mention the reason why we did it
this way and and Vince mentioned this
but it was it's really twofold one is we
want to be very very efficient we want
to get as many questions and asked as
possible secondly there are people that
are uncomfortable asking a question and
we want that ability for them and so we
want to get as efficient as possible and
I will tell you if anyone that wants to
stay here after we're done I will have
as long as a conversation one onone or
two onone or five onone as y'all want to
have and whatever whatever format of
dialogue you want to have we'll do it it
would be good because our voices have
been stifled at every turn and it's time
that we I I will stay here after we get
through the Q I will stay here and
dialogue with you and everyone else not
coming in as fast so once we get all
these we'll be here uh I wasn't
anticipating how many good questions you
had so I'm trying to Mo through so we
can get to that point for people that
are really want to have that so why are
we talking about energy
conservation only increasing demand in
my state energy office that I now leave
we're talking about that all the time
there's lots of money for efficiency uh
homes to help make energy efficient
homes that's just not in this meeting it
could be in a future meeting we're
trying to respond to some of the demands
of the citizen who want to talk a lot
about nuclear and trying to make sure we
te that today but we are talking about
it we should talk about it we should
probably talk about it more with
you
see so this was uh our are the only
options for poverty
um nuclear
reactors um this is this is an insult to
say that oh no not at all um look it's
whatever we can bring right um you know
it's it's it's an opportunity that
that's what it is it any industry that
we can bring to Southwest Virginia can
grow an
economy I would argue that there is not
one in its infancy with the enormous
economic growth curve and the supply
chain necessary to fulfill it as nuclear
additionally I don't know of another
industry that will have as many enormous
economic spin-offs whether they are
supply chain opportunities or whether
it's other Industries like steel
manufacturing that come with extremely
high paying jobs locating where there's
that opportunity it's not meant as an
insult what it's meant to be is to
provide an opportunity to once again you
know let Southwest Virginia and help
Southwest Virginia be the Hub of energy
on the East Coast it's going to be up to
you all to make the decision like I said
voices can make this happen voices can
possibly also kill it um but but I think
our job and I say our job I think the
state of Virginia's job the Governor's
job vp's job is to create as much
opportunity as possible and put it in
front of the citizens of the region the
help of things especially areas where we
do have undisturbed populations where we
do have poverty which is brought about
so many other challenges and helping the
poverty issue can alleviate a lot of
that so this about some jobs and says
please name what types of workers would
qualify for high salary jobs will they
just bring those qualified workers
here
so yeah yeah so so you got every I mean
you've got welders you've got
electricians you've got power Auditors
um obviously you've got Engineers too
and and the engineers will have you know
jobs and and they'll probably have to
bring some Engineers I mean it's it's a
heavy engineering field um you'll have
then you have the supply chain that
comes with it so you got fa well
Fabricators um you've got sales people
you've got office people you've got
middle management running companies um
at that point you got and if you bring
enough jobs and the population starts to
grow with disposable income then you've
got more restaurants that need to be
built um and a whole bunch of other
things that come into play it really is
trickle down scenario but if you're
asking me how many jobs at what
positions and at what salaries I'm
giving you the speculation I'm telling
you what the studies show but once again
when that entity stands in front of you
if there's one that shows up and says we
want to do this in Southwest Virginia
that's the question you ask them what
jobs come and then you've got the
studies that say here's the spin-offs of
the jobs that come with that as
well so this is some comments on energy
too much energy there be insufficient
energy
consumers
and dat C extremely noisy
and
provide yeah I just want to one of the
things I think we need to look to
provide is a lot more information cuz
we're getting a lot of questions about
data centers and what they are and what
they do and I think some it depends on
the type of data center obviously but I
think there's some information we can
provide around that
[Music]
gas the
legislators who ran who the legislators
are the majority party in
2021 um so I mean look I I was there I
mean it was a party line vote via was
you pretty much party line um uh and
that bill passed and it was signed by
then Governor Ralph Northam um and it
set those requirements and the only way
that's going to change is if you have a
republican Governor a republican House
Majority and a Republican Senate and
right now we have a Democrat House
Majority a Democrat Senate majority and
a republican governor for the next year
and a half or two years um so it's just
that's the truth of the matter but who
made that happen a chance yeah yeah U
but yeah that's that's how it happened
it was it was the house senate and
governor
so this
ismr
opportun the mod will be buil off inst
by outside experts like we operated
remotely um where are the jobs for local
specific on job education requirements
pay are permanent local
jobs I think that was a question for the
lady that said over were there before
because it sounds very familiar because
I talked about the you know it's a %
probably require a degree or significant
significant experience 50% just a trade
don't need a degree
um yeah yeah yeah so that may that may
have been that question
yeah this a follow something you
said so following up on Mr Davis say
Governor W pass nuclear project cost on
the res the legisl just pass uh allowing
projects cost to be passed on rate how
does this that we won't yeah so the bill
that came out of the House and Senate um
so when we say bear the
risk excuse me it's um it's the risk the
uncertainty right it's it's um the risk
well risk mitigation that there's an
that we think we're going to build it
for X it gets built for y that
additional cost we don't want built on
to the rate payers um what happened what
the build that now that passed is when a
utility build builds a generation a
power generation facility it is allowed
by law to go in front of the SEC for um
uh for recapture of of the costs inside
the rates uh that already exists today
um what the bill that is going to the
governor's desk does is it allows that
utility to go and petition the SEC to
recapture those costs quicker than what
they can do today so it's not a
additional cost that they it's the same
it's the same cost that they can already
recapture it's just quicker and the
reason why it's quicker is the cost of
carry to develop a nuclear facility is a
lot longer than a solar facility or a
natural gas facility and so they need to
recapture some of the funds for their
balance sheet is what they're talking
about and make it more viable but it
does not allow any more costs to be paid
by the rayer than already exists inside
the status quo that can be petitioned
for the SEC it's just a matter of when
uh it gets
recouped this is another Federal per
efforts on
thetion National Administration
Congress NC
regulations appr timelines should that
make us saf so are the timelines
forr should we feel safe
that I I don't so I don't think they're
loosening the timelines what they're
trying to do is force efficiency you
know government is it's well I wouldn't
say not it's not the most efficient form
of of of running an entity um and you
you hear stories all the time up there
that you know an application comes in it
goes on someone's desk that that that
person's out for two weeks it sits there
no one grabs it right um things are very
slow in the federal government it's it's
it's not that they want to bypass it's
not that they want accidents to get made
is they're forcing efficiency uh and
that's what they're trying to do so it's
it's not loosening control it's not
decreasing RS um they're just trying to
make things more efficient and part of
what they're doing it's not really just
NRC that that what you saw up there with
the um interconnection um that's another
one it should not take seven years to
get something online and interconnected
we should not have a 5% completion rate
of projects that go in the queue so this
is happening on a number of areas that
they're trying to grow the efficiency to
get things
through is there consideration uh being
given to the contribution an increase in
we uh to Global CA global warming I
don't know the answer to that I don't I
don't know this is the increasing
nuclear
waves I mean it's under the ground
yeah uh so we have second question here
can we avoid the continued increase in
demand with aggressive attention to
conservation and increasing efficiency
I think it's all I think we
have
yes well and I'll tell you a quick story
so um Europe stor is always abound in
Europe on uh that they are they're going
to go zero uh you they're going to U um
uh clean energy carbon free so quickly
and you got Germany right now that you
know we're not going to use coal we're
not going to use nuclear right so I went
on a US delegation trip over to Germany
I was there for about a week or so stay
in four hotels three of the hotels
didn't have AC it's not that it was
broke they didn't have AC and when I was
in government buildings Federal
buildings um and 80 degree weather they
don't you can't use AC in the federal
buildings now I would say cultures are a
little different their way of
conservation is we don't use AC over
hereat um if we want to not use our AC
in our heater then there's a
conversation to be had I don't think we
want to go that route um so is
conservation a part of it of course
energy effic see like Vince is talking
about 100% um it's a multile stool right
conservation 100% that's a piece of it
but I would just be very careful to say
that we can solve it doing this
especially when we look at Europe for
the answer and we realize the lifestyle
that they lead over there and the
sacrifice they're willing to make to be
able to do that that i' argue Americans
probably aren't willing to make that
sacrifice and we enjoy some of the
Comforts we
have here's a local fire department I
have no ability Angel Authority
so a local fire department been trained
to deal with fires and data centers how
about
SMR and I wish Rand
was a l about anybody any thoughts on
local response well I know it's not smrs
because we won't I mean right now we
don't there's not even discussion of
having an SMR here yeah we have theer so
I don't know about that
requires utilities to install energy
storage technology to address Bas load
issue why isn't
solarr so hey Ryan Ryan can you can you
check me I want to make sure I get these
numbers right so the for a
1,000 um uh uh square foot data center
right is it 10 th how many acres is it
of solar
necessary for a thqu foot data center or
or we did the ratio of how many how many
acres it takes of solar for a data
center do you know that off hand I don't
remember okay we we'll Supply that
um yeah let's put that on the yeah it's
it's just it's we need we we're going to
move clean energy but it's czy we start
seeing these numbers question I think
stor consider part of solution is being
deployed and will be deployed the
question is is what other deployment
needs to happen all those
happen yeah so we got two more so if
anybody runs raises want to di the car
next person
car private companies use non-disclosure
AGS does this impact our ability to
access information about our
concerns time no um you know will there
be a time when you know the state may
have to uh sign a non-disclosure
agreement maybe the VDP does all the
time when a company wants to come to the
calth of Virginia we ask a lot of
questions that are proprietary to that
company because we need to know the
economic value of of an opportunity um
so vedp is forc to sign a non-disclosure
but that doesn't mean that um that when
that opportunity Rises and they come in
front of you that you can ask the
question and they need to answer the
question they get your support so no uh
non-disclosures that are traditionally
signed at the state level do not impact
your ability to ask the question and get
information talk about the implications
of using groundw and my water cooling
data Cent and or Rea how would you
advise about water
issues that one
yeah people talk about yeah and there's
opportunities around I'll speak
specifically about underground U Mine
pools it's water that is in the void
space left over from underground mining
um you know there's many areas in the
coal field uh where there these
underground mind pools exist and so one
study that we're looking at now is
beneficial use of this water and some of
that is around clo one one example would
be a Clos loop system to be able to
bring water from an underground mine
that it's a significantly lower
temperature and can be used for maybe HB
cooling systems or maybe you there's
other types of cooling it could and then
it's a Clos Li so would go back into the
M Pool u a lot of the the SS around that
depends on the the size of the mpol how
much water is there the riseing
temperature so that's one of the studies
we're looking at now is beneficial reuse
of some of the Mind water that's out
there and and obviously part of that is
looking at the water quality make sure
that there's no impacts uh in that
closed loop system but I think there's
going to be you know Innovation around
using water and how it's used uh for any
of these things and data centers would
be one one system that could benefit on
the Energy Efficiency side reduce how
much energy they actually need if you
can U use that in the cooling system you
need to talk to a coaler about what
happens to that water you can't control
where it
goes ask they know what questions you
cannot the water one of the questions
that I submitted that hasn't been
addressed is regarding the ownership of
that water
or Mike if you want
to we did get a question ahead of time
similar to that I'm not sure that's
exactly your question um but that is on
a document that we provided
um the the code Virginia says with
respect to Coal Min that the void that
is left over after the coal is removed
is owned by the part the entity that
owns the coal estate as I'm sure you
guys know uh surface owners coal owners
gas owners mineral owners can can be
four different people or four different
entities the the law currently says
whoever owns thec State owns that voy
was that just a few years old
legislation it was it was around it was
around 2012 that that legislation passed
because I knew there was a proposal
where they were asking the legislature
to say that they owned um the open area
that they create from the extraction we
all joked about it said so they want to
own
a and these yeah the these property
rights cases uh are very complex and are
very fact dependent and very dependent
upon the exact language that is in the
deed of severance um so it's really hard
to talk in general terms other than
what's in the code so they own the water
too or just void I don't know the answer
to that
[Music]
water again that's going to go back to
exactly how the severance Deeds were
written and how a court might interpret
that um I can't give you an answer on on
the water would we also take that is
there or is
there I'm not aware of one but that
doesn't mean that there isn't one out
there looking for that that's a warm up
for and those are still
here not question
um is it true that that with the bills
about Advanced customer payments forr
now don't that
require do not require the ray
reimbursement projects cancel this
sugges Advanced customer payment bill
forr for governor would that require
re um so it's up to the SEC uh so right
now without the bill um a utility can go
and petition the SEC for a uh Power
Generation facility and even if that
facility doesn't come online because of
something transpires uh they can still
petition and have those uh those costs
uh recaptured um that same ability still
exists uh under this piece of
legislation um so yes under this pieace
of legislation as well as status quo uh
the uh utility is able to position SEC
uh for a facility uh and they can and
they can potentially recapture even if
the entity does not come
online and real quick what's the website
for tonight's information and video the
Virginia Energy website at some point
soon yes and we will be
uh our website is energy.
for.gov and um we will be updating it
with um information once the next
meeting is is booked we will also as I
indicated earlier be putting an
electronic copy of the answers to the
questions that were pres submitted
online um and um information related
back to the first meeting that we had uh
in Le in
January after question look forward make
sure not something Dr maybe got stuck
together but uh that's all the cars so
the end of the car
session oh look I I just I appreciate
everyone coming uh I I appreciate the
tough questions too and that's what this
is about you can I mean as you can
expect we didn't come here thinking
we're going to get softball questions uh
we came here because there are some
tough questions but there are questions
that need to be answered and I hope uh
between some of the stuff that we
answered earlier on the papers and
tonight uh you can see that this team is
committed to answering your questions
and some of them may not have answers
until an opportunity arises uh but thank
you for that uh for thank you for coming
here and providing that opportunity for
us Daniel if you want to say anything on
closing yeah I I really just want to
thank you everyone for coming and I
really appreciate you all taking the
time to be here and we want to continue
the dialogue I know we can question
formats but I I think we want to make
sure that everyone has an opportunity to
talk about you know what they want to
talk about and Vin I think you did a
good job directing this I appreciate
that but please come to the next one if
you have the opportunity I would suggest
for the next one that think we have an
actual dialogue because and for most
people who left I don't feel like it's
productive to have dialogue now when
there's just a few people in the room we
need to have is during the meeting when
the room is full of people but but if
there's value for you to get answers to
your questions if there's value for you
in dialogue then I I will stay here and
have this dialogue right I mean I I
can't I can't I can't tell you whether
there's value in a dialogue between you
and I for the 40 people that may have
left but if there's value for you and I
to have a dialogue for for you I'm happy
to do it okay here's an example when we
went to the last meeting and
that you got H we everyone could not
hear the questions everyone could not
hear the answers we were separated and
taken to each table and to ask our
questions and we didn't get get answers
anyway because they weren't experts but
we were told they were that's my that's
my thing we need to have a real dialogue
a real conversation yep that's why we
had this format today was to kind of get
around some of that okay thank you and
if you haven't picked up uh the copy of
the questions at the very end of that
document which again will be posted
online is our email address or you can
send additional questions if you Happ
them if you think of something and you
can't sleep tonight after this riving
meeting um please email us with those
questions and please email us with your
suggestions if there are other topics
that we haven't touched upon yet that
you want to hear at Future meetings
please let us know Mike just give us
some time to get it up we don't have
that big of a team oh yeah yeah of
course some of the some of the team is
is is here and uh going to be driving
back to Richmond tomorrow so and we have
one person that does our website we know
it's a long way we've been here but it
will be up it will be posted uh VA enery
energy. virginia.gov the email address
is on the document again please send us
your questions your your comments and
your suggestions for future topics thank
you so I think we could probably take it
yeah oh oh yes we come join you get
this take as much interest and
enthusiasm about the technology of
energy storage as it does for soal
advanced nuclear which is basically the
same technology that we've had for the
last 4050 years I would like The Cutting
Edge is energy storage finding a way
around
lithium uh my son has a a friend who
worked in the oil and gas industry
and they're adap start got a startup
that is adapting the techniques of
drilling from that industry for
geothermal
storage of energy using air
pressure um but not at the level of uh
damage to the surface that tracking
Cs and so they're using solar or wind to
force air into 10,000
uh foot hole in the
ground and using the pressure
to uh creating pressure which would use
it uh make it operational for uh like
pum
storage you you run it through a
generator when it comes back up that's
the kind of thing that I think is really
cutting edge and would be really useful
for V Energy to help us with I I don't
see other states going after storage
that really is the
opportunity C why why aren't we oh we we
can we can have a we can have a town
hall in the future just on storage so um
I so uh so this I've had a lot of
conversations on storage we're going
after federal grants that we want to use
for Storage storage really changes a lot
of this renewable opportunity the
renewable energy um I this so this this
the Department of En energy is excited
about Innovation right it's for the hary
Buffs that we have in here including the
one sitting right here you know Wayne
gresy you always said you know don't go
don't skate to where the puck is Skate
to where it's going to be I think that
was Wy was it okay I got that right um
and that's what we're looking at
Virginia energy it's it's not just about
what the technology is today right it's
about what future technology can we be
ready to take advantage of when it's
there um so I will tell you that we are
passionate you didn't hear it tonight
cuz we didn't talk much about storage
but I think storage changes the
landscape of a lot and we're very
interested in it yeah we do
have please
please
yes and just one thing I'll add on
storage is that the origin clean economy
act contains requirements for dominion
and appalachin power to petition the SEC
for approval of I believe it's for
Dominion it's 3100 Mega 3100 megawatts
total of storage and that's 27 for
dominion and 400 for Atco so there's
going storage is coming and um like
Glenn said we're working on and if if
y'all want to hear more about storage at
a future meeting please send us an email
and
help hear more about
transmission that's you Daniel what
transmission yeah can you can you talk a
littleit Lou sorry what about
transmission
what was your question about
transmission transmission lines but I
understand that you probably have to
have utility representatives to answer
those questions but they're important
they're in the public Arena forting ANW
yeah yeah and that that gets into uh you
know many times those things cross state
lines which gets the federal government
involved uh there's tremendous cost and
questions over how that cost is
allocated uh it gets really comp licated
very very
quickly
cool
he's director V uh my question would be
I think you mentioned this before uh for
the data centers but like if the SMR did
come to Wise County or any County in
Southwest Virginia the uh for the tax
revenue it's not just jobs that would
come in but it would with the uh
personal property taxes Machine Tool um
also real estate taxes and if other
localities were pitching in to help that
particular locality could they do a
revenue sharing agreement to help other
localities very much so it's it's done
quite often some areas I would expect uh
this is one of the types of projects I
would imagine would be Cross County uh
with multiple localities and there
sharing all those
taxes yes
sir you do not
thank you
that
you probably don't
any I was a little disappointed in
your rather a live answer with the
question about increasing efficiency and
conservation
and nice that you brought up Europe the
way ahead of us we're way
behind we need to catch
up when the power plant was being
proposed the now supposedly obsolete
power St
Paul I
testified that there were a lot of
people wanted that
thing but nobody needed it
thought to leave so I guess we
did but my point
was that there
are thousands tens of thousands millions
of
homes in this country including
Virginia rooms that nobody's been in for
6 months kept at
72° around the CL I think the
Europeans have got something right
sir I I appreciate that and sorry if you
thought the answer was GL I I'll share
one other thing about the trip to
Germany because I I was very excited to
go over there because I wanted to see
the advances they had and you're right
there are some advances they do have I
was kind of taken back when it came to
the air conditioning thing but I'll tell
you another one I was in the I think it
was the minister of minister of energy
um office and they had a team there
there was 14 of us and we said you know
what are you using for base load because
obviously a lot of wind right to North
Sea and they have a lot of wind energy a
lot of solar energy they have a lot of
power purchase agreements with um or
Partnerships with other countries and I
said what are you using for base load
and they said batteries I said but we
don't have long-term battery storage
that truly viable yet and they said well
we don't have that yet so right now they
are they I think it's 12 uh plants they
told me it's 12 gas plants natural gas
and hydrogen gas plants they rely on in
other countries to get their base load
so when we talk about it Germany having
clean energy production they do they
don't use natural gas in Germany they
import it from another from another
country so I I do agree that we need to
learn from the technological advances of
other countries but we also need to pay
attention to some of the realities uh
because in politics and and especially
on a global scale sometimes what they
say is not necessarily the reality and
when I seen into bringing in natural gas
from another country and saying it's all
clean over here I I kind of look the
other way
and on the point of Energy Efficiency uh
just a couple of things U the clean
economy act instilled a Energy
Efficiency resource standard that
requires the two main uh investor own
utilities to reduce uh the amounts of
energy that they sell through through
Energy Efficiency conservation programs
that's in the law today uh also oh it's
gone um the first two items that we had
on the list of Grants uh are home energy
rebate programs $90 million a pop two
programs uh that that's coming your way
very soon uh thank you v um
so Daniel sorry
so those things efficiency is absolutely
a part of solution to the problem and
there are uh steps and programs coming
to help make that happen I hope that
this
impressive as you have been
tonight have askm
in would you did you learn the history
of nulear power in
Germany um no they they won't use
nuclear over there uh in Germany I mean
I we know why they won't use nuclear
over there but but we didn't talk about
nuclear at all they didn't they don't
use it we were there to talk about
renewable energy over in
Germany they started out with away yes
yeah I thank you your long
very I thought you probably probably
couldn't read my not first part of
it I thought that was probably it but
the first part of it was about the fact
that we with our property use of energy
anytime that you make an energy
transfer lot of of thermodynamics stick
in waste
heat and years
ago when the people in
Utah claimed that they could do Fusion
in the
T turn that
work I asked a question on an exam
what would be the long range
effect if nuclear fusion could be
done with water being
source and you the unlimited energy what
would be the consequence of that the
consequences of it is that we would use
it and we would generate more waste heat
than the earth is capable of dispersing
back into
space and
that perhaps ahead of
of
abuse we heat up there and do what
fossil fuel abuse is doing
now and I just picked up a a textbook
that is uh a little over 20 years old
now and it's still gave the
concentration of carbon dioxide in our
atmosphere
as
0.03% that's 300 parts per minute little
easier to deal with that
figure
okay last year we passed
425 and what we've done is increase this
thickness of the blanket on the
earth and any things we do fossil fuels
or if we
have your wonderful Fusion sounds like
a when you
said that nuclear fusion might be 10
years down the
road it's actually 93 million
miles can't Rec signs what you're trying
to
do it sounds wonderful the sign
perspective but you're right maybe it's
a nurse in
the
not we're not exactly out
respons figuring out how to keep this
planet
liveable who
else who
else well feel free to or feel free to
walk up
here this when everybody here that's all
I'm
saying that's
okay I'm not going to know to say
and a good
job so we'll continue to think about
format and about meeting spaces and you
know Lear
I like the discussions I like to be able
to sit down and talk to somebody I don't
want to be talk I've been involved a lot
of what you can have is you can get
people that just want to come make a
whole lot of noise yeah and then the
dialog it becomes shouting it becomes
unproductive back and forth and
sometimes we you know have been up with
strategies and maybe get more people
and maybe it's not and then we try
you've seen two different formats so far
which one did you like best this
one the first one was much worse with
this first of all we do really
appreciate having to meeting um it's
raised a lot of more questions um but um
it's 16 months incoming we've been
asking for this since the governor made
this announcement in October of
22 um so yes we would like to have more
information and more
dialogue um so we would like to say that
the second thing I wanted to say was um
you know when the governor came here
this was his
moonshop the first smnr here in
Southwest Virginia and and yesterday I
don't know if this was planned off the
cup in response to a reporter he
said well Southwest Virginia possibly
will not leave the first s and then we
saw some of the reasons
that
so I don't expect you to have an answer
to this but people are saying wow y one
congratulations we're being very
cautious because he did say maybe they
will be on day okay but it raises a lot
more questions and we will be following
up uh with Southwest Virginia
n and we are a virgin Grassroots
movement and the people that came out
were concerned that they are a small
number compared to the numbers that came
to our 12 Community meetings and have
over a thousand have signed our petition
so we're here we're inolved and we'll
stay inolved and we would like to be
more involved with what is going on and
our local offici yes ma'am no personally
iar maybe should and I think we all
learn from that and maybe the
opportunties were not handled it should
I do want to say that Davis has been
will to be here now and committed not
all so I hope we will get some Grace you
know in some of the we made I would be
curious who your artist is for your son
who you creative yeah you you get a name
for creativity I I sent that picture of
the billboard we passed the billboard on
the way up I sent to my wife uh it it's
creativity is yeah this is all internal
we have as you can see very intelligent
people living here experts creative
artists
so Y and I can answer if you like the
real quick on the governor's thing you
know we had mentioned that the state
can't make something happen can't really
stop something happen the governor was
very is very passionate about Southwest
Virginia wanted the first one to be here
because of all the economic upside and
and all the opportunities we discussed
um but there are other localities that
have nuclear today uh that want to have
another reactor um there are and and I
don't know of any
utility that's actually said we we want
to go build one and we want to build it
this time but there have been other
localities that said we'd like another
one um and there are Parcels of land um
that have already been through the NRC
process uh specifically you've got North
Ana right another paral land went
through that um back in the 2014 2015
time frame uh that they can they can
that it go through the indry process now
quicker and that's why the governor said
it may not be the first because we can't
make southwest the first because we
don't decide where it goes uh and
because it's of movement on localities
that want the economic upside they they
know they're safe because they already
have re actors there um and they're
making um uh uh uh noise that it very
well likely may be down there but and
that's why he made the comment he
did I I will say this
uh we also uh you know when other
communities want this um are they
talking about the local
are they talking about the people um and
the other thing is um as we know all
across the nation Louisiana has an area
they call cancer alley now because of
the impact of large uh
corporations uh the effects they' have
on the people so even North and uh Sur
um I've got to do my geography better
but we're already in communication with
groups across the state and we want to
know if those are located in vulnerable
Comm communities people of color and we
want to be sensitive to everyone so if
we don't get it here and someone else
wants it that's their choice yep make
sure's oh yes ma'am
yep I did wonder over this part these
two ladies have been really diligent in
listening providing questions
the M what you say thank you thank you
so much
thank thank you guys for coming I really
appreciate it thank everybody for your
questions I learned so much tonight I'll
just go ahead and say I am Pro I do
think it is a great idea to bring
something like that here Big Stone Gap
I'm born and raised Big Stone Gap I love
my hometown I want to make sure our
hometown is safe so everything you guys
can do to make sure that we stay safe
and while we I I want to see the grow I
I actually was born and raised here I
moved to Richmond Virginia um I lived
there up until two years ago I bought my
grandfather's house here so they were
going to sell it I said you're going to
sell it you're going to sell it to me
and we moved back here my husband
actually works in brond still because he
could not find a job here and every time
that he tried to go and get a job he has
a mass degree in Commercial
Refrigeration he cannot find a job here
so he has had to job back in and I take
care of the three by myself that home I
want grow for this area I love our
hometown I think this is a great
opportunity as long as we handle it like
we always do we handle everything that
we care we care about each other and
love so
let's keep these opportunities rolling
for our next generation and let's just
all see if we can come together our
community and make sure that we you know
nourish it help it grow be the best
people that we can be thank you guys for
everything thank you thank
you police
[Music]
yes I every
for their public and behavior in public
and for your patience with
us here anybody want to bring us home
with the last
word last question before we the
director have a
break I think that includes energy
education series number two more to come
I'm sure you will be following our
social media follow
onb thank youall