Both sides in a dispute over a coal-fired power plant in far Southwest Virginia said they were happy after the state issued a new permit for the plant yesterday. David K. Paylor, director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, issued the permit shortly after a Richmond Circuit Court judge released an order setting aside the original permit.

A demonstration project to remove carbon dioxide from coal-fired smokestack emissions has been proposed for a controversial power plant under construction in far Southwest Virginia.

A Richmond judge says a state permit for a coal-burning power plant in Wise County did not adequately limit mercury pollution. Circuit Judge Margaret P. Spencer said the state Air Pollution Control Board erred in issuing the permit for the $1.8 billion Dominion Virginia Power plant. The ruling, released yesterday, means the board must craft a revised permit for the plant.

Judge Margaret P. Spencer said the state Air Pollution Control Board erred in not setting a firm limit for mercury emissions from the $1.8 billion Dominion Virginia Power plant.

Environmentalists asked a Richmond Circuit Court judge yesterday to throw out state-issued permits for a coal-burning power plant in Wise County. Among other problems, the permits do not adequately control emissions of carbon dioxide and mercury, the environmentalists said during a three-hour hearing. The state Air Pollution Control Board issued two permits for the $1.8 billion Dominion Virginia Power plant in 2008.

Environmentalists and residents are asking state mining officials to deny a permit for a mountaintop mining operation in Southwest Virginia. The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy was given a petition signed by 300 people yesterday opposing a permit for mining on Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County. The petition asks state officials to follow the lead of the Environmental Protection Agency.

A 38-year-old man was killed in a two-vehicle crash in Wise County yesterday, Virginia State Police said. Christopher Shannon Mullins of Coeburn was driving a pickup truck west on state Route 646, three-tenths of a mile east of state Route 704, when the vehicle crossed the centerline and struck a sport utility vehicle head-on at 7:30 a.m., police said.

An assistant middle-school principal in Southwest Virginia’s Wise County faces charges of distributing OxyContin.

An assistant school principal indicted on drug charges has been released and is scheduled for arraignment today. Ricky Dale Webb, 36, of Big Stone Gap is accused of distributing Oxycontin, conspiracy to distribute the drug and committing both of these crimes within 1,000 feet of a school, all during a five-year period. If he is convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of 125 years in jail and up to $1.6 million in fines, according to the indictment.

Dominion Virginia Power customers are seeing rates rise to help pay for a new coal-fired generation plant in Southwest Virginia that is facing legal challenges from environmental groups. The company implemented a rate adjustment Jan. 1 that increases bills by $1.53 for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity that customers use. For the average customer, that means an increase of $1.84 per month.

The former mayor of St. Paul, in Wise County, pleaded guilty yesterday to obstructing justice. He admitted that he barred town police officers from patrolling certain areas, freed suspects from custody and locked officers out of their evidence room. William Jackson Kiser, 70, was fined $2,000 and given a two-year jail sentence, with the jail time suspended. He pleaded guilty in Wise County Circuit Court to two misdemeanors, obstruction of justice and the fraudulent destruction of records.

WISE—A group of protesters locked themselves to steel drums at the construction site of Dominion Virginia's Wise County coal-fired power plant. Nell Greenberg of the California group Rainforest Action Network said 50 people entered the site around 6 a.m. today to protest Dominion's $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant. More than 20 people lined up, sticking their arms through holes in steel drums and chaining them together.