Energy Speech Gets Heated Reaction

The CEO of American Electric Power Co. received sharp questions and criticism from students and community members during a presentation at Virginia Tech on Monday.

After a speech on the future of energy, both globally and within his company, chief executive officer Michael G. Morris encouraged the audience to ask questions.

With that invitation, Squires Student Center’s Haymarket Theater and the Deans’ Forum Energy and Environment Speaker Series turned into a showdown between Morris and two groups: the Blacksburg Mountain Justice and the Concerned Citizens of Giles County.

Blacksburg Mountain Justice member Jason Johnson argued with Morris on a number of energy issues that included the immediate use of renewable energy, development of energy friendly community programs and having a more honest business plan.

“I didn’t expect things to get as confrontational as they did, but we certainly saw Mr. Morris at his best,” Johnson said. “ I don’t think he answered the questions as honestly and fairly as he could have because we put him on the spot with issues that were irrefutable.”

The Blacksburg Mountain Justice felt one of those irrefutable issues was their accusation that the coal industry causes an average of 24,000 deaths each year due to respiratory illnesses. They said that Morris and the AEP were personally responsible for many of them.

Morris said there was data to support some of the group’s claim but that the United States would not abandon coal because of the billions of dollars invested in it.

“Mr. Morris reframed issues and downplayed things to the point that even admitting to the responsibility for thousands of deaths was in his words ‘ just part of the industry’,” Johnson said.

The Concerned Citizens of Giles County spoke out against the structural fill that the AEP plans to build on the New River, which would hold nearly 300,000 cubic yards of coal combustion waste. They are concerned that the public and environmental health would be at serious risk if the “fly ash” were to contaminate the river.

After two of the group’s members said that there was no doubt the waste would leech the river, group member and Virginia Tech alum Darlene Cunningham stood and took her shot at Morris.

“Why would you agree to put your waste on the riverbank?’ Cunningham asked. “ Just because you’re following the law does not make it right, especially when you’re using loopholes in the EPA standards.”

Morris said the company would monitor the groundwater and decide what actions would be appropriate based on those results and at that time.

One of the members told Morris that everything about the project was terrible and that the contamination was inevitable. He asked Morris to please find another site for it.

“If we moved it to another site there would just be a whole different group of people in here that would be upset about it,” Morris said.

While Morris initially promoted in his speech that the energy companies and individual lifestyles should take the most responsibility for energy improvements, after taking many of the questions he repeated a different message.

“The best way for change is with the laws through your delegates,” Morris said.

This type of message was the most frustrating part of the afternoon for Virginia Tech graduate student Damian Pitt. Pitt said Morris was very inconsistent with his message and feelings on environmental improvement.

“I felt that the event overall was a disappointment,” Pitt said. “Mr. Morris presented himself as someone who is concerned about the environmental effects of energy use but he later seemed to feel that the AEP did not have any responsibility to reduce the impacts of their activity.”

Morris will continue speaking on the Future of Energy University Listening Tour while Virginia Tech and the Deans’ Task Force on Energy Security and Sustainability hosts Anne Korin as its next guest speaker on March 17.