Supporters of a $1.6-billion coal-fired power plant are eager for the jobs it would create in economically depressed southwest Virginia, but critics worry about its environmental impact.

The Dominion Virginia Power proposal is the focus of hearings Monday night and Tuesday by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

Construction of the 585-megawatt Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center could create 800 jobs. And it could support more than 250 coal-mining jobs once it went on line in 2012. The plant could employ 75.

Dominion plans to burn cleaner coal, and has said the plant will burn only coal mined in Virginia, as well as coal waste and wood products.

But opponents like the Southern Environmental Law Center argue the utility's plans to capture carbon emissions before they can be released into the air won't happen now because the technology does not exist.