The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board has approved permits for a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant in Wise County Virginia. The board’s vote was unanimous yesterday and paved the way for the Dominion Virginia Power plant to be built. The approval came with conditions to reduce planned emissions of sulfur dioxide and mercury and conversion of a power plant to natural gas. The vote was the last major hurdle to the construction of the 585-megawatt Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center. It’s scheduled to go on line in 2012. Proponents have said the energy plant would create jobs in the economically depressed region and a new market for Virginia coal. Environmentalists have raised health and safety concerns about mining of coal for the plant and the effects of sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions.