This was written by fellow CCAN intern, Jes Kidder. Great job!
Mark Warner’s VA Summit on Energy Opportunities was held on Friday, July 10 at Hampton University. HU’s president, Dr. William Harvey, started off the summit by talking about how green and sustainable HU is becoming. In fact, one of the first things I noticed once we stepped onto the campus was that the police there drive Toyota Priuses. Maybe one reason I found this so intriguing is that the police on my college campus drive Ford Explorers. My favorite part, however, was how he completely avoided the word “coal”. He would say how they were replacing their existing steam plant system with geothermal because the steam was loaded with tons of greenhouse pollutants, yet never related coal to causing the pollutants. Of course, with all of this talk about becoming green, I found it ironic that there were no recycling bins, considering it’s a pretty simple step to take to become more sustainable. They had plastic plates and utensils, but nothing but a trashcan to put them in. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why HU scored a D+ on their environmental report card last year. Though that’s not to say that I don’t applaud their efforts; it always makes me happy when someone is trying to become more sustainable.

The first out of 3 panels was about weatherization. The panelists included people from the Department of Energy, the VA Department of Housing, the SE Tidewater Opportunity Project, and Rebuilding Together. The main source of discussion was the $37 million, out of $94 million, that was just given to Virginia’s Weatherization Assistance Program through the Recovery Act. Money given to the program will increase twofold, which allows for a 54% increase in the number of houses that can apply for weatherization. All panelists mentioned how their department or organization will be able to assist those who qualify and how this will help not only the people but also the environment.

We missed the second panel on stimulus funds for state and local governments because we were presenting our Put a Cap on It poster to Senator Mark Warner. The three of us from the Richmond CCAN team, along with around 20 others from Sierra Club, VA League of Conservation Voters, and other environmental organizations met with him. The main topic was the Climate Bill that is being drafted by the Senate. Warner seemed interested in what we had to say; he even offered us a few suggestions that could help us get his and Senator Webb’s approval on strengthening and passing the Climate Bill. Warner said that environmental issues were a priority to him and something he thinks needs to be taken care of. He seemed impressed with our poster, which included over a thousand pictures of VA residents who want a science-based cap on carbon emissions (he seemed even more pleased when he learned it was his to keep). Overall, he spent a good 10 minutes speaking with us, and it felt like he really cared about what we had to say.

The final panel was on the smart grid. This diverse group of panelist included people from the Department of Energy, Old Dominion Electric Cooperatives, Dominion’s Alternative Energy Solutions, Aker Wade, and the Navy Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic. The Recovery Act allotted $4.5 billion for the smart grid, and each panelist talked about how their organization is planning on spending the portion of the money that was granted to them. There were good ideas being shared, such as making industrial fast charging batteries for electric cars and storing and transporting energy created from renewables. I was surprised and impressed that even the lady from Dominion had good plans on how to use the money. She talked about the smart grid in Charlottesville, and Dominion’s plan on making it state-wide in the next 4 years; however, the man from ODEC did not share any ideas. He spent his time complaining how ODEC did not have the time to fill out the application for the stimulus money, so they hardly have any money at all and are unable to really do anything. I found this interesting since they want to build another coal-fired power plant. I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure you need money for that.

On the whole, the summit was a great way to learn about what sustainable ideas and practices are going on at the federal, state, and local levels across the state. It also gave us the chance to tell Warner face-to-face what we thought of the Climate Bill and what more needs to be done.