By Kathy Adams
With signs, cardboard wind turbines and a parade of Priuses, hybrid car owners on Thursday afternoon sent a message to legislators meeting inside the Capitol: No hybrid tax.
The demonstration by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network was in protest of legislation that would tax hybrid car owners and repeal renewable-energy incentives for electricity companies.
While the first proposal, part of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s transportation plan, is still working its way through both houses, the second looks ripe for passage after receiving unanimous approval in the House earlier this week. The Senate is expected to vote on it today.
Beth Kemler, the climate action network’s state director, called the measures an “assault on climate solutions.”
“We should be rewarding people for doing their part to solve the climate crisis and end pollution,” Kemler said, amid a cacophony of car horns and protest chants. “We shouldn’t be punishing them.”
McDonnell’s transportation plan would raise to $100 a year the tax on electric motor vehicles and would add hybrids to the list. The idea, the governor’s office has said, is to make up for those drivers using the roads but contributing less in fuel taxes to maintain and build them.
The other proposal, by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, would no longer offer financial incentives to electricity companies, such as Dominion Virginia Power, that use renewable energy sources. Cuccinelli’s office has said the “adders” have raised consumers’ bills without having the intended environmental impact.
Environmental groups say that’s because, rather than investing in new sources, electricity companies have simply purchased renewable-energy certificates from existing facilities, some out of state.
They’ve suggested, instead, making the renewable-energy purchases mandatory and requiring that at least some of them come from Virginia producers.
Those goals seem unlikely this year – lawmakers have axed most of the bills – but Kemler said the action network plans to try again next year.
The House Commerce and Labor Committee on Thursday approved several bills to “advance the ball for green-energy production,” said Del. Randall Minchew, R-Frederick, in speaking of his bill, HB1695.
Minchew’s proposal would allow farms and communities with renewable-energy generators, such as solar panels, to participate in “net metering” programs in which they share power and receive a refund from their electricity company if they produce more than they use.
Another, HB2334, would allow other consumers to purchase power through renewable net metering programs if they meet certain criteria.
The committee also took a step toward ensuring that utilities don’t “double count” their renewable-energy use. HB2180 says that an electricity company would have to own the energy it plans to count toward its renewable portfolio.
If it sold the energy to another company, they both couldn’t count it, said Del. Thomas Rust, R-Fairfax County.
Kathy Adams, 804-697-1563, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com
