High-Tech, High-Income, High-Polluting Virginia

Article by Mike Tidwell, published in the Washington Post

Sunday, November 2, 2008; B08

Mention the words “Northern Virginia” and the hyphenated adjectives come to mind: fast-growing, high-tech, well-educated, high-income. Fairfax County has a higher percentage of high-tech workers than Silicon Valley. No wonder the presidential candidates can’t seem to stay away.

So here’s the surprising question for every Northern Virginia voter: Why is this high-tech region, so dedicated to a “knowledge-based” economy, utterly dependent on an energy system as old as the Confederate States of America? Northern Virginia gets the lion’s share of its electric power not from wind turbines or solar farms but from coal: a shocking 1,180,400 tons of raw coal each year, nearly half of the region’s total load. And it’s not “clean coal” or “high-tech” coal. Just black, sooty, “rip it from the ground and set it on fire” coal. You’d think it would be different. You’d think Northern Virginia would be a leader in developing clean, sustainable energy at a level equal to its high-tech, high-education status.

You’d think.
Continue reading

Hey Virginia: CCAN is hiring!

VA State Campaign Coordinator

The VA State Campaign Coordinator, based in the beautiful city of Richmond, will be working with CCAN’s Campaign Director to build our grassroots base across much of the state while planning and implementing our state legislative strategy in Virginia’s capital, Richmond. This is an organizing position that requires the ability to be a strong public leader while possessing an aptitude for the legislative process. The applicant will be maintaining and expanding our base of volunteers, e-activists and coalition partners outside Northern Virginia to leverage our network for both state and federal campaigns. Learn more>>

Virginia Campus Organizer

The Virginia Campus Organizer will be responsible for running the Campus Climate Challenge on campuses across Virginia. Utilizing organizational and coalition resources, the Virginia Campus Organizer will serve as the ground support for this campaign, outreaching and training students, planning events and actions, and educating and mobilizing youth to speak out about clean energy and climate change to political leaders. Learn more>>

Want to know how awesome it is to work at CCAN? Watch this short video from CCAN’s staff:

VIDEO: Green Jobs Day of Action

GreenJobsNow.org organized nearly 700 events nationwide calling for policies that would encourage the growth of a new ‘green’ economy in the US. Here’s a look at a few of those events CCAN organized in the Washington, DC area.

Chesapeake Bay Program says Bay will rise 2.3 ft

chesapeake bay
Letter from from Skip Stiles, Wetlands Watch

The federal Chesapeake Bay Program yesterday released a study on climate change impacts on the Chesapeake Bay that summarizes our best estimates of climate change impacts up to 2100. The paper is solid and has undergone complete peer review – and is being issued by the federal government.

The conclusions are sobering. Fully slamming on the brakes in our green house gas emissions gives us a minimum 2.3 foot relative sea level rise by 2100. When Wetlands Watch first warned Governor Kaine about the impacts of sea level rise in a letter to Kaine in May of last year best estimates of sea level rise started at around 1.5 – 2 feet. Every time we take a closer look we unfortunately get higher estimates.

More troubling are the temperature increases predicted – nearly another 2 degrees C. This warming will force major habitat shifts and produce impacts such as the inability of eel grass to survive in much of a warmer Chesapeake Bay.

This is a clear warning call that we need to 1) dramatically reduce emissions and 2) begin adaptation planning today for the sea level rise and other impacts. With the Governor’s Climate Change Commission starting its final work on its report, there is an opportunity to have an impact there. As well, many local governments are undertaking revisions of their comprehensive land use plans – which include consideration of the natural resource base of the locality. Every one of those plans should include consideration of these coming changes.

Skip

—
Skip Stiles
Executive Director
Wetlands Watch