Governor Kaine: Won't You Be Our Valentine?

n699789082_643434_4527 This Valentine’s Day, mountain lovers from all over the commonwealth asked Governor Kaine to be their Valentine.

Virginia students, faith leaders, and activists delivered hundreds of Valentine’s Day cards to Gov. Kaine asking him to protect Virginia mountains and stop the Wise County power plant. Dominion Virginia Power is slated to break ground on the 585 megawatt coal plant as early as mid April and Virginia residents are urging the Governor to block its construction.

Arlington press conferenceIt’s not just southwest Virginia, or even the Richmond area that’s against this plant, it’s everyone. Arlington County Clerk of the Courts and climate champion Paul Ferguson (architect of the Fresh Aire initiative and pictured speaking on right) joined other leaders at a press conference in Arlington that same day to echo Virginians’ concerns about the coal plant and call for a real investment in clean energy.

“This plant is not only bad for Wise County, it’s bad for all of Virginia,” said Geoff Cox, a student at the University of Richmond who led the drive on his campus to collect Valentine’s cards. “My future is being threatened by global warming and my state is being destroyed by mountaintop removal mining. Another dirty coal-fired power plant is the completely wrong direction for Virginia.”

WHSV Channel 3The media loved it. WAMU, the local NPR station that serves Northern Virginia, covered the Arlington press conference and CCAN Director, Mike Tidwell, did a long interview with Pacifica radio. Down south, the Richmond Times Dispatch did a GREAT story on the event and WRIC, News Channel 8, actually followed the activists into their meeting with Steve Walz, Kaine’s aide. WVTF, Western Virginia Public Radio and WCVE, Richmond Public Radio both covered the Valentine’s Day drop-off. Continue reading

Break Virginia's Addiction to Coal? Yes We Can!

An excellent and inspiring post on Raising Kaine from The Green Miles, one of our great allies in the fight to cool the commonwealth. Let’s get rolling!
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Believe it or not, The Green Miles and the president of coal company Alpha Natural Resources agree on something. Virginia could slash its energy and coal usage without much effort. We just choose not to:

Steady growth demand for electricity to feed homes and businesses has the [coal] industry’s future looking bright, [Michael] Quillen said. Conservation could curb that growth, but Americans, he noted, don’t do that well with conservation.

Virginia is last in the nation in spending on energy efficiency and conservation. As a result, the typical Virginia household uses 150-200% of the energy it actually needs. That’s not due to glitzy home theater systems or something — it’s poor insulation, drafty windows, and inefficient appliances. Energy that slips out your attic or under a drafty door that you’ll never even notice you used — until your power bill arrives.So when Gov. Tim Kaine said on last week’s RK conference call that we were building a huge new coal-fired power plant because the General Assembly had determined that the plant was “in the public interest,” I wasn’t exactly shocked. To steal a phrase from Quillen, the General Assembly doesn’t do all that well with managing our energy interests.

While Virginia will likely never get off coal entirely in our lifetimes, we do have the power to dramatically ease our dependence. We’ll need three people to do it: Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, and you.
Energy/Environment :: TheGreenMiles :: Break Virginia’s Addiction to Coal? Yes We Can.
Let’s break it down:Tim Kaine – The governor has already raised a red flag on the Wise County plant, asking the Department of Environmental Quality to hold more hearings on the proposal. But if Gov. Kaine is serious about the success of his Virginia Energy Plan and Commission on Climate Change, he needs to reconsider his public neutrality on this plant. How can we cut Virginia’s greenhouse gas emissions if this plant is adding 5.3 million tons in new carbon dioxide emissions each year, the equivalent of adding more than 300,000 cars to Virginia roadways?Mark Warner – Here’s what our next junior US Senator had to say at the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner:

In January of 2009, we have to change our energy policy. Our energy policy right now consists of borrowing money from China to buy oil from countries around the world that don’t like us.

And with some of the dollars we send to the Middle East, it’s fair to say we may be the first country in history that’s funding both sides of a war.

We must invest in renewable energy, and we must eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

By making these investments, we can create millions of new jobs here in America. We can make our nation more secure.

And if we take on the threat of climate change, we can reassert America’s moral standing in the world. If we do it right, we might even save the planet along the way.

There is no doubt our new Sen. Warner will be a leader on energy and environmental issues on Capitol Hill. But can renewable energy advocacy be compatible with neutrality on the Wise County plant? According to the American Wind Energy Association, Virginia has the potential to produce an average of 1,380 megawatts of wind energy each year. Will Virginia be able to share in the spoils of a clean energy future if we’ve already invested $1.6 billion in coal?You – Gov. Kaine told us, “When legislature passed legislation calling for this plant, no one asked me to change it that I can recall.” Virginia environmentalists have been slow to react to the threat of global warming and slow to push our elected officials to change. That means now we have to fight twice as hard to stop this plant before it locks us into 50 years of mountaintop removal, polluted air, and lost opportunity for clean energy jobs.

If you can, attend tonight’s DEQ hearing in Richmond to tell regulators there’s no such thing as “clean coal.” This plant will spew carbon dioxide, mercury, sulfur and nitrogen into Virginia’s air for generations to come.

Even if you can’t make it in person, email the DEQ right now!

All's quiet on the DEQ front

I am writing from the lobby of the Marriot Hotel in Innsbrook, just outside Richmond. Its still three hours before the final hearing of the Department of Env. Quality on the Wise County Power Plant. There’s free wireless, and I’m in good company with CCAN’s campus organizer Tom Owens. But why am I here 4 hours before the hearing anyway? Paranoia!

For the last two hearings (before the State Corporation Commission and Department of Env. Quality), opponents to the power plant have arrived early in an attempt to sign up to speak, only to wait 2-5 hours to testify. Most recently in St. Paul, opponents to the power plant did not get called to speak until after 11:00 PM, despite signing up early. Now, there may be logical explanations in both cases. For the SCC, maybe there was an advanced sign-up we didn’t know about. For the DEQ hearing, Dominion beat us to the punch, getting supporters there early with the lure of a hospitality suite.

I’ve been assured by Cindy Bernt at DEQ that sign-up won’t start until 4:45, but I figure, better safe than sorry. And so we wait. And wait. More to come in a few hours. Continue reading

Wise Co. Coal DEQ Hearing…

Live from Dominion Boulevard at the beautiful Marriott in Glenn Allen, Virginia, here is your live blog on the last Department of Environmental Quality hearing for Dominion’s proposed Wise County coal fired power plant…

(6:15pm)First and foremost, seriously, this hearing is on Dominion Blvd. I think that is because we are in close proximity to a Dominion office, or it is because Dominion owns this road… one or the other… Either way, the irony that an environmental hearing is taking place on Dominion Blvd is not lost on this attendee.

There are about 300 people here, many of whom oppose the plant. For the first time in the series of hearings on the Wise Co. plant, opponents were one of the first ones to sign up to testify. At other hearings, Dominion’s supporters (which include employees…) testified for up to two hours before any opponents got a chance to speak. This is due in large part to the fact that the actual sign up time posted by the DEQ is often very different than the posted sign up time. Today, sign up was scheduled to begin at 4:45pm. The first sign up sheet was posted at 3:00pm. But thankfully, we learned our lesson and got we were staked out at the hearing location starting at 9:30am this morning in preparation for this predictable twist.

Josh Tulkin was the first opponent to testify today. His testimony was highlighted when he asked all the opponents of the plant at the hearing to stand up. Half the room stood up, and DEQ Chairman immediately said, “Mr. Tulkin, you are out of order!” To which Mr. Tulkin coyly replied, “I respectfully withdraw my request.”

Other testimony include a statement from Gerald E. Connolly, the Chairman of the Fairfax County Board, in which he respectfully asked Dominion to explore alternatives to the coal plant that would harm the air quality in Fairfax and totally offset all the progress that counties like Fairfax have made through local initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Oh, and a side note, I would like to thank Dominion for feeding me.

(7:36pm) About half the people here have left. The break was festive and the students seemed have an an expectational time. I get the feeling that the plant opponents of the plant now far outnumber the proponents… now the party can really begin.

The best quote of the night so far came from one JMU student (I already forgot his name) who stepped up to the microphone and said, “My name is Joe Smith, and I am not a former employee of Dominion…” We all laughed…

(7:48pm) A man just walked up to me as I was sitting and told me how there is, “no Mountain Top removal in the state of Virginia.” Seriously. He said that, and I don’t think he was joking. I respectfully informed him that he was mistaken and that I could show him pictures taken from a tour of the Mountains of Wise County that I took last week. The Bristol-Herald Courier also took the same tour… I guess what we saw doesn’t exist…

FYI, 25% of Wise County’s total land area has already been leveled due to mountain top removal.

(7:55pm) Richmond City Councilman Marty Jewell just testified. He is very concerned about global warming and how the proposed power plant would effect Richmond’s air quality.

“I like cream in my coffee, not sludge!” — Councilman Jewell, in reference to mountain top removal mining.

New Coal Plants and Kaine's Climate Goal Just Don't Mix

Please check out my post at progressive blog Raising Kaine. The more you click, the more people see it. http://raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=13028—-I’m blogging from the final hearing of the Department of Environmental Quality on the proposed Wise County Power Plant. After 2 hours of testimony, almost 40 people have testified, most against the plant – except those employed by Dominion or with a vested interest. Speakers addressed a variety of concerns – mercury, sulfur, nitrogen, mountaintop removal coal-mining. I spoke only to one major issue, addressed to Governor Kaine

Clean Energy Future Act – Vote Breakdown

As promised, here is a breakdown of the vote for the Clean Energy Future Act. I’ve bolded the Nay votes I find most troubling (either because they lead the opposition, or because they should have been with us).

COMMERCE AND LABOR COMMITTEE

YEAs– Yvonne Miller, John Edwards, Mark Herring – 3

NAYs–Saslaw, Colgan, Wampler, Norment, Stosch, Stolle, Watkins, Wagner, Newman, Puckett, Puller, McEachin–12.

CO-PATRONS (these people weren’t necessarily on the committee, but deserve props for supporting the bill from the start. Please send a thank to you anyone you know, especially if they are your delegate or senator.

Senate Co-Patrons

House Co-Patrons

Environmental Action Day – getting your voice heard

The good news on the MD Global Warming Solutions Act: we’ve built an amazing grassroots coalition that’s jazzed about getting this legislation passed.

The bad news: legislators are still saying that the bill isn’t really on their radar screen.

This means – yep, you guessed it – that it’s time to ramp up the pressure, and make sure that everyone in Annapolis hears what the people are talking about. And the best way to do that? Come to Environmental Action Day! Environmental Action Day, February 18th,

NYT: Climate Concerns in Suburbia

The following piece ran in the New York Times on Sunday, Feb. 10th and features CCAN director Mike Tidwell. The reporter was most interested in the corn stove co-op he founded. See CCAN’s website for more on the Save Our Sky Home-Heating Cooperative

Suburbs

Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You

By ALEX WILLIAMS
The New York Times
Published: February 10, 2008

AS a suburban environmentalist, Mike Tidwell, 45, of Takoma Park, Md., always felt like a walking contradiction.

Though he had quit his job as a journalist to work for environmental nonprofit organizations, Mr. Tidwell viewed suburbs (his own hometown is just outside of Washington) as places built “to defy nature,” he said, giving everyone “their own little kingdom of grass and space” Continue reading

Virginia GA Rejects Clean Energy Future

Virginia sealThis afternoon, the Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor Committee voted to kill the Clean Energy Future Act. This ambitious bill (SB446), introduced by Senator Chap Petersen, would have put Virginia on course to become a leader in clean energy, efficiency, and conservation – protecting the environmental, generating jobs, and saving people money. Yeah, I know, what a crazy idea!

The public support for the bill was overwhelming! Over 40 organizations joined the fight. Environmental and energy businesses worked side by side with faith leaders and hundreds of students from schools across Virginia. Thousands of citizens wrote letters, made calls, and turned out for lobby day! And we have a lot to show for it. The bill had 18 co-patrons in the house and Senate, with many joining on their own after hearing support from their districts. The vision of a clean energy future was contagious, and though it was a long shot, this issue catalyzed support across the commonwealth. We owe our thanks to Senator Petersen and other champions for leading the way on this issue.

But we still have more work to do if we want to get Virginia on track. We earned the votes of Senator Edwards, Herring and Miller in the committee, as well as the other 17 co-patrons. But the bill still lost, and not by a small margin. (The full vote has not been posted online yet but you can track the bill here and stay tuned to this blog as we’ll be featuring members of the committee, how they voted and where they get their money from for the rest of the week).

So who’s to blame? 1) Dominion and the utilities, who opposed the bill from the start. 2) Republicans on the committee (not one voted for). But neither of those are surprising. And in previous years, that would have been enough. But with a new democratic majority in the Senate, things could have been different. But they weren’t. And the ultimate blame lies with the democratic leadership, who despite taking control of the senate, failed to take control of this important issue.

Here are the facts. Dominion and the other energy companies still hold some serious sway and certainly donate some serious money. And if we wanna compete, we need to do more. We need to be stronger and louder. And we need to be pissed at every single member who votes against clean energy – and to let them know it! Personally, I am most disappointed in Senator Dick Saslaw and the rest of the of the Democratic leadership that ran on a platform of change but ended up voting the same old way — with the special interests. And we’ve got to say “enough is enough.”

SO WHAT NOW? Continue reading

New Coal in Wise Will Affect Richmond

Richmond City Councilmen Hilbert and Jewell have introduced the Wise County Resolution, 2008-R13. This resolution is a strong statement of opposition to the proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia. So why is the City of Richmond weighing in on an issue for Wise County? On the surface it may seem that they’re just butting in but this plant is very much the business of Richmond and its citizens.

This plant is a bad investment and every Richmonder with an electric bill will have to pay for it. Dominion will pass all the costs of the plant onto the ratepayers of Virginia. Those costs include $1.8 billion to build the plant, 14% profit for Dominion, and also the cost of controlling carbon emissions which may reach $100 million each year. That means quite a lot of money out of our pockets. I don’t want any of my money funding new coal but Dominion isn’t giving me the ability to choose clean energy. If ratepayers must pay for new energy generation why can we not have a say in how it is generated? Across the country more and more people are realizing that coal simply costs too much. According to the US Department of Energy, $1.8 billion is too much to pay for a coal-fired power plant. The DOE recently pulled support for a proposed plant in Illinois based on cost. Just a few days ago three of the largest financial supporters of new coal reassessed the risks and found them to be too high. Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have realized that carbon control legislation is inevitable, which will make coal far more costly. As a result they will encourage utilities to invest in energy-efficiency and renewable energy as alternatives to new coal. Asking Dominion to invest in efficiency, conservation, and renewables is exactly what this resolution does.

Where our energy comes from and the effects of its production is most certainly our business. The City of Richmond is powered by coal. That coal is supplied by the coalfields of southwest Virginia. The coal that powers my home comes from a strip mine site in Tazewell Virginia. When I turn on the lights in my house I am inadvertently contributing to mountaintop removal mining. The proposed power plant in Wise County will not be used to supply power to southwest Virginia. That power will enter the grid and be used to power the growing urban areas of NOVA, Richmond, and Tidewater. It is being built specifically to supply power to places like Richmond. At the recent State Corporation Commission hearing on the Wise County plant held in Richmond life-long Wise County resident Frank Taylor spoke of the sacrifices by the people of the coalfields for our energy needs. “Haven’t we sacrificed enough to provide power to our country? The thousands of men who have lost their lives in the mines, the tens of thousands who have black lung and the great amount of the land itself stripped away. Isn’t that enough? And now they want us to give up the clean air that we and our children breathe? Shame.” We certainly have the right to make a statement regarding where our power comes from and the damage it does.

This resolution has already been passed in Arlington, Albemarle, Charlottesville, and Blacksburg. It is now being discussed in Fairfax County. The people of Richmond also have a right to ask Dominion to invest in energy efficiency and conservation that will save us all money and keep us from unwillingly encouraging the destruction of Wise County. No new coal in my name. No new coal funded by my wallet.