Yesterday was a long day for Virginia’s House of Delegates. After close to a three hour session, the House Commerce and Labor Committee had a brief meeting with the full committee before settling into a marathon meeting of the Special Subcommittee on Energy. Continue reading
Offshore Drilling: Virginia's General Assembly still doesn't get it
Yesterday was (supposed) to be a big day for energy bills in the Senate but many of the bills were “passed by” for the day, which means they have been postponed until next week’s committee hearing. However, one of CCAN’s priority bills, SB 814, which would have stopped the potential for offshore drilling in its tracts, died a valiant death. This was no surprise to us; the purpose of the bill this year was to educate our legislators on the threat of offshore drilling. While not immediate, this threat is still very real. Suffice it to say, we accomplished our goal big time. There was a tremendous, healthy debate centered around our bill that lasted more than 20 minutes whereas most of the other bills in committee were quickly discussed and voted upon. I was able to point out to the committee members that drilling can and will most likely begin after 2017 when the federal government revisits opening our coast to offshore drilling. We must continue to keep the pressure on our state and federal legislators about this threat.
Today though, we are reversing gears a little bit by working hard to promote our renewable energy bill that is on today’s committee docket. This bill would establish a voluntary solar fund for Virginia homeowners to apply for. By all early indications, this bill has a good shot today. Stay tuned for details!
255 brave souls… and me
Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who joined us this past Saturday at the 6th Annual “Keep Winter Cold” Polar Bear Plunge. It was truly an inspiring day for all of us here at CCAN. It means so much to us that 256 brave souls (our best participation EVER) signed up to brave 17 degree temperatures to jump into the Potomac River with us to help support our work. We had a great time on Saturday, and we hope you did too.
Please check out the video and photos from the day and share them on your favorite social network. If you have photos from the day, please upload them to Flickr and tag them “pbp11,” or share them on our Facebook wall. Also, check out this article in The Nation about the plunge.
At the Plunge, I was inspired by Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland’s 4th District, who braved the temperatures on a frigid Saturday morning to display her unwavering commitment to fighting climate change. I was coordinating media at the event with Rep. Edwards’ staff, and I would chuckle every time I heard her say to a reporter: “Well, I have to say that this is definitely the COOLEST thing I have ever done for my job!” I was also moved by the presence of a group of Franciscan monks who entered the Potomac in their full robes, and San Francisco 49ers linebacker Navarro Bowman. This was a solid display of solidarity among a diverse coalition of folks committed to the same end: stopping global warming in its tracks.
Solar bill a 'no brainer' at lobby day
Monday was an important day of reflection for our country and, for over 200 Virginians, it was a chance to come together to speak out at Virginia Conservation Lobby Day. The day was jam packed with trainings, speakers presenting on pieces of legislation and, most important of all, lobby visits that covered a wide range of conservation issues for Virginia.
There was a wide ranger of participants, including high school students and students from the University of Mary Washington. For many of them, it was their first time lobbying and they were excited at the impact their visit had.
Students from the UMW met with their delegate, Republican Speaker of the House William Howell, to discuss HB 2191 (SB 975) the Voluntary Solar Resources Development Fund. Speaker Howell called it a ‘no brainer’ and he’s right, which is why this bill is receiving bipartisan support.
This bill is a Win-Win-Win for Virginia. It’s a Win for Virginia because it creates a source of funding for residential solar installations at no cost to taxpayers, instead is funded by opt-in donations of $1 or more by utility consumers. It’s a Win for Business because it will grow the Virginia solar industry locally instead of being forced to travel to neighboring states that already have similar solar incentives. And it’s a Win for Utilities because, according to Dominion Virginia Power, distributed solar power reduced the need for the more expensive types of power generation, which are old natural gas peaking facilities.
An Energetic Start for the Maryland Wind Bill
The last time the United Steelworkers and clean-energy activists descended on the Maryland State House on the same issue in 2008 they were going toe to toe, and the steelworkers managed to kill the global warming bill the clean energy activists were working on. But yesterday, when the old adversaries descended on the opening ceremonies of the 2011 Maryland General Assembly they stood arm in arm in support of Md. Governor Martin O’Malley’s forthcoming offshore wind energy bill.
The rationale for this unlikely but inspiring alliance is encapsulated in the slogan printed across the front of the bright-blue t-shirts we all sported at the statehouse yesterday: “Good Jobs, Clean Power”. The development of clean energy has long been touted as a dual solution to the economic and environmental woes facing the world today, and Maryland is a perfect case study of that promise with over 4000 jobs, and significant greenhouse-gas pollution reductions projected to accrue to the state if the Governor’s wind bill passes. For the steelworkers and clean-energy activists, the bill represents the quintessential win-win situation that makes for really successful political initiatives. Continue reading
A propitious wind
By Mike Tidwell
So you’re a lawmaker in Annapolis, with November’s election safely behind you. But the voices of working families and struggling consumers are still ringing in your ears: “We need help!” What’s a leader to do?
Julia 'Judy' Bonds, 58, dies; outspoken foe of mountaintop strip mining
It with great reverence and sadness that we share with you the loss of Judy Bonds, one of the great leaders of the mountaintop removal coal mining movement. Judy was a well-respected and much-loved member of our community, and she will be missed. Judy always said, “Fight harder!” and fight we will, in her memory.
Here is her obituary from Tuesday’s Washington Post. – Jamie
By Emma Brown
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Julia “Judy” Bonds, the spitfire daughter of a West Virginia coal miner who worked as a Pizza Hut waitress before she became, in midlife, a leading voice of the grass-roots resistance to mountaintop strip mining, died Jan. 3 of cancer at a hospital in Charleston, W.Va. She was 58.
Ms. Bonds was one of the most visible and outspoken activists against what is sometimes called “mountaintop removal,” a mining practice peculiar to Appalachia in which peaks are sheared off with explosives to expose the coal seams below.
A coalfields native who scraped by working in restaurants and convenience stores, Ms. Bonds was equivocal about the risks of mining until the 1990s, when the A.T. Massey Coal Co. arrived in Marfork hollow, one of the narrow, green valleys that wind through the Appalachian Mountains in southern West Virginia.
Ms. Bonds lived most of her life in that hollow, as did generations of her family before her. In childhood, she had come to know its fishing spots and swimming holes; later, as a young single mother, she had raised her daughter in Marfork.
“There is nothing like being in the hollows,” she once told the Los Angeles Times. “You feel snuggled. You feel safe. It seems like God has his arms around you.”
Continue reading
The Facts: Offshore Wind = Clean Power
Recently, a few individuals have published questions about offshore wind power. Some of their main concerns were:
1) Does it really reduce emissions?
2) Will it help us achieve a future zero-carbon grid?
3) Will it be affordable for ratepayers?
Thankfully, ample scientific evidence and real-world experience provide answers to these questions. Indeed, wind power can and will continue to reduce emissions by displacing fossil fuels, wind power can be part of a future zero-carbon grid, and other states have found long-term offshore wind power contracts to be affordable for their rate payers. Offshore wind power in particular is one of the greatest answers for Maryland and the world’s energy future.
The following post provides answers to these questions based on reliable data and studies. More information about offshore wind can be found on the Marylanders for Offshore Wind website.
What is the 1000 Megawatt Challenge?
What can clean energy activists learn from the world of physics?
For starters, they might consider a well known precept called the law of the conservation of energy. Simply put, it states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it’s forever undergoing conversion from one state to another. For instance, for much of the past 200 years we’ve been converting the chemical energy in fossil fuels into the mechanical and electrical energy we need to power our cars and homes.
Of course, by now we know that CO2 pollution from these energy conversions has started to result in the conversion of the sun’s energy into some not so useful forms like hurricanes and wildfires. In addition to electricity, we’ve generated climate change and to make things right we need to quickly accelerate a different type of conversion: the switch from a dirty energy economy to one powered by clean sources like wind and solar. Continue reading
Where facts still matter…
In a post Citizens United v. FECworld, where industry can pay Continue reading