I saw fear yesterday on the faces of the men and women directly affected by the proposed Wise County coal plant who had just driven 8 hours to testify before the Governors Climate Commission. They knew that their land, their health, and their beautiful landscapes were the ones being sacrificed for our runaway energy demands. That fear and concern was most eloquently expressed by Bill McCabe who challenged the commission to actually think and care about the people most affected by dirty energy. To try and relate to the 91 year old woman who could sit on her porch her whole life and enjoy the mountains, worship God with the mountains, and live in a healthy environment with land she has always known. Now the same woman comes outside to her porch to see her familiar mountains flattened and toxic waste left behind.
The nearly 200 citizens that flooded the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change yesterday were concerned about our addiction to dirty energy no matter what part of Virginia they came from. There were the school teachers from NOVA who did not want to use power at the expense of their neighbor’s rights and the college students who could not understand why Virginia’s leaders would blatantly ignore climate scientists about the consequences of building new coal plants. The overwhelming consensus at this hearing was that the commission has to recognize that global warming is real and deal with it aggressively. Residents insisted that VA would be perfect for leading the country in renewable energy and emphasized that its skilled labor force could be at the forefront of the burgeoning green jobs movement to replace dirty industries.
As an outsider from Maryland I could not help but be inspired by the will of Virginians to take back their state from powerful industries and fight for what is in the best interests of their citizens and the world. This includes me and anyone else who lives on the same planet as I do that will be affected by climate change. The Governor’s Commission on Climate Change must fulfill its duty to meet the requirements prescribed by the world’s best climate scientists. This means that they must do much more than the weak goals put forth by the Governor. Governor Kaine is proposing that the state return to 2000 levels by 2025- a cut of only 7% below current levels. The only acceptable conclusion by this commission is to follow the science based cuts of 25% of greenhouse gases below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Anything less will fall short of the basic efforts to stop the devastating consequences that the commission already admits will affect Virginia as climate change progresses.
All Virginians and members of society who also want to see a clean energy economy for their state must stand for what the science says is needed. Virginians yesterday challenged the commission to recommend to the Governor the necessary steps of reaching that goal. We must impose a moratorium on coal plants, invest in energy that is truly clean and renewable from start to finish, and commit to spur the economy with safe green jobs for Virginians that can’t be exported.
Click here to see the goals set out by the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change>>
Click here to see the recommendations presented to the Climate Commission by VA climate groups>>
Mountaintop Removal in Virginia
