Memo to Dominion Virginia Power: The Earth is Warming

 

By Mike Tidwell   240-460-5838/ mwtidwell@aol.com

 

What planet do the lobbyists for Dominion Virginia Power live on? The Earth the rest of us inhabit is suffering from the “serious challenge of global climate change,” according to President Bush in his recent State of the Union speech. Indeed, the world’s leading climate scientists just last Friday in Paris announced shocking new evidence of accelerating atmospheric warming, with sea-level rise of up to two feet now threatening the vulnerable shores of Virginia, Maryland and D.C.

 

What’s the solution to this growing challenge, according to Bush and the science community? A transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner, more efficient energy. So why is Dominion Virginia Power, working behind closed doors right now in Richmond, crafting a bill that would do exactly the opposite? Why is Dominion bullying the General Assembly toward an appalling “re-regulation” bill that would gut energy efficiency proposals and stifle all serious efforts at renewable energy development in Virginia?

 

Because, apparently, the leaders at Dominion live on a different planet. How else to explain their demand for a huge, new coal-fired power plant in Wise County, VA that would not only warm the planet further but cost Virginia ratepayers billions of dollars in direct subsidies to the company. (Apparently we now have to pay extra for our sea-level rise). How else to explain Dominion’s rebuke of highly popular energy efficiency proposals that would have saved the state 1500 megawatts of electricity over the next 12 years (equal to taking over 400,000 homes off the grid)?

 

How else to explain Dominion’s rejection of modest benchmarks for wind power development that would have added hundreds of jobs across the state while enhancing our national security with home-grown energy? And Dominion’s insistence on a massive, ugly and wholly unnecessary transmission line through Northern Virginia that would devastate vistas only to pour more dirty electricity into the region?

 

Clearly Dominion’s lobbyists live in a world where up is down and global warming is a myth. They live in a world where all that matters is what the company promises. Eight years ago Dominion promised that deregulation of the electricity market in Virginia would spur competition, improve service, and increase energy efficiency. None of this has happened, of course. Now Dominion is asking the government to re-regulate the company as long as the coal-fired power plant is massively subsidized and the Northern Virginia transmission line is financed over the objections of most of the region’s people.

 

And what of wind power? Dominion says: trust us! We promise we’ll invest in wind and solar and other sources of clean energy. Just don’t make us commit to this in the form of a law the way we want a law that forces coal subsidies and unwanted power lines on our customers.

 

For the past year, a coalition of business leaders and environmental groups, spurred by concerns over national security and global warming, has been negotiating with Dominion and concerned politicians to craft a feasible clean electricity bill called a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Now introduced by Virginia Senator Mary Margaret Whipple of Arlington, the bill requires that 12 percent of that state’s electricity come from clean sources by the distant year of 2020 while directly rewarding energy efficiency gains along the way. Radical? Hardly. This statute would simply add Virginia to the list of 23 other states with similar laws, including nearby Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.

 

For the past year, in multiple meetings that were transparent and open to all interested stakeholders, Dominion never stated an opposition to the RPS concept and indeed made many suggestions concerning the bill’s structure. And the company never, ever mentioned a word about a “re-regulation” bill. Then, last week, emerging from secretive and sudden meetings to push re-regulation legislation on the General Assembly, Dominion abruptly and unexpectedly announced it was opposed to any “mandate” for clean, efficient energy, preferring that everyone simply accept the company’s promise to do better on clean energy while building its mandated coal plant and mandated transmission line through Fauquier and Loudoun Counties.

 

Here’s the insurmountable truth: The Earth is warming very rapidly and dirty power is the cause. The Virginia general assembly should therefore side right now with those of us who live on planet Earth, not the inhabitants of planet Dominion. If re-regulation is necessary, lobbyists shouldn’t craft a bill behind closed doors over a few weeks in the middle of a chaotic legislative session. Hold public forums all across the state over the next year and then come back with a bill in 2008. We’ll see where coal and massive power lines and subsidies to Dominion stand then.

 

In the meantime, the general assembly should pass Senator Whipple’s clean electricity bill, SB 1275. It will get Virginia moving toward a prosperous clean-energy future and away from the disasters of global warming.