Miles to Go Before We Sleep….

va state house

First I want to offer my sincere CONGRATULATIONS to my colleagues and neighbors working in Maryland. Maryland is clearly leading the way and setting the example for what other states can be doing in the absence of federal climate legislation.

I’d like however to focus on Virginia, which by stark contrast is anything but a leader on this issue. As many may be aware, the Virginia General Assembly reconvened for it’s one day veto session last week. The only real way to sum up the results of that one day session is with one word… disappointing.

We had a real opportunity to move Virginia towards the a clean energy future that is already available and affordable, it just needed a little legislative help. Some of you may have followed me on twitter last week giving the play by play of what went down and I decided to sit and think on it over the weekend before voicing my complete disappointment in our elected officials.

There are some champions to be highlighted and thanked before I go on:

Senator Donald McEachin- introduced a comprehensive piece of legislation on energy efficiency that would have saved consumers money on the electricity bills in the long run and created 10,000 plus jobs for the commonwealth and contained a strong mandatory target. (SB 1447)

Senator Mark Herring- introduced key components of the above bill (a mandatory 19% Efficiency goal for utilities) (SB 1440)

Delegate Albert Pollard- introduced a bill that would give utilities the same rate of return for investments in efficiency that they currently see for investments in coal. This bill passed and is an important step towards a clean energy economy but it is just the first step.

Senator Chap Petersen- introduced bills with strong targets on efficiency. Senator Petersen was also a vocal champion for moving Virginia forward and embracing a clean energy future.

Governor Tim Kaine- yeah that’s right, Governor Kaine endorsed legislation that contained mandatory efficiency targets at the beginning of the session and amended the weakened bills that came out of the session to include a 19% efficiency target.

These are the five BIG thank yous I feel I have to give before moving on to lastweek’s veto session.

Unfortunately, none of the legislation was able to make it out of the General Assembly with a mandatory efficiency standard. Utilities, like Dominion were able to make that a scary idea, because according to them it’s impossible to control the behavior of rate payers, despite the fact that mandatory efficiency measures have been successful in other states like California and Vermont (note that Vermont is a mostly rural state with mountains). But Governor Kaine stepped in and amended the legislation that passed to include a 19% target. This is far from where we started at the beginning of the session but still would have been a step forward, and would have put us a better place to start next legislative session. In my eyes this was the least we could do this session and claim victory.

Well, we couldn’t do that.

We were unable to pass a voluntary efficiency standard! It passed in the Senate with a close vote but I will briefly thank the senators that voted for the amendment. Barker, Colgan, Deeds, Edwards, Herring, Houck, Howell, Locke, Lucas, Marsh, McEachin, Miller, J.C., Miller, Y.B., Northam, Petersen, Puckett, Puller, Reynolds, Saslaw, Ticer, Vogel, and Whipple all voted in support of the goal so thank you!

Then we went to the House. Delegate Pollard stood up and endorsed the Governor’s amendments to SB 1248 and was immediately countered by Delegate Hogan. Delegate Hogan that made false accusations in regards to the target, the most egregious being that Virginia already has a voluntary efficiency standard of 12% that we are not meeting so why set the bar higher. This is utterly absurd but stood uncontested. Virginia does not have a voluntary energy efficiency standard of any kind! We do however have a voluntary Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) of 12% but this is COMPLETELY different! I was shocked that no one contested this. He also threatened that efficiency is going to raise rates for consumers period. No mention of the fact that our current course will also raise rates and in fact will raise rates far more than efficiency. Delegate Pollard brought that issue up, but Hogan’s damage was done. The votes fluctuated a bit but ultimately the Gov’s amendments were defeated by 3 votes. 47-50 with 3 people abstaining. I’ve heard a lot of discussion that the ultimate demise was the result of a partisan battle in the House that was beyond our control. I find that hard to accept when I examined the vote count. There were Republicans voting for the amendments as well as Democrats voting against. Maybe it was a case of partisan politics I’ll list the vote count below and you can decide. The one thing I ask is if your Delegate voted against this simple amendment please give them a call and voice your disappointment that we were enable to push our cheapest fuel source here in Virignia…. Energy Efficiency.

It’s great that we got close, but we’ve certainly got our work cut out for us in Virginia next session.

The House Vote Count:

YEAS–Alexander, Amundson, Armstrong, Athey, BaCote, Barlow, Bouchard, Brink, Bulova, Caputo, Dance, Ebbin, Eisenberg, Englin, Frederick, Hall, Herring, Howell, A.T., Hull, Lewis, Lingamfelter, Marsden, Marshall, R.G., Mathieson, McClellan, McQuinn, Melvin, Miller, P.J., Morrissey, Nichols, Plum, Poisson, Pollard, Rust, Scott, E.T., Scott, J.M., Shannon, Shuler, Sickles, Spruill, Toscano, Tyler, Valentine, Vanderhye, Ward, Ware, O., Watts–47.

NAYS–Abbitt, Albo, Bell, Bowling, Byron, Carrico, Cline, Cole, Cosgrove, Cox, Crockett-Stark, Fralin, Gilbert, Griffith, Hamilton, Hargrove, Hogan, Hugo, Iaquinto, Ingram, Janis, Joannou, Johnson, Jones, Kilgore, Knight, Landes, Lohr, Loupassi, Massie, May, Merricks, Miller, J.H., Morgan, Nixon, Nutter, O’Bannon, Oder, Orrock, Peace, Phillips, Pogge, Poindexter, Purkey, Putney, Saxman, Sherwood, Ware, R.L., Wright, Mr. Speaker–50.

ABSTENTIONS–0.

NOT VOTING–Gear, Marshall, D.W., Tata–3.

Van Hollen, Waxman introduce major climate bills

CCAN sent out this email to our list yesterday…

We’ve waited years for serious climate legislation from Congress, and last week we got our wish. Two major bills were introduced – and both need your quick attention. Please, take five minutes to read more below and send quick notes. This session of Congress is one of our last chances to get it right and avoid major climate change impacts for future generations.

Climate bill #1:
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) proposes historic “cap and dividend” bill

Congressman Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland environmental champion for decades, has authored the strongest “carbon cap” bill ever proposed. HR 1862 has all the right features: It’s simple, fair, and built to last. It makes polluters pay by auctioning 100 percent of carbon permits instead of giving them away, contains no controversial “carbon offsets,” and returns all carbon revenues back to the American public as a monthly dividend. Watch this short video featuring CCAN director Mike Tidwell. And learn more at www.capanddividend.org.

Here’s what author/activist Bill McKibben said last week about the Van Hollen bill: “This is the most innovative, yet obvious, piece of climate legislation in the 20 years I’ve been following this battle. Van Hollen’s bill sets out a straightforward mechanism for reducing carbon in the atmosphere in a way that will actually be popular with voters.”

TAKE ACTION: Please show your support right now. Please ask your Congressional representative to co-sponsor the Van Hollen bill. If Van Hollen is your Congressman, please thank him for his leadership.

Climate bill #2:
Waxman/Markey bill provides landmark first step but needs to be stronger

Also last week, Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced a comprehensive clean energy/climate bill. The Congressmen deserve our gratitude for their years of hard work promoting climate solutions. As you would expect of a very comprehensive energy bill, there are both strong and weak provisions. The bill sets excellent statutory targets for clean energy development by increasing the requirements for renewable energy and energy efficiency. However, the bill funnels public funding into unproven carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects, allows new coal plants to be built through 2015 without proving they are CCS-compatible, and allows billions of tons of controversial carbon offsets. Read a good summary of the bill from CCAN’s Policy Director.

TAKE ACTION: Please email your Congressional representative and ask him/her to support the strong provisions in the bill and insist that the weak provisions be strengthened. With Arctic ice melting and sea level rising fast, we need a STRONG carbon cap right now.

Earth Hour


Blog cross-posted from: HERE

For those of you who don’t know, tonight from 8:30 to 9:30 people people from all around the globe are going to be turning off their lights in a symbolic gesture. There are also going to be many businesses, cities, and countries turning off the lights in the buildings and facilities they control to send a message. I even heard McDonalds is going to be dimming all of its M signs. This is supposed to represent a message that people want there to be action on the issue of climate change. While Earth Hour was of a decent size last year, this year it appears that there’s going to be a massive upswing in participation, which is a good thing considering the distractions going on around us right now like the economy.
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Historic Shift: Wind Cheaper than Coal in MD!

Like residents of most other states, Marylanders who wanted to buy 100% clean energy were used to paying a premium to be green. Starting this summer, the roles will reverse.

In Maryland, all BGE and Pepco residential customers (about 80% of the population or 1.73 million people) can now sign up for 100% wind power through Clean Currents at rates that are below Pepco’s and BGE’s rates for conventional coal-powered electricity!

CCAN director Mike Tidwell joined Clean Currents president Gary Skulnik (pictured at right) at a press conference last week to announce the historic shift. Standing before a gaggle of TV cameras, microphones and reporters, Gary began: “Usually renewable energy requires an upfront investment, but we’re in a unique situation where you can choose green power and save money at the same time. It almost never happens.”

And he’s right. This crossing of cost lines between wind and coal energy doesn’t happen often, but the shift is beginning. When a similar shift happened in Austin, TX three years ago, Lester Brown described it as “a milestone in the U.S. shift to a renewable energy economy.” A similar situation also unfolded in Colorado around the same time as in Austin.

So what happened in Maryland to make this price shift possible?
Here in Maryland, the decreased rates are the result of a steady decline in wholesale energy prices. Utility companies set their customers’ rates periodically and have not reduced them to reflect the lower prices they are now paying for energy to produce electricity. But Clean Currents and other companies have taken advantage of the downturn in the price and are offering residents as much as two years of power for 10 to 15 percent less than the utilities’ summer rates.

How do I sign up?
To sign up, simply go to www.cleancurrents.com and click on “residential.” It only takes a few minutes to complete the enrollment process (you will need your Utility Account #). Once switched, there will be no interruption of service. Power outages are still fixed by Pepco and BGE, and billing is still handled by the utility. The only difference is that you will save money and be supporting clean, renewable wind power.

Clean Coal was Never Being Developed by Bush Admin!

This is cross-posted from: here

I’ve documented plenty of reasons why coal use needs to be phased out, and “clean coal” is a joke. In case you need a recap…..The coal industry has gotten a lot of much deserved negative press ever since the coal slurry dam disaster that happened a few months ago. This brought to light that, maybe we should regulate our coal ash. Of course, no amount of regulation will ever make Continue reading

Virginia Environmental Organizations' Core Recommendations to the Governor's Commission on Climate Change

The Governor’s Commission on Climate Change is meeting tomorrow, October 23. The current plan falls shockingly short of what scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. Governor Kaine’s plan would return Virginia to 2000 emissions levels by 2025. Scientists, in comparison, say we must cut emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020! This means that by 2020 Virginia should reduce emissions 35% below the 2000 level. The Commission on Climate Change has the ability to increase those targets.

Virginia Environmental Organizations’ Core Recommendations to the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change

Secretary L. Preston Bryant, Chair and Members of the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change

Dear Mr. Secretary and Commission members,

We recognize that developing climate change policy recommendations is an extremely complex endeavor. The variety of sources of carbon emissions, combined with the even greater number of control measures, the uncertain economics, and the competing stakeholders make this a most difficult charge.
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