After watching three presidential debates in which climate change was mentioned a grand total of zero times, Richmond area CCANers struck with our well-known banner at today’s big swing-state candidate appearance in sunny Byrd Park!
Dominion’s latest greenhouse gas belcher = more extreme weather
Every minute of every day, as Virginians turn on lights and computers and air conditioners, the new power plant in Wise County will send on average 10 tons of greenhouse gases into the already overheated atmosphere. That’s 605 tons an hour, a fearsome 5.3 million tons a year. That’s because last month, Dominion Virginia Power turned on its massive new facility that burns coal but includes zero technology for controlling the carbon-dioxide emissions that contribute to heating the planet.
Estimates are that this 585-megawatt facility will increase Virginia’s output of carbon dioxide to more than that of New Jersey, which has 1 million more people than Virginia. The commonwealth will also have the odious distinction of having one of the last coal plants to come online in this country — odious because its emissions far exceed inevitable federal regulations designed to capture power plant pollutants that are baking the planet and wrecking the climate.
Dominion’s timing in firing up this plant couldn’t be more poignant or distressing for Virginians. Less than two weeks before the plant went online, more than a million homes and businesses in the commonwealth lost power for days after a sudden and deadly “derecho” that was fueled along its 600-mile course by energy from an intense heat wave that stretched from Illinois to Washington. No one storm or heat wave can be directly linked to climate change, but scientists say that burning coal and other fossil fuels traps heat in the atmosphere, which in turn can trigger record-breaking temperatures, droughts, forest fires and extreme storms like this summer’s deadly onslaught. In May, for example, the contiguous United States experienced the “warmest spring, warmest year-to-date, and warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since recordkeeping began in 1895,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.
So, Dominion better hire more linemen and a bigger PR team, because more extreme weather and resulting outages are forecast in the years ahead.
The OTHER federal court decision this week
As the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s Affordable Care Act came down today, I was reminded of how remarkable our justice system really is. It’s a system of finely-tuned checks and balances that determine every branch of government’s role and boundaries within the Constitution. Regardless of your own personal beliefs about the validity of said law, we can all applaud the foundation upon which our country rests…the rule of law. Where facts still matter and justice prevails.
Virginia Students "Connect the Dots" on Climate Impacts Day
–Cross-posted at WeArePowershift.org
Last Saturday, 350.org and other similarly-minded groups organized a Climate Impacts Day (climatedots.org), where activists throughout the country “connected the dots” between climate change and its associated impacts. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) coordinated with many of these activists in Maryland and Virginia to facilitate their events. In Virginia, CCAN worked with student groups to highlight important climate sources and impacts on or near their campuses.
VICTORY: Alexandria Coal Plant Closing!
We got word this morning that GenOn has agreed to close its Potomac River coal-fired power plant in Alexandria, a victory for CCAN, Sierra Club, Greenpeace and Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, which have been working together with local residents to convince the company to shut it down. We’ve collected petition signatures, held rallies and even held a candlelight vigil at the plant.
Electric Co-op Members Come out Strong to Oppose Coal at Annual Meeting, Push Board's Backs Against the Wall
At last Saturday’s Rappahannock Electric Cooperative Annual Meeting, more than a dozen REC members turned out to show the most visible presence against a coal plant at any electric cooperative annual meeting in Virginia
Fifth Annual Artists For The Climate
On Sunday, April 17, hundreds of climate activists from around the region were joined by hundreds of climate activists from around the country (who were attending the biannual Power Shift conference) for CCAN’s fifth-annual Artists for the Climate. Continue reading
Climate Polluter Wants Equal Rights for Coal Plants
According to the Mirant Corporation
Dispatches from Wise County, Part 2
This week I’m going to be in Wise County, where Dominion Power is planning to build a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant. Members of the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and CCAN are putting on events around the meeting of the Air Board on Tuesday.
Today I attended the first day of the hearing of the Air Pollution Control Board. As appropriate to hearings, all the arguments were vetted today
Last Chance to Stop Dominion's permits
CCAN and our partners are organizing a couple days of activities on June 23-24 in Wise County around the next Air Board meeting. Folks from all across Virginia will be coming down to show their support for clean air in Wise County and to testify against Dominion’s proposed coal-burning plant. This is HUGE. It’s the final permit between Dominion and their no-good, dirty scoundrel of a coal-fired power plant.
The power is in the hands of the bureaucracy right now. As a citizen’s board, the Air Board has the power to reject Dominion’s permit and stop construction. They could also stall on the permit because the board is not currently at full capacity