Coal is what it is–VP candidates and coal

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Barack Obama shone some of his rays of hope on the climate movement. He named “serious” action on global warming as one of the benchmarks for success in his first term. “If I haven’t gotten combat troops out of Iraq, passed universal health care and created a new energy policy that speaks to our dependence on foreign oil and deals seriously with global warming, then we’ve missed the boat.”

In order to deal “seriously” with climate change, we need a moratorium on new coal plants. According to James Hansen, “it’s just silly to build a new one now.” And yet VP hopeful, our own Governor Tim Kaine, aggressively pushed for his and Dominion’s coal plant in Wise County. As Gov. Kaine says on this video, “There are some who say that you can’t build any new coal plants, and I don’t agree with that.”


Join the campaign at www.chesapeakeclimate.org/nocoal

Another VP hopeful, Kathleen Sebelius, has a record on coal that is much more promising than Gov. Kaine’s. She made herself a hero by standing up to a Republican legislature and strong utilities by blocking a coal plant from being built. Even the Republicans have a strong hero in the VP running. Florida Governor Charlie Crist successfully halted the construction of a new coal plant and stated his strong support of renewable energy. “Coal is what it is and I know it’s been an important source of energy in the past. But you know we have solar, we have nuclear, we have wind and other alternative opportunities for energy in the Sunshine State.”

It’s obvious that Kaine supports coal. He wants coal now, and he wants coal in the future. Is this going to meet up with Obama’s stated goal, to seriously address global warming?

Kaine's Coal Plant Approved, Fight Headed to Court

Just two days after America’s top climate scientist warned that new coal-fired power plants would doom the global climate, the state of Virginia gave final approval to a massive new coal plant that will send dirty electricity to Northern Virginia. But the fight is far from over. We are headed to court where we believe the controversial $1.8 billion plant will be rejected — in part on global warming grounds.

Over a hundred people from all over Virginia came together in Wise County last week to show the Air Board that there is broad opposition to this plant, not just in southwest Virginia but throughout the Commonwealth. Despite massive efforts on the part of plant proponents, we far outnumbered the plant supporters at Tuesday’s public hearing.

In response to the outpouring of public opposition, the Air Board made a number of significant changes to the permits. These changes drastically curtail Dominion’s ability to emit mercury, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and carbon monoxide.

But ultimately the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board awarded final permits for a new 585-megawatt coal-burning plant that has no technology whatsoever to capture greenhouse gases and still fails to meet federally required maximum controls for the neurotoxin mercury and 60 other hazardous air pollutants. Despite a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Massachussetts vs. EPA) that establishes carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, the state of Virginia has now approved a plant that radically departs from the nation’s new clean energy focus. Continue reading

Governor Kaine to Air Board: "You know what to do."

Governor Kaine has some friendly advice for the Air Board. Apparently there have been “recent reports” to the Governor necessitating that he reiterate the “obvious parameters within which to exercise [their] authority.” This is just a little FYI, in-case-you-forgot, heads-up-on that-little-meeting coming up, right? Perhaps. Or it’s oblique intimidation, an attempt to rhetorically undercut the independence of the board by declaring his superior knowledge of the regulatory structure of the board.

And of course while the letter does not explicitly reference the Wise County plant, the close proximity to the date of the board’s vote makes its regulatory referent clear enough.

Gov. Kaine seeks to make it clear in the letter that his knowledge of the proper role and regulatory structure of the Air Board is greater than that of the board members themselves. He’ll go ahead and let the board members work from the reasonable assumption that a person (nay, a Governor!) with his knowledge of the functioning of a regulatory body should be able to predict the actions of said regulatory body with a high degree of accuracy. It follows that if the members of the board are to believe Governor Kaine does in fact understand the structure and role of the Air Board as well as he claims he does, then the decision he anticipates should be the correct one. The Governor wants to make it clear to the Air Board that they should get in line with his decision, and if they don’t they are incompetent regulators.

But surely Governor Kaine is aware that the mercury emissions alone from the Wise County plan (not to mention the C02) merit the denial of the Air Permit under the Clean Air Act. Mercury is particularly dangerous to pregnant women and young children. Mercury exposure has been linked to autism, poor attention and language skills, and other developmental problem, prompting the EPA to regulate the toxin. Dominion must meet a standard of 1.1 pounds of emissions per year, but the Wise County plant is in gross violation of this rule and will emit 72 pounds per year.

The board should stick to their guns and not let Governor Kaine intimidate them. Continue reading

Virginia beaches vs. political will

Washington Post reporter, David Fahrenthold, writes about a new report by the National Wildlife Federation in the news today. It paints a shockingly stark picture of the fate of our beloved beaches thanks to global warming–that the region could lose more than half of the beaches along its ocean coasts. Fifty-eight percent of the region’s beaches could completely disappear due to sea level rise caused by global warming. Read the report summary here>>

This report comes out as we enter into a new phase of our campaign to stop the coal-burning plant in Wise County. Kaine is about to appoint two new members of the Air Board, a body which reviews permits for polluting facilities. There are no requirements for appointment; merely that a “significant portion of their income within the previous two years” not come from the businesses they regulate. ”The term Continue reading

Washingtonian Calls Kaine "Dirty Rotten Scoundrel"

Being mentioned in the same breath as Cheney, Bush, Inhofe, and Barton is never good, but that is exactly what the Washingtonian did with Governor Tim Kaine as part of their list of the top ten local politicians that are not doing good for the environment. The Washingtonian minced no words, essentially calling the Governor a hypocrite for his support of emissions reductions while still remaining a strong proponent of “dirty energy.” It is Kaine’s steadfast support of Dominion’s controversial Wise County coal plant that got the Governor listed as a “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel.”

Over the last month, the heat on Kaine has really been turned up. He has been dogged at nearly every public appearance and has been the subject of numerous articles relating to Dominion Power’s controversial coal proposal. His public position is that even though we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move away from coal, the $1.8 billion investment in new coal generation is a step in the right direction.

Other politicians and governing bodies have questioned the wisdom of building a new coal plant when better technologies exist, including the Metro Washington Council of Governments, Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, the City of Blacksburg, Albermarle County, the City of Charlottesville, Fairfax Chairman Gerry Connolly, and Former Arlington Chairman Paul Ferguson.
Continue reading

Kaine Confronts Coal in Ashburn

Last night Governor Kaine held the 9th of 10 town hall meetings in Ashburn, Virginia. The meetings have been designed for the Governor to travel around the state to so he can speak highly of himself and the positive legislation that was passed in the General Assembly in 2008. But, as is rapidly becoming the case everywhere he goes, the Governor spent much of his time answering and dodging questions about Dominion’s controversial Wise County coal plant. Mr. Kaine has become very adept at juking the hard questions and deflecting criticism about his continued support of coal, in spite of the fact that it is becoming increasingly clear that a majority of Virginians want a clean energy leader, not another coal company stooge.

‘Protesters’ (e.g. me in a blazer, and Allison from GWIPL) greeted the Governor as he walked in, asking him to “please stop the Wise County Plant.” The governor deftly breezed past me like I was a chocolate eclair and he was on a diet. But, walking the gauntlet into the building was the easy part of Kaine’s night.

After the Governor rambled for thirty minutes about being an “optimist,” the questions about the controversial coal plant started.

Kayti Wingfield asked the Governor to be a ‘leader like Kansas Governor Sebelius’ who has stopped multiple coal plants and seen her national recognition and popularity rise as a result. The Governor respectfully declined.

John Koontz of Leesburg, a clean energy businessman, told the Governor that he frequently had to travel Maryland, Deleware and Pennsylvania to do business and asked the Governor to help make Virginia more hospitable to renewable energy. Once again, the Governor respectfully declined, stating his ‘belief’ that one day we will magically get a large portion of our energy from renewables.

One of the final questions of the night came from a man that asked the Governor, “why do we avoid free and non-polluting sources of energy [like wind and solar], and rush to polluting sources like coal that destroy our air and kill our children?” To which the Governor replied that renewable energy is not reliable enough to meet our needs — children be damned!

So what can we take away from this meeting? Has the Governor wavered in his support of Dominion’s controversial coal plant? No, not really. His talking points tonight were the same as the have been when we called into his radio shows and infiltrated his other Town Hall Meetings. His talking points include:

  • Coal is getting cleaner, and this plant will be very clean [but will not capture carbon and will still spew NOx, SOx and Mercury]

  • I don’t envision a no coal future for Virginia or the Nation, but coal should comprise less of our energy portfolio [and the quickest way to increase renewable energy production and reduce reliance on coal is to build another coal burning plant?]

  • You didn’t say anything when I approved this plant in 2006, my hands are tied [no one said anything about the abusive driver fees when it was passed either…]

  • The SCC and Air Pollution Control Board/DEQ have authority over this permit, I couldn’t do anything even if I wanted to [1. like you have no influence in this state, give me a break! 2. we aren’t asking you to overstep your bounds, we are simply asking you to not publicly support this controversial plant]

So those are his stock responses, and he is really good at taking your question and fitting it into one of those answer. I challenege you, the people of Virginia, to ask him a question that he can’t give you one of those answers to. It a brain puzzler up there with the Rubicks cube.

Send Kaine an email or call him at 804-786 2211

Dominion Swindles Virginia, Buys Governor

Why should Virginians we support a new coal plant in Wise County? For months, people like me have been standing on our soap boxes saying that the people of Virginia shouldn’t support this plant. We have said that coal is bad for global warming. We have said that coal is bad for our mountains. We have said that coal isn’t good for our health. We have said that coal isn’t good for our water.

But Dominion has not withdrawn their plans to build a new coal plant in Wise County, saying that the plant would be clean, economically beneficial, and cheap. Dominion lies. Let me quickly debunk these three myths.

Myth #1: Dominion’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center (the official name of the Wise County plant) will bring jobs to Virginia and provide cheap, reliable energy for the State.
FACT: If the plant gets built, there will be a net loss of jobs in Virginia. Recent testimony for the State Corporation Commission reveals that the Wise County Plant would cost Virginia nearly 1,500 jobs and greatly diminish families disposable income through higher electricity rates. Is that really worth it for 75 permanent jobs in Wise County? [For comparison sake, for $1.8 billion we could pay 75 Wise residents $100,000 a year and give the county $6 million a year for the next 133 years — sounds like a better deal to me…]

Myth #2: Coal is the cheapest source of energy in Virginia.
FACT: Coal is a cheap source of energy, but it is also one of the most heavily subsidized energy sources in the state. Even with massive subsidies that are taken directly from taxpayers pocket and put into Dominion’s stockholders portfolios, the new Wise county plower plant would increase energy rates by up to $1,000 per household in Virginia. That is not cheap!

Myth #3: Dominion’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center would be clean and have minimal impacts on the environment
FACT: Dominion is not utilizing the best available technology for this plant. The Wise County plat would utilize Circulating Fluidized Bed Coal Technology (CFB), not Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology — IGCC is considered the most advanced coal technology and the one best suited to remove pollutants and CO2 from emissions. By utilizing this inferior technology, Dominion can burn cheap waste coal with low BTU value and high pollutant emissions.

So why do we even need to fight this plant? It is bad for rate payer, it is bad for the economy, and it is bad for the environment — who would support that? Governor Kaine and the Virginia General Assembly, that is who. Surely they must know something that we don’t, like we are just about to make great strides in carbon capture and sequestration or the price of this plant is going to drop or something… or maybe they just took millions of dollars from Dominion…

It just makes you wonder what Dominion is buying…

  • The fast track green light from the Governor and the General Assembly for a $1.8 billion power plant (of which, Dominion has asked for a guaranteed profit on the plant of about 14% which they would probably get…)

  • A general strangle hold on democracy in Virginia

We want our democracy back. We want a governor that leads, not one that flies to the Final Four on Dominion’s dollar. Contact the Governor today.

Grist: "Tim Kaine burns national ambitions in coal furnace"

Check out a great piece by Glenn Hurowitz, (author a great book, “Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party”) on Gov. Kaine and coal in Virginia. http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/19/10055/7748

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Weasel of the week

Tim Kaine burns national ambitions in coal furnace

Posted by Glenn Hurowitz at 2:39 PM on 19 Feb 2008

Virginia’s Democratic governor Tim Kaine, often mentioned as a possible vice presidential nominee, seems to be flushing his ambitions for national office down the toilet by actively working to build yet another coal-fired power plant for one of his biggest campaign donors.

Kaine has tried to present himself as a green, forward-thinking governor by proposing a “Virginia Energy Plan” he claimed would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 30 percent. True, Kaine is going ahead with plans to purchase 27,000 compact fluorescent bulbs (which will save the amount of electricity used by — wait for it — 1300 [!] homes). But when it comes to things that actually matter — like where Virginia gets its energy — he’s actively backing the construction of a new greenhouse-gas- and toxic-pollution-belching coal-fired power plant in Virginia’s Wise County.

Read more

Coal Ruins Kaine? Say it ain't so…

Governor KaineWith less than two years left in Governor Kaine’s tenure as the leader of the great Commonwealth of Virginia, questions are starting to get raised as to whether his partnership with big industrial interests will threaten his ability to get another job.

An article on Grist seems to paint a picture of a Governor whose stock is rapidly falling due to his steadfast support of Virginia’s major polluters. The author cites figures from the Virginia Public Access Project (vpap.org) that states that Tim Kaine has received over $135,000 from Dominion… no wonder he hasn’t spoken out against Dominions Wise County coal fired power plant…

So who is the Governor going to be loyal to? Dominion Power and their money, or the hundreds of thousands of Virginians that were the ones that voted him into office by the narrowest of margins? Right now, it looks like he is standing by Dominion.

But is that the right choice? Maybe if he could run for re-election for the position of governor of Virginia — but he can’t, there is a one term limit. So why is he choosing to burn his bridges in Virginia with the people that got him elected? I don’t know if the governor has been reading polling data or listening to the pundits, but Virginia is rapidly turning into a blueish swing state. If Tim Kaine has any intention of ever holding a national office or moving up the political ladder, it will be hard to defend his decision to stick by Dominion Power and the Wise County Coal plant that he personally endorsed.

The future is in clean energy, not in coal. Obama knows it. Clinton knows it. Even McCain sort of knows it.

Governor Kaine can’t buy another term as Virginia’s governor with Dominion’s money, but he can buy himself some national attention and save his reputation by stopping the Wise County coal plant.

America wants a leader Mr. Kaine, not another industry stooge.

This power plant will be your legacy whether you like it or not. It is up to you how the legacy will read.

Click here to tell the Governor to stop the Wise County plant today!