Day 5: The story of #76million and our activism gets out

DeLevay Miner holds her picket sign at Dominion

A sinking feeling usually creeps into my gut on the eve of a big new action or media event. Organizers have put in hours of phone calls, emails and logistics-scrambling to turn out dozens or more activists. Activists are taking time off work and traveling for an hour or more to take part. But have I, as “the communications person” done all I can? Will that critical reporter show up? Will the story of the hour (or week) get told in the end?

By Monday afternoon this week, I was breathing a big sigh of relief. That’s because, in the case of our week-long action to Stand Up to Dominion’s $76 Million Rip-Off and demand Virginia-made solar and wind power, the story is indeed making its way into newspaper front pages and radio airwaves. This week, Dominion has not only faced picketers on its doorstep every day at noon, but also been forced to answer questions from journalists about how it can justify a $76 million bonus in the name of renewable energy while bringing absolutely zero solar or wind power online in Virginia.

Read on for a round-up of some of the best news coverage from the week.

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Day 4: residents of Hampton Roads join action at Dominion!

va icons_with_dom_office

What an excellent fourth day of the Week of Action at Dominion! Several Hampton Roads residents came out today, from as far as Chesapeake and Norfolk, Hampton and Newport News, to help shine a spotlight on Dominion’s $76 Million Rip-Off and all the consequences that the company’s continued dependence on eastern Virginia, including driving climate change and sea level rise. Check out the picture below of our mock-submerged Virginia landmarks, the Tangier Island water tower and the Neptune Statue, among the icons of Virginia at risk due to climate change.

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Day 2 of the #76Million week of action a success!

For the second day of the week-long action to Stand Up to Dominion’s $76 Million Rip-Off, we drew attention to the extreme weather Virginians are facing – worsened by our planet’s rising temperatures – while Dominion drags its feet on Virginia-made renewable energy. Undeterred by the threat of thunderstorms, supporters turned out to picket outside Dominion’s office and call for the company to earn the $76 million bonus it is receiving in the name of renewable energy.

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It has begun! Our week of action against Dominion's #76Million rip-off

Today in Richmond we kicked off our week-long picket at Dominion Virginia Power’s offices.

Haven’t heard about it?  Well, not only is Dominion contributing to climate change via its heavy reliance on coal and natural gas, but it is also receiving bonus money for doing so – $76 million of it. How is this possible you may ask? Virginia’s incredibly weak Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) allows utilities (including our good friend Dominion) to receive a renewable energy bonus even though they aren’t producing our buying any Virginia made solar and wind! Sound ridiculous? We think so too. So today we launched a week of action against Dominion’s $76 million rip-off. We’re off to a great start!

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Climate-denying ostrich greets U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen

Climate ostrich and animal keeper news interview

This is a guest post from CCAN fall intern Norah Berk. Check out all the pictures from the ostrich action on CCAN’s flickr account.

Starting at around 9 a.m. today, demonstrators began to line Dolly Madison Blvd across the street from the Capitol One Center in McLean in anticipation of the debate between the two candidates that would take place just a few hours later. Amidst others holding signs for their favored candidate, CCAN staff and volunteers proudly stood holding the “STOP climate change” banner that Obama once set eyes on. At 10 a.m. special guest Cleopatra, The Queen of Denial (an 8-feet tall climate-change denying ostrich), appeared. Her presence called attention to both candidates’ denial of the urgent need for renewable energy in Virginia over dirty, yet so-called “clean”, fossil fuel options.

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CCANers to Ryan in Virginia: No KXL

The day after the Republican National Convention of 2012 concluded, Ryan appeared today at a rally in Richmond Virginia in stifling 100-degree August heat on an airport tarmac, and local climate activists greeted him with a clear message to pass on to his running mate Mitt Romney: No Keystone XL Pipeline.

While candidate Romney spent the day reaching out to Americans affected by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, recalling the damage done by Hurricane Katrina and the risk of stronger storms hitting the Gulf Coast and mid-Atlantic as the climate changes, Ryan addressed a sizable swing-state crowd. As he began to bring up the issue of energy and speak about Virginia’s coal reserves and the need to use it, local activists took a stand for the climate and unfurled a banner for the candidate to read.

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Barack Obama Drives Past CCAN Banner at Charlottesvile Rally

As excited motorists, bicyclists, and people on foot passed by, local citizens and I held up a banner telling the president that his “‘all of the above energy’ policy won’t stop climate change.” Even the air tingled with excitement, as the crowd’s cheers echoed from the pavillion and the ever-present security forces barely hid their anticipation. After getting politely removed to a nearby location on Market, I knew that the moment I was waiting for, when we would show the President our message for more clean energy, was near.

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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.

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Take a bow big oil

Virginia is an important state in this year’s elections. On the presidential side, both President Obama and Governor Romney desperately want to carry the state. Virginia is also home to one of the nation’s most closely watched senate race as two former governors Kaine and Allen vie for the open seat.

Because Virginia is receiving so much political attention, numerous candidates for office are pandering, err, talking to voters on the campaign trail. In Virginia, energy issues are beginning to dominate the political sphere. Within that sphere, big oil is making its mark.

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Why George Will is Wrong

By July 8th 2012, Colorado was experiencing its most intense wildfire in state history. By July 8th, nearly everyone in the Mid-Atlantic learned the meaning of a new word – “Derecho”, a sudden, powerful windstorm that cut off power to millions of people and killed more than 20 in the region. By July 8th, farmers in the heartland and throughout other parts of the country had come to grips with shrinking yields (and shrinking profits) caused by a punishing drought and extremely high temperatures.

On July 8th, during ABC’s Sunday public affairs show, in response to a discussion about rising temperatures and climate change, political columnist George Will said the reasons for the recent heat wave is because of one word: “summer”. “What’s so unusual about this?”, he pondered. Mr. Will, your ignorance is astounding.

 

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