Wise County residents Deliver Mile-Long Petition to Dominion at Moving Rally

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Yesterday, hundreds of people gathered to support Wise County residents who are fighting Dominion’s plans to build a coal-burning plant in their neighborhood. “We can prevent Virginia from making this terrible mistake by allowing Dominion to build this plant,” said Jennifer Mullens, a Wise County resident. “I encourage you to look around at these mountains and imagine them gone, because that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t make the right choice now.”

Over 40,000 petition signatures were submitted to Dominion representatives. No official response has been made by Dominion, but Wise County representatives will be at Dominion’s shareholders meeting in Chicago today. The only official response that was overwhelmingly evident was that of police enforcement. As the Green Miles pointed out there was a surprisingly strong police presence. We counted over 17 cop cars lining the blocks around the park where we were having our peaceful Continue reading

Rally at Dominion TOMORROW!

rallyTomorrow, May 8, citizens of Southwest Virginia will deliver the Mile-Long Petition for Clean Energy opposing the proposed Wise County coal plant to Dominion Virginia Power’s Richmond headquarters.

YOU ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND TO HELP US MAKE A STRONG SHOWING! This will be an opportunity to show the strength of our opposition to the plant, build our network of plant opponents, and highlight the issue for the media and the public. It will also be a chance to celebrate the great progress we are making in this fight!

WHAT: Rally for Clean Energy

WHEN: Thursday, May 8th at 12:30 PM

WHERE: Kanawha Plaza in Downtown Richmond (Between Canal and Eighth Sts. Midtown)

RSVP: www.chesapeakeclimate.org/may8

TRANSPORTATION: Free transportation from Southwest, Blacksburg, Charlottesville, and Northern Virginia will be provided. For details on free transportation, e-mail mike@appvoices.org or call 434-293-6373. There is also a ride board set up at http://distance.erideshare.com/, password “may8”

We will hear from speakers who envision an energy future that places the public interest over corporate special interests, including people who live with the reality of severe pollution and mountaintop removal in their communities. This celebration of our strength will also include music from gifted Virginia artists Trees on Fire and Whiskey Rebellion. Religious leaders who have joined the fight against the plant will speak to the moral imperative that our policies reflect caring for the earth and its inhabitants. You should consider bringing sun protection, drinking water, and a blanket.

8 tornadoes in VA – signs of global warming?

tornadoesEight tornadoes blew through Virginia on April 28, leaving 145 families homeless and 200 injured. The Washington Post reported that cost estimates could top more than $21 million. See a moving picture gallery of the tornado here>>

The storm, despite the fact that it was confined to a few neighborhoods, put the city at a standstill. The most severe tornado ran along a 10 mile path that reached a quarter mile wide, demolishing houses, stacking cars on top of another and literally stripping the roof off a shopping center. Families were denied entrance to their homes as the rain damaged what was left of their belongings. This was a sudden and astonishing tragedy that, though it took no lives, will take considerable effort to recover from.

One of the tornadoes, in Suffolk, was rated “Severe” intensity. There have only been 9 other tornadoes of this intensity in this region since 1966, 42 years. 2008 has already set early tornado season records. 232 tornadoes were reported in the US in February, beating a previous record set in 1972 at 83.

Tragedies like this force us to ask ourselves what could have been done to prevent the damages this stormed caused and are we prepared to deal with future extreme weather events? These are difficult questions to consider, but we may have to consider them more if global warming continues unabated. A recent study by the NASA Goddard Institute shows that our area can expect stronger wind events because of a warming climate. “In the warmer climate simulation there is a small class of the most extreme storms with both strong updrafts and strong horizontal winds at higher levels that occur more often, and thus the model suggests that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common with warming.” Continue reading

Kansas Notices Virginia Coal Fight

The Kansas City Star Newspaper has picked up on Virginia’s fight to stop Dominion power’s controversial coal plant proposed for Wise County. The artcile compares the struggle in Virginia to the notable struggle in Kansas

  • …what’s not good for Kansas also may not be good for Virginia. More dependence on coal, that is. [But,]Kansans have a strong governor, Kathleen Sebelius, who vetoed legislation that would have lifted all control of future coal-fired plants from state regulators.

What a notable difference leadership makes! Over and over again all we hear from Governor Kaine is that his hands are tied and that new coal generation is necessary.

Maybe Governor Kaine can learn something from Governor Sebelius, and be the clean energy leader that we all would like for him to be. I will happily embrace him as the environmentalist he claims to be the day he stands up for our mountains and our climate.

Want to stop the coal plant, click here to help!

Bristol Herald Courier reports intimidation calls

The Bristol Herald Courier is reporting that Larry Bush, a leader with Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, one of CCAN’s coalition partners on the fight against the controversial Wise County coal plant, has been receiving threatening phone calls from supporters of the plant.

CCAN would like to send its sympathy out to Larry and his family for being targeted with threats and intimidation by plant supporters. We hope that supporters of the plant will oppose the use of this kind of tactic and engage in democratic debate instead. Read the article after the jump. 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

Coal Prices Rise But Virginia Coal Production Decreases

The demand for coal has never been higher. Developing and developed nations alike are rapidly building new coal facilities to fuel economic growth, driving the price for coal through the roof globally. According to the Washington Post, over the last five months we have seen the price of coal has increase over 50%! And if Asia’s appetite for coal is as ‘voracious’ as all the prognosticators are making it out to be, there is no price relief in sight.

This news comes at a time when we are still fighting to stop Dominion from building another controversial coal plant here in Virginia — why should we take a chance on this international coal market?

Dominion claims that we can meet our coal needs in state, helping us avoid this international boondoggle. But news on that front isn’t that much rosier. According to a Richmond Times Dispatch article:

Virginia coal production is down about 10 percent this year through March 15.

For the 52-week period that ended March 15, Virginia coal production was down 16 percent. A total of 24.6 million tons were mined, compared with 29.4 million tons a year earlier.

For those 12 months, Virginia coal production was about half what it was during a similar period less than two decades ago.

The natural conclusion that one would make from this evidence is that Virginia is running out of coal. If, as a State, we had vast easily accessible reserves we would be mining that coal and selling it for a great profit on the international market — or at least using it domestically to save our stagnating economy a few bucks.

So what will Governor Kaine do to help protect Virginians from rapidly increasing coal prices? Nothing! He is toeing the Dominion’s line about their controversial new plans for a new coal plant in Wise County. Kaine doesn’t see us heading towards a “no coal future,” a future that we aren’t asking him to deliver. We want a future where we can get a measurable percentage of our energy from clean sources such as wind and solar (okay, we do get a very small percentage of our energy from renewables… but it ain’t much) — commodities that are not subject to international markets and whose prices don’t increase exponentially as the Asian economies become stronger.

Oh, and last I checked, the prices of wind, solar, biomass, and other renewable energies have only getting cheaper — something that we definately can’t say about coal, oil and natural gas.

Contact the Governor today, and tell him to protect our energy future.

Dominion Dollars for Football, Food and Killing

Dominion Power gave Governor Kaine $552 to attend the NCAA Final Four. Senator Saslaw got $373 to see the Redskins. Delagate Kilgore got $350 for ‘personal calculators.’ Senator Stolle took a $1,700 trip to Georgia on Dominion’s dime. Senator Norment took a $1,700 hunting trip. Senator Wagner took a $1,200 trip. Former Senator Martin Williams took over $6,000 in Dominion donations to feed his need to hunt and kill things — so did Senator Wampler!

I can’t make this up. You can find it yourself at www.vpap.org. It is unreal how many of our elected officials not only receive official financing from Dominion, but Dominion also makes a point of giving out tens of thousands of dollars worth of dinners, Redskins tickets, hunting trips, and calculators. I know that corporate lobbying is normally done using carrots like these, but the major problem I have is that Dominion is, in effect, a state owned company in Virginia that should not be wasting ratepayer money on these kinds of things. As soon as we re-regulated Dominion in 2006, the state took control over certain aspects of their business — like determining profits.

Right now, we are squabbling over whether Dominion will get 13.75% or 12.12% profit on their proposed coal plant in Wise County — a plant that much of Virginia doesn’t want. If they get the ‘low-end’ of the profit, they will only make $218 million in profits off the new facility… money I am sure that they will invest wisely…