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…