In Virginia, People Power is Finally Eroding Dominion’s Power

I don’t know about you, but for me, November 8th 2016 feels like decades ago. So much has changed since the election of Donald Trump in such a short amount of time — good and bad. Around the country, we are seeing record numbers of new activists, reinvigorated old volunteers coming back to the climate movement, and local climate leaders stepping up like never before. Here in Virginia that new energy is eroding the influence of our resident energy monopoly, Dominion Energy, which once seemed impossible to overcome. Our movement started before Trump, but it is has only become more formidable with this new challenge of having a climate denier in the Oval Office.
You would think Dominion Energy had their own office at the Capitol considering how much influence they have on our state leaders. They also have no problem brushing off  ethics for the benefit of their bottom line. Dominion spends more than any other company on political campaign donations to both sides of the aisle. And their influence on Virginia’s politics has become clear. Everything from weak coal ash regulations to an easy permitting process for dangerous fracked-gas pipelines are in play when the energy giant put its finger on the scale.
Meanwhile, the size and strength of Virginia’s climate movement — and opposition to Dominion’s dirty tactics — has become unlike anything we have ever seen.
This year, the spring season brought new life to our movement. In April, after months of organizing and recruiting, over 6,000 Virginians joined together with concerned climate activists (on an unseasonably hot Saturday) for The People’s Climate March. While the march was focused on the Trump administration, the Virginia Contingent had brought a special message to our local leaders who were too cozy with Dominion: people over polluters!

Flickr user Becker1999 with a Creative Commons license.
Photo from Flickr user Becker1999 with a Creative Commons license.

The People’s Climate March was inspiring, it was rejuvenating, it was historic. A lot of that success was because of activists in the Commonwealth who sacrificed countless hours to recruit their neighbors and friends to defend their climate. This show of might led to huge acts of resistance from mayors and governors across the country, who bucked the Trump administration by pledging to continue working towards our commitments to the Paris Climate Accord.
pastor-dominionThis wave of action continued at the Dominion Energy shareholders meeting. Just days after the People’s Climate March, over 100 people descended on Richmond to show the utility that their lives are worth more than the trajectory of Dominion’s stock prices. The actions outside scared them enough for Dominion executives to hide their view with curtains. I think Pastor Paul surmised our feelings perfectly when he proclaimed outside the venue that “Dominion had gotten too big for their britches!”
Our activism spread beyond the streets too: many climate conscious shareholders used their voice in the room to push clean energy resolutions. This year witnessed a resolution that called for the company to report on how it would work to address global warming. The resolution received unprecedented support, with 48% voting in favor. Virginians are putting Dominion executives on notice. 
Finally, candidates in Virginia’s state elections for 2017 have joined the wave of resistance against Dominion. Earlier this year, gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello kicked off his campaign for governor with a pledge to not take any money from Dominion and to oppose the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline. We’ve also seen a wave of new and incumbent candidates for state delegate seats across the commonwealth who have pledged to refuse campaign donations from Dominion.
Our work now is more important than ever. With the help of activists like you, along with new recruits to the climate fight, we will lead Virginia into a clean energy future.

From the Mountains to the Sea: The pipeline fight is about all of us

I’ve had the pleasure of organizing in Hampton Roads for almost two years now. Climate activists like you have stood beside me as we fought off the threat of offshore drilling on our coast. We’ve come together to tell our personal accounts of living on the front lines of sea level rise through Flood of Voices. We even bothered our local paper, The Virginian-Pilot, so much that they dedicated a section of their website to sea level rise. However, there is another threat that calls us to action yet again: Fracked-gas pipelines.
Virginia’s polluters are moving forward with their plans to construct the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) even though they would be locking our coastline into catastrophic climate repercussions. This egregious disregard for public health and lack of foresight has sparked a fire under activists in the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia. They have shown up to public meetings in droves and they are tirelessly fighting the construction of these fracked-gas freeways.
But they can’t do it alone.
We on the coast have a special obligation to join the fight against these pipelines (and we already are taking action). Throughout the spring and summer, activists in Hampton Roads held meetings with ten legislators urging them to weigh in for a full and fair federal review of both the ACP and the MVP. The long-term effects of an influx of fracked gas into our state will be felt first in Norfolk and the rest of Hampton roads through rising sea levels and more coastal flooding. The immediate impacts will touch us, too. In the Deep Creek community in Chesapeake, landowners and low-income residents face the prospect of the ACP coming into their backyards. Plus, we know what can happen when coastal residents come together to say NO to a fossil fuel project (remember that offshore drilling proposal?).
Across the Commonwealth, there is one more unifying reason why we should be fighting these ludicrous pipelines: water. We all need it, and we all prefer it to be clean. So why would we risk the safety of what pours out of our faucets when we can produce energy from clean sources like offshore wind instead? These pipelines present a very real threat to the thousands of streams, rivers, waterways, and wetlands that have a direct impact on Virginians’ drinking water and to our efforts to remediate the Chesapeake Bay.
The statewide resistance has already begun: over 600 climate activists marched on the Governor McAuliffe’s mansion with a unified message that called for clean energy instead of fossil fuel infrastructure. Just a couple weeks ago, activists across the state (and the country) came together for an event called Hands Across Our Land where they joined hands to loudly proclaim their opposition to pipelines anywhere and everywhere!
Teach terryNow, as the Federal Environmental Regulatory Commission prepares an Environmental Impact Study for each pipeline, the resistance must intensify. We expect FERC to release its environmental review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline any day now. But this decision isn’t a federal one alone. Governor McAuliffe has the power to direct his Department of Environmental Quality to deny the Clean Water Act permits for both pipelines and we need to make it VERY clear that it would be in the best interest of the people and our climate that he does just that. Because we know that he sometimes struggles with science of climate change (Just do a quick search of #TeachTerry).
The time is now to join us in fighting off yet another attack on our climate in Virginia. Contact me at harrison@chesapeakeclimate.org and I’ll plug you into one of our community action teams near your city: there, you will gain the tools that you’ll need to be the changemaker Virginia’s climate movement has been waiting for! I can’t wait to celebrate another victory with you.
 

President Obama Keeps Offshore Drilling out of the Atlantic

Last month, climate activists from Virginia to Georgia celebrated a huge victory as President Obama scratched our region from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) draft offshore drilling plan. That decision was the culmination of years of hard work from a diverse and aggressive coalition of groups across the region that refused to allow big polluters to risk our coastline for their climate-denying greed.
This work began heating up last spring when CCAN joined other groups across Virginia to collect written comments in opposition of BOEM’s first draft of the offshore drilling plan that included our coast. Thousands of you sent comments to Washington in the short 90-day comment period, proving that the entire Commonwealth was not in favor of our coast being put at risk. Activists showed up in droves at public listening sessions to ask questions and deliver their comments as well. When that comment period was over, one thing was clear: A formidable coalition had been created and we weren’t going away any time soon.Screen Shot 2016-04-20 at 1.33.44 PM
This year, BOEM announced that they would be releasing their final draft plan for offshore drilling, and climate activists from Virginia to Georgia went on the offensive to expand our anti-drilling coalition to businesses and municipalities. In just three months, we saw over 100 municipalities across the southeast pass resolutions that opposed offshore drilling. In Virginia, the city of Virginia Beach reversed their support for drilling, and Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam came out in vigorous opposition of offshore drilling. After that groundswell of support, where even the U.S. Navy voiced concerns, President Obama only had one option: Keep it in the ground!
All of this is definitely worth celebrating! However, we must remember that our friends in the Gulf and the Arctic were still left on BOEM’s final draft plan for offshore drilling. Even though they have already seen the detrimental effects of drilling, they must continue to fight and convince President Obama that drilling anywhere is a problem EVERYWHERE. So, please join the fight by signing this petition to President Obama.
I look forward to the victories that we’ll celebrate in the future.
 

Tell Sen. Kaine and Warner: Say ''No'' to offshore drilling now!

In less than three weeks, President Obama’s Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) is expected to release the final draft of its five-year plan for oil and gas development in federal waters. The first draft would have opened up Virginia’s coastal waters to offshore drilling for the first time — and thousands of Virginians pushed back.
As the Obama administration finalizes its draft plan, this is a critical time to keep the pressure on — and we need Virginia’s most powerful voices in Washington, D.C. to stand with us. That’s why we’re joining our allies, including the Virginia Sierra Club, Oceana and others, in urging Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner to declare their opposition to offshore drilling now.
Click here to tell U.S. Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner: Now is the time to say NO to offshore drilling for Virginia. Let’s protect our coast, not inflict more damage!
From Georgia to North Carolina to Virginia, a movement against drilling is growing. None of us wants to be the next Gulf Coast — where tar balls are still washing up on beaches from the disastrous BP oil spill. Since BOEM first announced plans to open the Atlantic Coast to drilling, more than 100 municipalities, 700 state and local officials, and roughly 1,100 businesses up and down the coast have said NO to drilling.1
For three decades, there has been a ban on offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic. Why risk so much now? Our coastal communities are already being flooded by rising sea levels. We can’t afford to enable more of the fossil fuel pollution driving climate change. Nor can we afford to endanger our growing coastal economy or some of our region’s greatest environmental treasures.
Instead, we can and should use our coast for offshore wind expansion: wind energy can lead to more energy and jobs in the future without putting our coast in harm’s way.
Now is the time. Urge Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner to say NO to offshore drilling!
While Senators Kaine and Warner have advocated for drilling off Virginia’s coast in the past, we’re beginning to see Virginia politicians — including the Virginia Beach City Council — back away from previous support. Now is the perfect time for our U.S. Senators to do the same.
Urge Senators Kaine and Warner to stand up for our coast: Say NO to offshore drilling!
This is another crucial moment in Virginia’s climate fight. This is just the beginning of an aggressive campaign across the state to keep these dirty fuels in the ground. With your help, I know we can do it.
1. “Grassroots Opposition to Atlantic Drilling,” Oceana.

Coastal Residents Bring the Fight Against Sea Level Rise to Richmond

The residents of Virginia’s Hampton Roads and Tidewater areas are well aware of the dangers that climate change and sea level rise present to them and their communities. Not because they see it on TV or read about it in their local newspaper, but because they are living with the constant fear that their neighborhood could be underwater tomorrow.
A Norfolk resident and passionate CCAN volunteer, Bob Baxter, shared his fears with me just last week: “Twice in two years, I’ve had to help my neighbor clean out a flooded home… If the water rises seven more feet, as scientists say could happen in coming decades, then my house will be in danger as well. Something has to be done.”
Hampton Roads is the most populous region in the Commonwealth and home to the nation’s largest navy base. It’s also second only to New Orleans as the U.S. population center most at risk from rising sea levels. But there is currently no legislation on the books that goes beyond studying the issue of coastal flooding to implementing solutions. That is simply reckless and unacceptable.
On Monday, January 26th, over 40 residents of coastal Virginia (including myself) woke up at 6:00 AM to drive to Richmond and let their representatives know that there is no more time for procrastination: we need to act now! These amazing activists were participants in the Virginia Conservation Network’s (VCN) 2015 Conservation Lobby Day. We came from every major city near the coast to urge our representatives to support the Virginia Coastal Protection Act (HB 2205/SB 1428). This bipartisan bill will raise urgently needed funds for coastal flooding protection measures by joining Virginia into a nine-state regional system for capping carbon emissions._DSC0050
Even though we were met by dreary weather conditions in the morning, the event was an amazing success. We started the day with very constructive meetings with delegates and state senators from both parties. It was truly powerful to witness so many coastal residents explain to their representatives how coastal flooding is a real problem within their districts at this very moment. Our incredible volunteers were not only voicing their concerns, but also standing up for hundreds of thousands of coastal residents, and I truly believe that the General Assembly was forced to recognize that on Monday.
If the day had ended there, then I could already call it a success. But we still had more work to do in Richmond! After a whirlwind morning full of lobbying in the General Assembly office buildings, a few coastal residents joined Mike Tidwell (CCAN’s Executive Director) and I for a meeting with Virginia’s Chief Resilience Officer, Brian Moran, and a couple other members of Governor Terry McAuliffe’s administration.
This meeting allowed some of our most active volunteers a chance to share their stories with a representative of the executive branch. Mike also laid out the benefits of the policy for them and we had a positive discussion on the next steps. It was an added bonus that Secretary Moran is the Co-Chair of the Governor’s Climate Change and Resiliency Update Commission, so he understood the importance of taking immediate and swift action against climate change. So, by shortly after lunchtime, we had lobbied multiple coastal General Assembly members and an important member of the Governor’s administration: I’d say that’s well worth a couple hours on I-64!_DSC0061
The Conservation Lobby Day was a very important step in the movement towards commonsense legislation that will enable Virginia to meet the coming EPA Clean Power standards and provide substantial revenue for coastal flooding adaptation. However, we are still in the middle of a sprint towards the end of the General Assembly session and the passage of the Virginia Coastal Protection Act.
If you really want to see our legislators take this problem seriously, call your state delegate and let him or her know how important the Coastal Protection Act (HB 2205/SB 1428) is!
After that, it’s time to take the next step: e-mail me at harrison@chesapeakeclimate.org to find out how you can get more involved. After all, our future depends on it.