All's quiet on the DEQ front

I am writing from the lobby of the Marriot Hotel in Innsbrook, just outside Richmond. Its still three hours before the final hearing of the Department of Env. Quality on the Wise County Power Plant. There’s free wireless, and I’m in good company with CCAN’s campus organizer Tom Owens. But why am I here 4 hours before the hearing anyway? Paranoia!

For the last two hearings (before the State Corporation Commission and Department of Env. Quality), opponents to the power plant have arrived early in an attempt to sign up to speak, only to wait 2-5 hours to testify. Most recently in St. Paul, opponents to the power plant did not get called to speak until after 11:00 PM, despite signing up early. Now, there may be logical explanations in both cases. For the SCC, maybe there was an advanced sign-up we didn’t know about. For the DEQ hearing, Dominion beat us to the punch, getting supporters there early with the lure of a hospitality suite.

I’ve been assured by Cindy Bernt at DEQ that sign-up won’t start until 4:45, but I figure, better safe than sorry. And so we wait. And wait. More to come in a few hours. Continue reading

Wise Co. Coal DEQ Hearing…

Live from Dominion Boulevard at the beautiful Marriott in Glenn Allen, Virginia, here is your live blog on the last Department of Environmental Quality hearing for Dominion’s proposed Wise County coal fired power plant…

(6:15pm)First and foremost, seriously, this hearing is on Dominion Blvd. I think that is because we are in close proximity to a Dominion office, or it is because Dominion owns this road… one or the other… Either way, the irony that an environmental hearing is taking place on Dominion Blvd is not lost on this attendee.

There are about 300 people here, many of whom oppose the plant. For the first time in the series of hearings on the Wise Co. plant, opponents were one of the first ones to sign up to testify. At other hearings, Dominion’s supporters (which include employees…) testified for up to two hours before any opponents got a chance to speak. This is due in large part to the fact that the actual sign up time posted by the DEQ is often very different than the posted sign up time. Today, sign up was scheduled to begin at 4:45pm. The first sign up sheet was posted at 3:00pm. But thankfully, we learned our lesson and got we were staked out at the hearing location starting at 9:30am this morning in preparation for this predictable twist.

Josh Tulkin was the first opponent to testify today. His testimony was highlighted when he asked all the opponents of the plant at the hearing to stand up. Half the room stood up, and DEQ Chairman immediately said, “Mr. Tulkin, you are out of order!” To which Mr. Tulkin coyly replied, “I respectfully withdraw my request.”

Other testimony include a statement from Gerald E. Connolly, the Chairman of the Fairfax County Board, in which he respectfully asked Dominion to explore alternatives to the coal plant that would harm the air quality in Fairfax and totally offset all the progress that counties like Fairfax have made through local initiatives to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Oh, and a side note, I would like to thank Dominion for feeding me.

(7:36pm) About half the people here have left. The break was festive and the students seemed have an an expectational time. I get the feeling that the plant opponents of the plant now far outnumber the proponents… now the party can really begin.

The best quote of the night so far came from one JMU student (I already forgot his name) who stepped up to the microphone and said, “My name is Joe Smith, and I am not a former employee of Dominion…” We all laughed…

(7:48pm) A man just walked up to me as I was sitting and told me how there is, “no Mountain Top removal in the state of Virginia.” Seriously. He said that, and I don’t think he was joking. I respectfully informed him that he was mistaken and that I could show him pictures taken from a tour of the Mountains of Wise County that I took last week. The Bristol-Herald Courier also took the same tour… I guess what we saw doesn’t exist…

FYI, 25% of Wise County’s total land area has already been leveled due to mountain top removal.

(7:55pm) Richmond City Councilman Marty Jewell just testified. He is very concerned about global warming and how the proposed power plant would effect Richmond’s air quality.

“I like cream in my coffee, not sludge!” — Councilman Jewell, in reference to mountain top removal mining.

New Coal Plants and Kaine's Climate Goal Just Don't Mix

Please check out my post at progressive blog Raising Kaine. The more you click, the more people see it. http://raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=13028—-I’m blogging from the final hearing of the Department of Environmental Quality on the proposed Wise County Power Plant. After 2 hours of testimony, almost 40 people have testified, most against the plant – except those employed by Dominion or with a vested interest. Speakers addressed a variety of concerns – mercury, sulfur, nitrogen, mountaintop removal coal-mining. I spoke only to one major issue, addressed to Governor Kaine

Clean Energy Future Act – Vote Breakdown

As promised, here is a breakdown of the vote for the Clean Energy Future Act. I’ve bolded the Nay votes I find most troubling (either because they lead the opposition, or because they should have been with us).

COMMERCE AND LABOR COMMITTEE

YEAs– Yvonne Miller, John Edwards, Mark Herring – 3

NAYs–Saslaw, Colgan, Wampler, Norment, Stosch, Stolle, Watkins, Wagner, Newman, Puckett, Puller, McEachin–12.

CO-PATRONS (these people weren’t necessarily on the committee, but deserve props for supporting the bill from the start. Please send a thank to you anyone you know, especially if they are your delegate or senator.

Senate Co-Patrons

House Co-Patrons

Environmental Action Day – getting your voice heard

The good news on the MD Global Warming Solutions Act: we’ve built an amazing grassroots coalition that’s jazzed about getting this legislation passed.

The bad news: legislators are still saying that the bill isn’t really on their radar screen.

This means – yep, you guessed it – that it’s time to ramp up the pressure, and make sure that everyone in Annapolis hears what the people are talking about. And the best way to do that? Come to Environmental Action Day! Environmental Action Day, February 18th,

NYT: Climate Concerns in Suburbia

The following piece ran in the New York Times on Sunday, Feb. 10th and features CCAN director Mike Tidwell. The reporter was most interested in the corn stove co-op he founded. See CCAN’s website for more on the Save Our Sky Home-Heating Cooperative

Suburbs

Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You

By ALEX WILLIAMS
The New York Times
Published: February 10, 2008

AS a suburban environmentalist, Mike Tidwell, 45, of Takoma Park, Md., always felt like a walking contradiction.

Though he had quit his job as a journalist to work for environmental nonprofit organizations, Mr. Tidwell viewed suburbs (his own hometown is just outside of Washington) as places built “to defy nature,” he said, giving everyone “their own little kingdom of grass and space” Continue reading

Virginia GA Rejects Clean Energy Future

Virginia sealThis afternoon, the Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor Committee voted to kill the Clean Energy Future Act. This ambitious bill (SB446), introduced by Senator Chap Petersen, would have put Virginia on course to become a leader in clean energy, efficiency, and conservation – protecting the environmental, generating jobs, and saving people money. Yeah, I know, what a crazy idea!

The public support for the bill was overwhelming! Over 40 organizations joined the fight. Environmental and energy businesses worked side by side with faith leaders and hundreds of students from schools across Virginia. Thousands of citizens wrote letters, made calls, and turned out for lobby day! And we have a lot to show for it. The bill had 18 co-patrons in the house and Senate, with many joining on their own after hearing support from their districts. The vision of a clean energy future was contagious, and though it was a long shot, this issue catalyzed support across the commonwealth. We owe our thanks to Senator Petersen and other champions for leading the way on this issue.

But we still have more work to do if we want to get Virginia on track. We earned the votes of Senator Edwards, Herring and Miller in the committee, as well as the other 17 co-patrons. But the bill still lost, and not by a small margin. (The full vote has not been posted online yet but you can track the bill here and stay tuned to this blog as we’ll be featuring members of the committee, how they voted and where they get their money from for the rest of the week).

So who’s to blame? 1) Dominion and the utilities, who opposed the bill from the start. 2) Republicans on the committee (not one voted for). But neither of those are surprising. And in previous years, that would have been enough. But with a new democratic majority in the Senate, things could have been different. But they weren’t. And the ultimate blame lies with the democratic leadership, who despite taking control of the senate, failed to take control of this important issue.

Here are the facts. Dominion and the other energy companies still hold some serious sway and certainly donate some serious money. And if we wanna compete, we need to do more. We need to be stronger and louder. And we need to be pissed at every single member who votes against clean energy – and to let them know it! Personally, I am most disappointed in Senator Dick Saslaw and the rest of the of the Democratic leadership that ran on a platform of change but ended up voting the same old way — with the special interests. And we’ve got to say “enough is enough.”

SO WHAT NOW? Continue reading

To Her Dear Mountains

Had we but world enough, and time,
This patience, ladies, were no crime.
Thou in the shade of Old Rag Mountain
Should lilies find; I by the fountain
of the Potomac would complain.
We could dance on fields of green
and trust Dominion to clean their steam,
Blithely prancing in their hot air
And on blather that they make fair.

Our love would never be stained
By the blast of Dominion’s reign
Or buried by the waste of mining
For the coal to fuel the shining
Of incandescent lights and energy
Wasted, to cause your injury.

But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Destroyed and ravaged mountain sides
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
But arsenic and lead surround.

Now let us sport us while we may;
And pledge with our hearts on display
And join with all to write a Valentine
to Governor Kaine to stop their mine
and penetrate the walls of Dominion’s
Long-preserved hegemony.
And we will win despite the money
Because if we roll our strength and all
Our love up into one huge ball
We tear apart the iron gates
of power and find more beautiful fates.


TAKE THE PLEDGE TO LOVE YOUR MOUNTAINS!

I HEREBY PLEDGE MY HEART AND MY LOVE TO THE ALL MOUNTAINS, LARGE AND SMALL, IN VIRGINIA AND ALL OVER THE WORLD.

I HEREBY PLEDGE TO FIGHT MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL COAL MINING.

I HEREBY PLEDGE TO TAKE AT LEAST ONE ACTION DURING THE “VIRGINIA IS FOR MOUNTAIN LOVERS” WEEK OF ACTION TO HELP PRESERVE THE MOUNTAINS THAT I LOVE SO DEARLY.

SIGN NOW>>

New Coal in Wise Will Affect Richmond

Richmond City Councilmen Hilbert and Jewell have introduced the Wise County Resolution, 2008-R13. This resolution is a strong statement of opposition to the proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County, Virginia. So why is the City of Richmond weighing in on an issue for Wise County? On the surface it may seem that they’re just butting in but this plant is very much the business of Richmond and its citizens.

This plant is a bad investment and every Richmonder with an electric bill will have to pay for it. Dominion will pass all the costs of the plant onto the ratepayers of Virginia. Those costs include $1.8 billion to build the plant, 14% profit for Dominion, and also the cost of controlling carbon emissions which may reach $100 million each year. That means quite a lot of money out of our pockets. I don’t want any of my money funding new coal but Dominion isn’t giving me the ability to choose clean energy. If ratepayers must pay for new energy generation why can we not have a say in how it is generated? Across the country more and more people are realizing that coal simply costs too much. According to the US Department of Energy, $1.8 billion is too much to pay for a coal-fired power plant. The DOE recently pulled support for a proposed plant in Illinois based on cost. Just a few days ago three of the largest financial supporters of new coal reassessed the risks and found them to be too high. Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley have realized that carbon control legislation is inevitable, which will make coal far more costly. As a result they will encourage utilities to invest in energy-efficiency and renewable energy as alternatives to new coal. Asking Dominion to invest in efficiency, conservation, and renewables is exactly what this resolution does.

Where our energy comes from and the effects of its production is most certainly our business. The City of Richmond is powered by coal. That coal is supplied by the coalfields of southwest Virginia. The coal that powers my home comes from a strip mine site in Tazewell Virginia. When I turn on the lights in my house I am inadvertently contributing to mountaintop removal mining. The proposed power plant in Wise County will not be used to supply power to southwest Virginia. That power will enter the grid and be used to power the growing urban areas of NOVA, Richmond, and Tidewater. It is being built specifically to supply power to places like Richmond. At the recent State Corporation Commission hearing on the Wise County plant held in Richmond life-long Wise County resident Frank Taylor spoke of the sacrifices by the people of the coalfields for our energy needs. “Haven’t we sacrificed enough to provide power to our country? The thousands of men who have lost their lives in the mines, the tens of thousands who have black lung and the great amount of the land itself stripped away. Isn’t that enough? And now they want us to give up the clean air that we and our children breathe? Shame.” We certainly have the right to make a statement regarding where our power comes from and the damage it does.

This resolution has already been passed in Arlington, Albemarle, Charlottesville, and Blacksburg. It is now being discussed in Fairfax County. The people of Richmond also have a right to ask Dominion to invest in energy efficiency and conservation that will save us all money and keep us from unwillingly encouraging the destruction of Wise County. No new coal in my name. No new coal funded by my wallet.

Want Jobs? Go Green!

I was reading an article from the Wall Street Journal this morning about substantial growth that the wind and solar industry had last year. This really got me excited and gave me hope that we are making progress nationally in our fight to stop global warming and bring on the clean energy revolution.

The article stated:

The U.S. wind-power industry grew in size by 45% last year, adding a record 5,244 megawatts of capacity that amounted to a third of all new generating capacity built in the U.S. in 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association. General Electric Co. led the pack as nation’s largest supplier.

Gale ForceThe solar industry grew at a similar clip, though from a much smaller base, adding more than 300 megawatts of capacity last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Additions are expected to roughly double this year. Large commercial solar installations now exceed home installations in California, reversing a long-term pattern and likely a bellwether for other states.

That is a lot of energy! How cool is that? And the article said that was only the beginning, we can expect this figure to continue because of federal and state incentives for clean energy (created in most states by passing renewable energy portfolio standards, something we can’t seem to get the political will to pass here in Virginia…)

As I read on, I couldn’t help but notice how the focus of the article started to shift towards jobs. It said that tens of thousands of jobs in solar and wind are expected to be created over the next decade. And that one solar factory in Albuquerque, N.M., will employ 350 people by 2009 and increase to about 1,500 workers in future years, all for a [measly] $500 million investment. Continue reading