Dominion rejects coal and starts puppy adoption center!

(Richmond, VA) After being presented with a fossil foolie award, recognizing Thomas Farrell, CEO, for his foolish plans to build a plant in Wise County, Mr. Farrell made a sober decision to swear off coal, and instead switch all their investments into puppy adoptions.

Somewhat resistant at first, Dominion called the police to boot the unassuming citizens, who were merely looking out for the moral fiber of the CEO. But, once he talked to them, and recognized the power of their arguments and their honesty.
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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…

Dominion Admits – "Clean Coal" plant not actually clean

Great post from TheGreenMiles. http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=13300

——————————–Dominion Comes Clean on Coal, Admits Carbon Capture Nowhere in Sight (+)

As recently as five weeks ago, Dominion was hyping carbon capture and storage in connection with its proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County. But in a new deal with the SCC, Dominion has finally admitted CCS is nothing more than pie in the sky:

Major provisions of the agreement include a reduction in the profit Dominion Virginia Power had wanted to earn on its investment in the plant and a settlement of the dispute concerning whether the plant can be considered capable of capturing greenhouse gas emissions.The proposed profit does not include a bonus credit that state law provides utilities for building cleaner-burning coal plants compatible with technology to capture carbon-dioxide emissions. Carbon dioxide is considered a greenhouse gas.

The agreement says the proposed plant falls under state and federal definitions for a clean-coal plant but adds that whether the plant is compatible with carbon-dioxide capture is “unresolved at this time.”

I’m glad Dominion has finally admitted the obvious: When it comes to global warming, there’s no such thing as clean cloal.

Dominion Swindles Virginia, Buys Governor

Why should Virginians we support a new coal plant in Wise County? For months, people like me have been standing on our soap boxes saying that the people of Virginia shouldn’t support this plant. We have said that coal is bad for global warming. We have said that coal is bad for our mountains. We have said that coal isn’t good for our health. We have said that coal isn’t good for our water.

But Dominion has not withdrawn their plans to build a new coal plant in Wise County, saying that the plant would be clean, economically beneficial, and cheap. Dominion lies. Let me quickly debunk these three myths.

Myth #1: Dominion’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center (the official name of the Wise County plant) will bring jobs to Virginia and provide cheap, reliable energy for the State.
FACT: If the plant gets built, there will be a net loss of jobs in Virginia. Recent testimony for the State Corporation Commission reveals that the Wise County Plant would cost Virginia nearly 1,500 jobs and greatly diminish families disposable income through higher electricity rates. Is that really worth it for 75 permanent jobs in Wise County? [For comparison sake, for $1.8 billion we could pay 75 Wise residents $100,000 a year and give the county $6 million a year for the next 133 years — sounds like a better deal to me…]

Myth #2: Coal is the cheapest source of energy in Virginia.
FACT: Coal is a cheap source of energy, but it is also one of the most heavily subsidized energy sources in the state. Even with massive subsidies that are taken directly from taxpayers pocket and put into Dominion’s stockholders portfolios, the new Wise county plower plant would increase energy rates by up to $1,000 per household in Virginia. That is not cheap!

Myth #3: Dominion’s Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center would be clean and have minimal impacts on the environment
FACT: Dominion is not utilizing the best available technology for this plant. The Wise County plat would utilize Circulating Fluidized Bed Coal Technology (CFB), not Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) technology — IGCC is considered the most advanced coal technology and the one best suited to remove pollutants and CO2 from emissions. By utilizing this inferior technology, Dominion can burn cheap waste coal with low BTU value and high pollutant emissions.

So why do we even need to fight this plant? It is bad for rate payer, it is bad for the economy, and it is bad for the environment — who would support that? Governor Kaine and the Virginia General Assembly, that is who. Surely they must know something that we don’t, like we are just about to make great strides in carbon capture and sequestration or the price of this plant is going to drop or something… or maybe they just took millions of dollars from Dominion…

It just makes you wonder what Dominion is buying…

  • The fast track green light from the Governor and the General Assembly for a $1.8 billion power plant (of which, Dominion has asked for a guaranteed profit on the plant of about 14% which they would probably get…)

  • A general strangle hold on democracy in Virginia

We want our democracy back. We want a governor that leads, not one that flies to the Final Four on Dominion’s dollar. Contact the Governor today.

Dominion Power's Dirty Plans for Virginia

The Washington Post

By Mike Tidwell

Fact: Virginia gets less than 1 percent of its electricity from “green” sources such as the wind or the sun. Fact: Virginia ranks 38th among U.S. states in energy efficiency. Fact: Climate change is real, and fossil fuel substitutes are needed, according to President Bush’s State of the Union address last year. So how would Dominion Virginia Power respond to these facts?

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Va. Energy: Questions to Ask Before Construction

Today is the last day for placing questions and comments before the Virginia State Corporation Commission (VSCC) (comments) about two major issues from Dominion Virginia Power.

  1. Wise County coal-fired power plant (application, 14 page pdf) PUE-2007-0066

  2. A 500 kV transmission line to bring coal electricity to Northern Virginia from Ohio (application, 29 page pdf) PUE-2007-00033

CCAN has had excellent discussion and impassioned calls on the first, the UNWise County coal-fired plant. And again, since today is THE LAST DAY to submit your comments against the Wise County coal plant, please take a moment to do so>>

Now let’s turn to the Power Line question. Quite simply, there has been no efficiency focus in the power line debate, with too much NIMBYite focus. Public officials, before rushing forward with approval of Dominion’s proposal, should ask the questions that follow and consider potential responses.

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Dominion Subpoenaed; Reduces Price of CFLs

Here is a shocker, Dominion Power, the energy mogul that is pressing hard to build a new coal fired power plant in Wise, Virginia, is not properly accounting for the financial risks associated with, as a business, refusing to evolve and properly assess reality. Could it be true that a major polluter is acting unscrupulously, profiting off of misleading investors and ignoring the real world? According to the New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, maybe. According to the Attorney General, “The increase in [carbon-dioxide] emissions from the operation of this unit [the proposed Wise Co. Plant], in combination with Dominion’s other coal-fired power plants, will subject Dominion to increased financial, regulatory and litigation risks.”

Basically, I read Cuomo’s statement to mean, “hey Dominion, building another coal power plant are you kidding me? You know that legislation to regulate global warming emissions is coming soon, why are you going to build another super polluter? You know you can’t realistically sequester carbon from the plant, don’t even kid yourself. Why don’t you just do something less radical, like start building wind turbines or solar panels or investing in efficiency. Now that would be a plan we could all get behind.”

To help further illustrate my point, I will throw out some fun analogies. Coal is to power production as Asbestos is to insulation — it works, but you don’t want to use it. New coal power is as good an idea as reviving phrenology evaluation to help supplement student applications to college. Okay, that second one wasn’t as good as the first, but you get the point. Let me know if you have any good analogies about coal you want to pass on, I love analogies.

Oh, I try to never get totally negative with my blog posts, so here is the positive. Dominion is helping to offer CFL light bulbs at a discounted rate. That is one small step for man…