VB Dems

UPDATE: Virginian-Pilot nails it! Click here to read editorial entitled “Beach council’s vote on energy“.

Please send a message urging the Virginia Beach Mayor and City Council to adopt and implement all the recommendations of the Mayor’s Alternative Energy Task Force to include a resolution in opposition to ODEC’s massive dirty coal plant.

It is critical that the Army Corps of Engineers hear from affected downwind communities such as Virginia Beach, who stand to suffer the negative health, environmental and economic repercussions of the plant’s pollution. ODEC must instead set up far less costly energy efficiency programs, seek clean energy sources such as the offshore wind energy in abundant supply off our coast, and abandon plans for a new coal plant NOW!

• CALL COUNCIL TODAY! (757) 385-4303
• SPEAK UP! Council will be voting on these recommendations on Tues., Jan. 25. Starting at 6pm, be there to offer public comment and/or show your support for our clean energy future.
• EMAIL COUNCIL ctycncl@vbgov.com or click here to send a message to Council TODAY!

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On Thursday, Dec. 2, Rear Adm. David W. Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy and Commander of Task Force on Climate Change, will give a public lecture, “Climate Change and the U.S. Navy,” in the Big Blue Room of the Ted Constant Convocation Center as part of the Blue Planet Forum series. This series is sponsored by the ODU Office of Community Engagement, as well as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, NOAA and Nauticus. (Click here to RSVP – Event Code BPF10.)

“Titley has for several years been a leader of the service’s climate change assessment and adaptation planning. This is bringing port modifications in anticipation of sea level rise, not only at U.S. naval facilities, but also at bases shared with allies and partners overseas”, writes the ODU Office of Community Engagement.

From WhoRunsGov.com:

Titley guides the U.S. Navy’s long-term oceanographic and navigational capabilities. After unaccounted for environmental factors caused several military catastrophes in the 20th century, the Navy has placed an emphasis on integrating oceanographic factors such as winds, tides and sediment into its operations.

Stints commanding the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command and advising senior policymakers prepared Titley to marry science with military planning and strategy. As the Navy’s oceanographer, he advises the chief naval officer on future-oriented resources and policy.

In the Obama administration, Titley became a prominent voice in the military’s assessment of the security risks posed by climate change. After honing his skills working for strategist Andrew Marshall in the Defense secretary’s office, Titley now leads the Navy’s Task Force Climate Change. In fall 2009, the task force drafted an Arctic Roadmap outlining what it will take to maintain naval readiness as melting sea ice opens the far north to unprecedented levels of human activity.

The Thursday, Dec. 2nd program runs from 7:00-9:00pm at ODU’s Ted Constant Convocation Center, Big Blue Room, in Norfolk. An RSVP is required and seating is limited. The presentation will be followed by panel discussion moderated by HearSay’s Cathy Lewis of WHRO/WHRV FM. For more info, call ODU at (757) 683-3116.

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H/T Blue Virginia for this NRDC graphic depicting how Democrats voting for and against the climate bill fared.

In my mind, it depicts the enthusiasm gap voters had for candidates supporting clean energy versus those that didn’t. Granted Tom Perriello, who supported the bill, lost. But he lost with the courage and conviction of knowing he was doing the right thing. The environmental community rallied around him and we’ll rally around him again as you can’t keep a good leader down.

Now Glenn Nye, on the otherhand, pandered to a special interest that was never going to support him in the first place. Nye will ride off into the sunset wondering if doing the right thing would have made the difference. What if he voted pursuant to the wishes of his constituents who care about clean air, clean water, a clean energy economy, who care about health care? What if he had those voters embracing his campaign, working our butts off for him like we did in Perriello’s race? Would that have made a difference in the 2nd?

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Birds of a feather should flock together. And why not come here to rub salt in our environmental wounds. Drill baby drill too!

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Both Kenny Golden and Scott Rigell at last night’s debate revealed their total ignorance when it came to the reality of coal.

Number 1, there is no such thing as “clean coal”. “Clean coal” is the product of carbon capture sequestration (otherwise known as CCS). CCS is a process by which the carbon emissions produced by burning coal such as in a power plant are injected into the ground. The technology to do so is at least a decade away for being realized. No where on God’s green earth is anyone enabling CCS.

Number 2, coal is a fossil fuel. Duh! Burning coal not only contributes to climate change with its dirty carbon emissions, it also produces NOx emissions that contribute to ozone pollution. The Surry coal plant for instance will contribute over 3,000 tons of NOx emissions into the Hampton Roads’ air, which has been designated for non-attainment by the EPA. This non-attainment status will have very costly impacts on our area’s ability to collect Federal highway dollars as well as attracting new businesses to the area as there will be additional air quality regulations imposed on their activities, to say nothing about the health effects of increased numbers of “bad air” days as children and seniors suffering from asthma.

The coal delivered to power plants for burning in large part comes from the practice of mountain top removal. The tops of mountains are literally blown off to get to the coal seams. What’s left is barren moonscapes smattering the Appalachian mountains. So many mountains have been obliterated that the devastation is viewable via satellite imaging. The material blown off mountains is dumped into the valleys below. Thousands of miles of clean beautiful mountain streams have been completely buried. The contours of the landscape has been so dramatically altered that runoff from natural rain events turns into roaring flood waters.

The coal removed must be washed which requires construction of huge impoundment ponds which are precariously constructed and in one instance perched a short distance above an elementary school. The ponds contain a toxic slurry of dangerous and carcinogenic metals to include arsenic, mercury, chromium, cadmium, boron, selenium, and nickel.

Every year, coal burning produces over 130 million tons of waste. Most of it is fly ash, which also contains these dangerous metals. A huge containment pond of fly ash gave way on Dec. 22, 2008 releasing over 1.7 million cubic yards of cludge into the Clinch River (Tennessee) valley. It inundated homes and contaminated drinking water supplies.

Fly ash was applied as a “beneficial use” to a golf course in Chesapeake (VA). There are no Federal regulations governing fly ash. Thanks to Dominion Virginia Power bullying there are extremely lax state rules governing fly ash as the golf course was unlined and not water sampling tests were conducted. No shock that area residents would now be suing Dominion for the toxins showing up in their ground water.

From beginning to end, coal is bad news and nothing to be celebrated as Rigell and Golden did last night. They are obviously swallowing hook, line and sinker all the garbage feed to them by the wealthy coal industry lobbyists.

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This segment of “60 Minutes” aired Sunday evening and features the “beneficial use” by Dominion in building the Battlefield golf course in Chesapeake. I’m sure the invitation still stands for any Dominion official to eat dinner at area residents’ homes with meals prepared using their tap water.

You gotta love the lobbyist at the end who tells Leslie Stahl to trust state regulations and utility management to do the right thing. “Environmental protection is expensive” he says, as if that’s an excuse not to do it.

Help protect our water by speaking out at this EPA Hearing on the Proposed Coal Ash Rule, Monday, August 30th from 10am-9pm, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202. Sign up today at: http://action.sierraclub.org/coalash_arlington. Car pooling from various areas of Virginia may be available. For more info contact Kate Pollard at kate.pollard@sierraclub.org.

Cross-posted at ArticleXI.com and Blue Virginia

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Updated flood maps will affect 7,000 Hampton properties.

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We’ve been inundated with heartbreaking images of oil covered birds and devastated fishermen struggling in the wake of the BP oil disaster. While officials are working to clean up the mess, we need to work to make sure this never happens again.

While we applaud President Obama’s decision to cancel Virginia’s lease sale, we are not out of the woods on drilling. Virginia, along with our Atlantic coast neighbors, is still enrolled in a leasing program that could allow drilling as close as just 3 miles off our coast and our Chesapeake Bay!

The Obama Administration superseded the 2010-2015 program with its own 2012-2017 program for the Atlantic from Delaware south. That’s what we are fighting.

Keep in mind that there are no moratoriums protecting the Atlantic. In 2008, President Bush cancelled a presidential moratorium and Congress allowed a congressional ban to expire.

Virginians are urged to join Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation and Oceana for HANDS ACROSS THE SAND, a national day of action, on Saturday, June 26. We’ll join hands and form a line in the sand to say “No” to offshore drilling and “Yes” to clean renewable energy.

HANDS ACROSS THE SAND will be held on these Virginia beaches:

- Virginia Beach Oceanfront between 19th and 31st Streets (Click here to RSVP.)

- Sandbridge, Little Island Park, 3820 Sandpiper Road, Virginia Beach (Click here to RSVP.)

- Ocean View, Community Beach Park, 700 E. Ocean View Ave., Norfolk (Click here to RSVP.)

- North End, 81st Street and Atlantic Ave., Virginia Beach (Click here to RSVP.)

- Buckroe Beach off Point Comfort Ave., Hampton (Click here to RSVP.)

At 11am, we’ll start gathering at each beach. We’ll join hands from 12:00 to 12:15.

HANDS ACROSS THE SAND started in Florida earlier this year as over 10,000 Floridians locked hands over 80 beaches in opposition to oil drilling. “This movement is not about politics; it is about protection of our shoreline, our waterways, our tourism, our coastal military missions and our quality of life,” said Dave Rauschkolb, founder of HANDS ACROSS THE SAND.

HANDS ACROSS THE SAND is a National Day of Action with hundreds of events happening across the country on the same day, Saturday, June 26. Together we will call on President Obama to move America beyond oil over the next two decades. For more information, visit http://www.HandsAcrossTheSand.com.

Even as oil spews from the bottom of the Gulf, Big Oil and its allies are doing everything they can to dangerously drill off our coasts. Attend Hands Across the Sand to protect our oceans, beaches, and wildlife from more offshore drilling!

HANDS volunteers are needed. Please contact Eileen Levandoski, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, eileen.levandoski@sierraclub.org.

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State Senator Jeff McWaters in an email blast said “It is understandable that accidents do happen; however we must be more prepared in the future for such disasters. Americans must learn from what happened, creating new science to improve our current drilling technology for future oil discovery.”

Um… no…

Like Rachel Maddow points out the only technology that has improved is our capacities to drill deeper and in deeper water. Mention “drilling” and “technology” in the same sentence and me and a majority of the United States citizenry will personally beat you down. We call “bull shit” to all the “oh technology is the answer” con artists.

We need to break our addiction to dirty fossil fuels and be smart about our investments in energy. President Obama gets it! He announced today that it’s time to roll back “billions of dollars in tax breaks” for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development. Amen!

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From Politico:

“The President will discuss the conclusions of the 30-day safety review on offshore drilling he directed Secretary Salazar to conduct. He will announce standards to strengthen oversight of the industry and enhance safety, a first step in a process that the independent Presidential Commission will continue. While the Commission performs its work to determine how to prevent this from ever happening again, the moratorium on permits to drill new deepwater wells will continue for a period of six months. In addition, the planned exploration off the coast of Alaska in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas will be delayed pending the Commission’s review, and the August lease sale in the Western Gulf will be cancelled. The lease sale off the coast of Virginia will also be canceled due to environmental concerns and concerns raised by the Defense Department. Secretary Salazar briefed President Obama and senior advisors on the report last evening in the Oval Office.”

Press conference at 12:45.

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And Bob McDonnell is still nonetheless in denial.

Writes the Virginian-Pilot: “Rep. Jim Moran, an opponent of offshore drilling, wrote a letter Tuesday to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, urging him to back off on his push for offshore drilling. ‘I trust you would agree that the presence of the Department of Defense in the Commonwealth is of greater benefit than anything that could be derived from offshore drilling,’ Moran wrote.”

No Oil & Gas Activity area concerns:
- Live ordnance release and impact:
–Air-surface missile/bomb
- Preservation of sensitive undersea & surface operations
- Combined Shipboard Systems Qualification Trials
- Developmental, Operational and Follow-on Testing and Evaluation

Give it up Bob!

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The situation status map of the Gulf Coast spill refers to the things pictured here as “orange pancakes”. And that map shows the line of “orange pancakes”, “silver sheen”, “brown oil” and “tar balls” pushing closer to landfall than indicated yesterday, which was closer still than 48 hours ago.

Yesterday, BP also released 30 seconds of video depicting the “[o]il and gas stream from the riser of the Deepwater Horizon well May 11, 2010. This video is from the larger of two existing leaks on the riser. This leak is located approximately 460 feet from the top of the blowout preventer and rests on the sea floor at a depth of about 5,000 feet”.

It sickens me to think that our Virginia policy makers support drilling off our coast. A spill even a small fraction of the size of this Gulf Coast spill occurring off our Virginia coast would devastate our coastal economy. It is so not worth the risk! These policy makers are in complete denial to a number of things: 1) spills still occur despite all the technological advances (look to the Australian spill as another example of this failure – 3 month long blowout before it could be controlled, a spill almost the footprint size of Virginia, a rig built in 2007); 2) spill response is inadequate and adds insult to injury; and 3) 8 years of oilies controlling the Bush administration has resulted in slipshod Federal regulation and oversight of drilling operations.

A moratorium on new drilling must be enacted!

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Not to give him any ideas… “Polluters have had enough of law clinics“.

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