blogging our way to democratic wins in virginia beach
I like this new Virginia Beach Democratic Committee!
At its monthly business meeting tomorrow evening (Bayside Library, 7-9pm), the VBDC will be considering a resolution similar to that passed by the Arlington County Dems which condemns AG Ken Cuccinelli for suing the EPA over its climate change endangerment finding. The Arlington Resolution is below the fold.
I know that the Hampton Dems are also considering such a Resolution. This is terrific!
Area bloggers were invited to a private meeting with new HRT director Phil Shucet. I found myself quickly bored with the discussion that got almost exclusively mired in the ugly details (cost over-runs, who was going to pay for Virginia Beach’s study, embezzlement, “culture of fear”).
When new leadership steps on board, folks typically take a step back and again review the bigger picture of their work. From attending this so-called “discussion” on Monday, I sense none of that happening with HRT. My question that turned into a whiny speech attempted to take a stab at exactly what the end goal was with HRT.
With everything in life, don’t we always put big decisions or actions on a scale to weigh both the pros and cons? In business, isn’t that called a “cost-benefit analysis”? Why isn’t HRT doing that analysis now especially in light of the additional costs?
I wanted to both ask that question and at the same time point out that many of the benefits in that analysis could be overlooked. HRT has so far failed to recognized them and in turn failed to promote them to the public. Too many folks only weigh the costs of light rail to only the potential income from fares and the lessened traffic from fewer cars on the road. And for folks to continue to be so limited in their thinking about mass transit is surely the death of any chance for any light rail expansion to Virginia Beach.
A lot of the benefits are neither so obvious nor correlate to money in the bank. I mentioned this as one example. Hampton Roads has been designated as non-attainment for ozone by the EPA. We have to develop a plan to mitigate this pollutant or we risk losing Federal highway dollars. Expanding mass transit needs to be part of that plan. Why isn’t this potential benefit highlighted at all to the public?
Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in Hampton Roads that care about climate change. Why can’t HRT spell out to the public how many tons of carbon emissions are removed with folks opting to leave their cars in the driveway and taking mass transit to work?
While Virginia Beach has its own issues with outreach and education, mass transit plays an integral role in smart growth development. So few people have an understanding of compact urban development. They have no clue as to why we can’t continue the status quo of sprawl and car-centric patterns of living.
Always lost in the cost benefit analysis is our moral obligation to do the right thing for folks who can’t drive. There is, for example, the societal obligation to provide transportation to the disable who can’t drive. And with the economy the way it is, a lot of folks can’t afford to own and maintain a car. Public transportation is increasingly a must for getting to work.
I hope with HRT paying Phil Shucet $40,000 per month that we eventually do indeed get the “big picture.” Without it, HRT is doomed to failure.
Click here to send an email to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar urging him to stop the rush to drill Virginia.
Here we go again!
I remember when I worked in the Loudoun Board of Supervisors office and attended VACO’s lobby days in Richmond. With the crap that former Delegate Dick Black was throwing down, it was downright embarrassing to be from Loudoun.
And when Interior Secretary Salazar convenes East Coast governors tomorrow, Virginia will be the laughing stock. They are gathering to discuss offshore wind, a renewable energy that doesn’t contribute to global warming.
As the Virginian-Pilot points out, “McDonnell said he hopes to get Salazar’s ear about offshore drilling at the summit”. Yes, and when McDonnell is done, Salazar will whisper in his ear. “You’re a fool”, he’ll say.
“For one thing, Gov. McDonnell, you hoodwinked Virginia voters with your trumped up dreams of jobs and revenues from drilling, but you can’t fool me. I know the truth. Plus, you’ve got a whacked out Attorney General there in Virginia, suing the EPA. The two of you obviously have your heads stuck in the sand. And you better get it unstuck if Virginia is going to stand any chance of coming to the stakeholders’ table on offshore wind.”
Says M. Lance Phillips, a Texas oilman leading the charge to overturn Florida’s ban on oil drilling, “We really do want to do for Florida what oil and gas have done for Texas.”
Meanwhile… below the fold is a map depicting all the damaged pipelines as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Something else for Florida to look forward to!
I had the opportunity yesterday to chat with my Congressman Glenn Nye whose district involves Virginia’s every touch to the Atlantic Ocean. I reiterated all those points I raised in my Daily Press op ed plus (data gaps, studied in a microcosm, DC Court overturning 2007-2012 program, Navy-NASA objections). His response was to talk about how “unfairly” the lines were drawn for VA’s offshore area. Completely irrelevant to my point and I told him such! He is unbelievable, but so typical of the prevailing attitude in Virginia. Drill first, ask questions later.
(Okay, here comes all the comments about me picking on Nye…)
WaPo reports that Terry McAuliffe is interested in buying the soon-to-be shuttered International Paper Mill in Franklin, VA. He wants to convert it into a wood-fired power plant.
I need to find out more about such “green” energy. It potentially could be eligible for tax credits, as promised by Bob McDonnell on the campaign trail. “Sources in the governor’s office say McAuliffe and his partners would be eligible for tax credits, available in the new McDonnell administration, that would allow a $500 income tax credit for the creation of “green” jobs and a credit for up to 350 new green jobs if the jobs are in an enterprise zone.
Conceivably given our great potential with offshore wind energy development, all of Hampton Roads, which could include Franklin, should be an enterprise zone. It also makes me wonder if a paper mill could be instead bought and retrofitted to accommodate manufacturing of any of those 8,000 parts that go into any one wind turbine. Wind is a lot greener than energy derived from burning wood, which… pardon my ignorance… makes me envision good pollution-eating trees being cut down. Perhaps it’s deemed “greener” as it’s better to derive energy from trees as opposed to paper.
(I’m also wondering if Virginia has a very good Forest Management Plan. Probably not given this from the Dogwood Alliance… “IP’s Southeastern Virginia’s Franklin Mill also voraciously feeds on wood fiber harvested from important ecological habitat with a sourcing footprint that stretches from the impressive stands of cypress and Atlantic white-cedar in the Great Dismal Swamp which extends from Southeastern Virginia across into Northeastern North Carolina ranging to the hardwoods of the ridges leading to the Appalachian Mountains.”)
The WaPo article also mentions that our alleged “Jobs Governor” never visited the Franklin paper mill while campaigning. Creigh Deeds did. He also counseled the soon-to-be out of work workers about his plan to increase unemployment and health benefits, to be paid for with the $125 million in federal stimulus money that Republicans rejected last year.
I hope reporters follow McDonnell to this paper mill meeting and totally capture all that he promises these workers.
Green is mainstream – as evidenced by this funny ad run during last night’s Super Bowl. If only this conscientiousness would infiltrate Virginia Beach’s Parks and Rec department where all those gazillion plastic water bottles are tossed in the trash and not recycled. Can the Green Police please arrest Mayor Will Sessoms at his fancy Towne Bank office building?
Mixing business with pleasure as I toot my own horn…
The Daily Press in today’s print and online paper has an op-ed penned by yours truly. Check it out!
While I’m at it… mark your calendars for Tues., Feb. 16th for “Oceans Under The Gun: Living Seas or Drilling Seas?”, 7pm, Blocker Auditorium, Virginia Wesleyan College. Speakers: again yours truly with the Sierra Club, JR Tolbert with Environment Virginia, and Dr. Carl Hobbs with Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS).
“Here in Virginia, the focus has been mistakenly aimed at the false promises of revenue from the production of oil and gas offshore,” stated Environment Virginia Advocate J.R. Tolbert. “The debate has largely ignored how essential a healthy ocean is to our coastal economy, and how much we risk ignoring this fact.”
“Sometimes as an aside to their calls to ‘drill baby drill’ comes the condition that drilling be done in an ‘environmentally safe manner.’ But what does that mean exactly?” asked Eileen Levandoski, Sierra Club’s Hampton Roads conservation coordinator.
We’ll go deep sea diving for the answers. So bring your questions!
A 2003 Defense Department report predicted that climate change could “potentially destabilize the geopolitical environment, leading to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints.”
A 2007 Center for Naval Analyses report warned that global warming is a “threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.”
A 2008 National Intelligence Council report found that more than 30 U.S. military installations were already facing elevated levels of risk from rising sea levels.
In September, the Central Intelligence Agency opened a Center on Climate Change and National Security.
On Monday, the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) concluded that climate change is a national security threat: “While climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world.”
“We will pay for this one way or another. We will pay to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today, and we’ll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives.” – Gen. Anthony Zinni
Virginian-Pilot columnist Mike Gruss recently promoted Dominion’s “green power” program.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Speech Therapy | ||||
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Check out Bob McDonnell the Environmentalist??? McDonnell starts at 1:20. h/t Waldo Jaquith.
Every year Virginia’s General Assembly comes together, there always sees to be one bill that is tagged most ridiculous and made the butt of jokes across Virginia. So in honor of droopy drawers and truck balls, may I present 2010’s honoree. Check it out at Article XI.
An email from Glenn Nye (find it here at Blue Virginia) discussing all the amazing positives of Virginia’s offshore wind development is circulating around. He certainly does a good job of building excitement for what will be a very lucrative and clean energy pursuit if we’re smart and play our cards right.
But seeing how I was actually in attendance at last Friday’s Virginia Beach press conference where he spoke, I feel I need to tell the other side of the story regarding Glenn’s remarks. For some gosh-darn reason, Rep. Glenn “Speak out of both sides of his mouth” Nye has neglected to add it to his email.
Yes, he said, offshore wind was great, but he also added how it would work well in combination with our “traditional” energy resources, specifically mentioning coal, nuclear and offshore oil and gas.
For me, the only difference between Glenn Nye and Bob McDonnell is that Glenn at least gets a little more excited about offshore wind. Why he felt the need to insert the “coal, nuclear and offshore oil and gas” in, is beyond me. Nobody else mentioned it at the press conference. And did he really think that I wouldn’t call him out on this? Glenn, Glenn, Glenn… dude… you’re not making life very easy for this Democrat!
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