VB Dems

As “VB Dems”, I’ve started tracking bills of interest on Richmond Sunlight.

Two bills of particular interest to the environmental community are as follows (snips from the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition’s one-page fact sheets):

Virginia Jobs and Efficiency Act (SB 71) – Sen. Don McEachin
Senator McEachin’s “Virginia Jobs and Efficiency Act” (Senate Bill 71) calls on Virginia utilities to take the lead by requiring them to reduce energy consumption 12% by 2022 by investing in readily-available energy-efficiency improvements.

The McEachin bill would create up to 10,000 new jobs in the Commonwealth. Efficiency investments will boost Virginia’s economy and create a demand for energy efficient construction and weatherization, energy auditors and engineers, and other jobs.

Efficiency would enable Virginia to meet its energy needs without constructing new, expensive power plants like the 1500-megawatt coal-fired plant proposed for the Hampton Roads area, estimated to cost as much as $6 billion – the most costly coal plant in the U.S.

The plant would be the biggest coal-fired plant in Virginia and would release over 14 million tons of global warming pollution every year.

Stream Saver Bill (SB 564) – Sen. Patsy Ticer
The “Stream Saver Bill” will end the practice of filling Virginia headwater streams with coal mining waste by prohibiting the dumping of coal mining waste into Virginia streams. Prohibiting the filling of streams with mining waste will curtail the practice of mountaintop removal and preserve the integrity of our waterways.

I’m getting ready to head to the Women’s Legislative Roundtable meeting in Norfolk this morning. More bills of interest will be forthcoming.

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The rumor on the street was that Sen. Frank Wagner was conniving to get VB Mayor Sessoms to rescind VB’s resolution opposing uranium mining in southwest Virginia. The Beach did so (as did the City of Chesapeake) as our drinking water supply comes from Lake Gaston which is in the area of the proposed uranium mining.

Although there is still currently a moratorium in the Commonwealth on uranium mining, a legislative subcommittee did order a study of it. The State has contracted with the National Academy of Sciences, it’ll take 1.5 years to complete and would otherwise cost our cash-strapped state $1.4 million. “No problem,” says the wealthy special interests who have been allowed to underwrite the “study”.

Assuming that NAS can be trusted to not sway results to the benefit of its underwriters, there is still a huge problem with their study. It’s not site specific! And Virginia Beach’s Thomas Leahy, the city’s public utilities director, knows it and he’s not afraid to act on his doubts. Virginia is not Utah after all, where uranium mining faces a dry, arid environment. We’re practically tropical – so moist and spongy – ergo great concern for the State’s “study”.

The Virginian-Pilot reported today that the City is preparing to commission their own study on the effects to our drinking water should uranium mining near Lake Gaston be allowed. It’ll cost upwards of $437,000. And Sen. Frank Wagner is shitting in his pants. Getting Virginia Beach to come round to seeing this his way has vanished in the haze. Ha!

I love one of the comments on the Pilot article online. “Who does Wagner represent, Virginia Beach or the uranium industry?”, writes Chris33. Umm… take a wild guess. The answer is the same as always.

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There is no denying that we didn’t work very very hard in 2009. As a result of all the blood, sweat and tears, I’ll make the following predictions:

1. Bob McDonnell will be outed as the buffoon he is on all things energy related. All of us totally jazzed up about Virginia’s offshore wind will come to the conclusion that he provides only lip-service to the cause. His agenda is first and foremost to Big Oil and Big Coal. Bob ridiculously makes a lot of noise about something completely outside his control. And while visions of rigs drilling for oil in 2011 dance in his head, other Atlantic coasts states are erecting wind turbines in 2011. We lose unless other forces (perhaps the U.S. Navy?) can wrest the bull by the horns and act as the “public” in “public/private partnership”. The potential for Virginia is just too powerful, even for Gov. Bob and his cronies. Meanwhile, MMS unofficially postpones Virginia’s enrollment in the 2007-2012 OCS program and any drilling off Virginia’s shores is more appropriately considered with the rest of the Atlantic coasts states enrolled in the 2010-2015 OCS program.

2. Federal climate change legislation passes with both Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. Jim Webb voting “yes”. Webb’s vote will be earned as a result of a lot of compromises that will make this bill way less than perfect. But like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts which weren’t ideal, shit can be amended.

3. As a result of this Federal action, the Old Dominion Electric Coop will give up on the Surry coal plant. The now $6 billion price tag for this monstrosity will go up and potential investors will start backing away from it. The final nail in the coffin will be Hampton Roads cities, towns and counties, who stand to gain nothing from its construction and suffer only its ill effects, each one by one offering resolutions in opposition.

4. The public uproar over dirty Dominion will force GA legislators to stop kissing its ass. In 2010, Dominion will still get everything it wants but legislators finally finding balls will start to insist on certain accommodations, starting with fly ash disposal, mandatory renewable energy standards, and mandatory energy efficiency.

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Not many Republican legislators have even a clue or appreciation for land conservation. But based on the short but sweet legislative record (click here to view his bills patroned) of my representative hog farmer Delegate Barry Knight, you’d think he’d know better.

Yet of all the Virginia Beach General Assembly delegation, he scored the worst. The League of Conservation Voters gave him 25%. He did even worse than Frank Wagner with 26%.

Here’s all the scores from 2009:
Bouchard 86%
Northam 79%
Mathieson 75%
Y. Miller 67%
A. Howell 57%
Tata 46%
Iaquinto 45%
Purkey 39%
Stolle 27%
Wagner 26%
Knight 25%

We’ll be talking to Del. Knight! Conservation Lobby Day is Monday, January 18 from 9am to 2pm. Click here for more information.

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There is the axiom that we distrust what we don’t understand. I don’t understand $ wealth. Why do fats cats need gobs more money?

I wouldn’t be so upset and angry with Dominion and their incessant thirst for profit if their heart was in the right place. But it’s not.

Four lousy % of their power is generated from renewable energy. Six years from now, they say they’ll voluntarily up that to 7%, but only via purchase of green power from other states. So much for advantaging Virginia’s fledgling renewable energy market.

In today’s Virginian-Pilot, the Fossil Fool that is CEO Tom Farrell cries boo hoo over SCC staff’s recommendation that their profit rate of return should be anything less than 13%. (It’s currently 19%, which in 2008 reflects the $527.3 million it overcharged its customers.) He contends that Dominion needs that high rate of return in order to raise capital and be more competitive so as to secure greater credit lines. For what? So they can build more coal plants? There is very little investment in renewable energy generation in their future plans. It’s a status quo plan, continuing its virtual 50/50 split between coal and nukes.

I think the SCC should mirror Dominion’s rate of return with its generation of renewable energy. Tit for tat. Thus their return would be 4%. Hinge their profit that way and maybe Tom Farrell would get off his Fossil Fool ass and at least come to the table in planning Virginia’s offshore wind development and stop obstructing incentives encouraging solar energy generation as well.

The SCC plans a public hearing on Dominion’s rate case on January 20, 2010. We’ll definitely be all over this!

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From NPR: “It was just before Christmas last year when a massive coal ash retention pond gave way near Kingston, Tenn. An estimated one billion gallons of the gray material spilled into a river and inundated acres of sparsely-populated land. One year later, clean-up is going slower than expected and it’s more expensive too.”

Meanwhile, the EPA’s promised regulations to tighten down on the handling and disposal of toxic ash from coal-fired power plants has been delayed.

Industry groups argue that if coal ash is regulated as a hazardous waste (no, duh!), it “could force nearly 200 coal-fired power plants nationwide to close”. And that’s a bad thing?

“A national coal combustion products regulation will alter the technology and economics of coal-fired power plants,” Ken Ladwig of the Electric Power Research Institute told a House subcommittee. “Some owners would decide to prematurely shut down rather than incur the costs of compliance, while others would convert their ash handling and disposal systems and continue to operate in the post-regulation market.”

“It is impossible to imagine that the imposition of basic landfilling standards will bring down the U.S. power industry,” shot back Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans.

“Generally, coal-ash is not subject to any concrete set of national standards to govern the safety of the impoundments or toxic pollution that leaches from them. Rules vary widely from state to state”, writes Ken Ward in the Charleston Gazette.

Here we go with Exhibit A of AG-elect Cuccinelli’s pronouncement to block and/or circumvent any Federal ruling. Roll out the red carpet for ODEC’s Surry coal plant’s slurry impoundment ponds bordering the James River and the Chesapeake Bay, Dominion’s fly ash pile in York County (“Mount Ashmore“) looming ever higher, and coal ash used to sculpt way more than just golf courses.

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If there was any doubt about what we were in for heading into this next General Assembly, they are completely eradicated after reading Blue Virginia’s post quoting our next Attorney General. We could of hoped that calling us environmentalists “watermelons”, as Cuccinelli did for being “green on the outside and commie red in the middle”, that this was just campaign talk. But as his recent newsletter reveals, the man is whackjob evil and we are in for some very hard times.

Here are a few highlights from out Attorney General-elect’s latest “Cuccinelli Compass.” Yes, Virginia, we really did elect this guy.

*The heading of the newsletter is “Isn’t Snow In the Middle of Global Warming Inconvenient?”

*He calls the delegates to the recent, international climate change conference in Copenhagen, “enraptured global warming radicals” and “the modern radical environmental movement headed by Al Gore.”

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*He warns that “The environmental arena may end up being an area of significant conflict with the Federal government during my term as AG, but only time will tell!”

It’s the “us vs. them” mentality that Cuccinelli is forcing that scares me most. I’ve only seen worse disdain for environmentalists emanated from Frank Wagner. How do we work with legislators who basically tell us to “fuck off”.

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Today’s Virginian-Pilot has a good editorial (“Richmond’s big gift from our pockets“). As the Pilot reported Thursday, Dominion Virginia Power customers paid $523.7 million too much last year. “The typical residential customer’s share comes to about $133, but they’ll never get all of that money back. Customers who feel that’s unfair can thank state legislators for a law that makes a full reimbursement impossible”.

In 2007, Dominion lobbyists provided its marching orders to our General Assembly legislators. Legislation favoring Dominion’s bottomline profit margin passed out of committees and subcommittees, whereas bills cutting in even marginally to Dominion’s profits died or were emasculated beyond recognition. Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple’s RPS legislation is a perfect example. Hers was a renewable energy bill mandating a gradual schedule whereby power generators would be required to produce a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources. Her bill along with the re-regulation bill went in to Sen. Stolle’s Commerce committee and only one came out. A placatory bone was tossed whereby a voluntary RPS was thrown into the re-reg bill. Dominion is nowhere near meeting Virginia’s meager voluntary RPS goal of 12%. It’s 4% by 2010, 7% by 2016 and 12% by 2022.

According to their website, “The 2008 average mix of energy resources supplying Dominion Virginia Power included: Coal (46%), Nuclear (41%), Natural Gas (8%), Hydro/Other Renewables (4%), and Oil (1%)”. The dirty Wise coal plant with its anticipated 20% (117 megawatts) energy coming from biomass, Dominion will generate a mere 533 megawatts from renewable source in Virginia. Another 757 megawatts of renewable energy generation will come from wind facilities in Illinois, West Virginia and Indiana, bringing their total renewable energy generation to 1290 megawatts. Subtract out the Wise 117 megawatts (not available until 2013), compare that to the more than 26,500 megawatts in Dominion’s total generating assets and you thus have that 4%. (Of note, 79% of that 26,500 megawatts is sold to Virginia customers.)

In an October 30, 2009 report to the SCC, Dominion, as required by Virginia Code, reported how it was going to meet its RPS goals. Satisfied with its existing renewable energy generation (the mere 533 megawatts), Dominion plans to meet RPS goals via contracts with various renewable energy NUGs (non-utility generators). Ergo the large majority of the renewable energy powering Virginia’s homes and businesses will come from the mid-West. Hell, our renewable energy could likely come from Delaware offshore wind as Dominion has no interest or incentive to assist in Virginia’s own production of its own offshore wind.

Dominion’s limited idea of corporate responsibility is best on display with their “Virginia Green Power” program, whereby it makes renewable energy available to its Virginia customers provided those customers are willing to pay extra for it.

Via its “Green Power” program, Dominion customers can elect to pay an extra $0.015 (a penny and a half) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity generated from renewable sources. As reported through December 2009, 74% of this power came from wind facilities in Indiana and Missouri and 26% from bio-mass facilities in Illinois (landfill gas), Louisiana (paper pulp), and Pennsylvania (digester gas).

The “get rich quick” mentality obviously pervades Dominion. Greater and speedier investment in renewable energy generation cuts into their short-term profits. And our legislators in the General Assembly understand that and customize their agendas to accomodate them. Thanks to them, Dominion has absolutely no incentive to pursue greater renewable energy generation. Add to that how the General Assembly doesn’t disincentivize pursuit of dirty energy generation. There is no cost to Dominion for polluting our air and water, blowing up our mountains, contributing to global warming and sea level rise, and jeopardizing our health and well being.

Thus, the only hope for renewable energy generation in Virginia will likely come via Federal legislation, that finally makes the cost of dirty energy too costly for Dominion to ignore, squash and/or apply only lip service to. It’s so illogical especially considering the huge job oppurtunities for Virginians presented by offshore wind.

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Dominion is currently running ads in Hampton Roads highlighting their charitable donations to the arts and other non-profit groups. It’s all done to make people think they are such a great, community-minded, caring company, when nothing could be further from the truth.

A better portrayal of the true Dominion would be TV ads with footage of mountains being blown up, coal fired power plants bulging toxins into the air and water, breached slurry impounds flooding valleys, fly ash piles leeching into streams, nasty water pouring from people’s water taps, and high-voltage powerlines marring Virginia’s historic hallowed grounds.

And with today’s announcement that Dominion has overcharged its customers $524 million, we can now add that picture of the elderly couple shivering in the dark to that true Dominion TV ad.

Even more disgusting is how this audit came about as Dominion seeks permission to charge its customers a surcharge “to cover the company’s costs to build two new power plants in Virginia”.

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I met this woman, Krystal Ball, at last month’s bloggers conference in Newport News. She is VERY sharp and exactly what we need in Congress right now. Check out her recent writing on the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. She nails it!

Bring it on, Rob Wittman!

Climate Change: Copenhagen Jobs Summit – by Krystal Ball

I was born and raised in an area of Virginia surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay. The bay is a priceless treasure and the largest estuary in the United States. It is second only to New Orleans in its vulnerability to climate-change induced flooding. I believe that man-made climate change is a scientific fact and confronting the reality of greenhouse gas emissions a critical moral and environmental imperative. Our failure to rise to this challenge would be a betrayal of our children and future generations. Right now, the world’s attention is focused on the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. My attention is also focused on Copenhagen. But not because I am an environmentalist, rather it is my patriotism, my experience as a small business owner and my study of economics that focus me on Copenhagen.

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