Crossposted from WeArePowerShift.org
On April 5-7, the Virginia Alliance for a Cleaner Environment (VACE) and CCAN hosted a leadership summit in Richmond for students from around the state to gather and develop a long-term vision for what a unified climate movement across our campuses looks like in Virginia.
environment instead of out-of-state polluters,” the letter reads. It was signed by Tim Reardon of Pitcrew, Inc., Boe Walker of Boe’s Strings, Mary Jean Clark of Voila in Frederick, Cindy Weingarten of Cafe Nola, Soren Dodge of The Record Exchange, April Reardon of Velvet Lounge and Pat Latkovski of Alicia L’s.
Dominion Power made a startling announcement this morning. In honor of Earth Month 2013, the company will plant enough trees to go carbon neutral through its program, “Project Plant It!” This is a major breakthrough for climate action in Virginia. Until today, the utility had no plans to change course. To have the commonwealth’s top emitter of climate-disrupting pollution plant 4 billion trees is simply astounding.
By Steven Mufson
A measure before the Maryland legislature to roll back payments to paper companies burning a pulping residue known as “black liquor” failed by one vote in a state House committee Friday.
The bill, which passed the Maryland Senate by a bipartisan 33 to 13 vote, fell short of the 12 votes needed in the Economic Matters Committee — even after the bill’s sponsors agreed to guarantee continuing subsidies for Luke Mill, the one Maryland paper mill that was receiving the black-liquor payments.
By Tim Wheeler
Amended bill continues renewable energy subsidy for Luke Md mill
A phase-out of renewable energy subsidies for paper mills has cleared the Maryland Senate, though with a provision that guarantees the state’s only paper plant in Allegany County would continue to receive payments underwritten by taxpayers.
Environmentalists hailed the 33-13 vote Thursday for SB684, which they said would close what they considered a major loophole in Maryland’s renewable energy law. Currently, mostly out-of-state paper mills receive millions of dollars annually for powering their operations by burning “black liquor,” a tarry byproduct of the pulping process, and other wood waste.
By IJ Chan
JMU students and Harrisonburg residents are joining the national fight against the Keystone XL pipeline.
The 2,147 mile long Keystone XL pipeline currently brings crude oil from Canada to the U.S. Midwest. A 1,700-mile long extension would carry the oil through to Texas. Many people nationwide are concerned that the installation of the pipeline would bring devastation to the environment by severely polluting the air, water and soil with excessive carbon emissions.
By Keith Laing
Environmentalists are unhappy with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R)’s decision to retain a tax on hybrid vehicles in a transportation funding plan for the state.
McDonnell reduced the amount of the tax from $100 per year to $64, his office announced on Tuesday.
But the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) said he should have removed the entire tax.
“While Gov. McDonnell bent to public outcry and reduced the hybrid car tax, he should have vetoed it altogether, as thousands of Virginians urged,” CCAN Virginia State Director Beth Kemler said in a statement. “The hybrid tax remains an unfair and unreasonable policy. A $64 fee is just as arbitrary as the whole policy is to begin with.”
When Virginia Senator Mark Warner decided to flip his stance on the tar sands pipeline, Virginians were ready to march to his door and let him know that if he claims to be a leader on climate change, he cannot support the Keystone pipeline!
Yesterday, over 20 climate activists, including students and constituents from across the state, stormed Warner’s Richmond office to voice their outrage over his recent support for the KXL.
By Markus Schmidt
About a dozen climate-minded activists rallied outside Sen. Mark R. Warner’s Richmond office on Main Street on Monday, urging the Democrat to vote against the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Warner recently told President Barack Obama that he supports the pipeline but hopes the project’s construction can be tethered to more effective energy efficiency policies.
Each new General Assembly session is bound to bring its fair share of surprises. Chief among this year’s list was the truly shocking (and downright absurd) proposed $100 annual tax on hybrid and electric vehicles. I literally laughed out loud when I first heard of this proposal last November. The tax was heavily debated but ultimately became buried within an enormous transformation reform bill that narrowly passed both the House and Senate. The bill now sits on Gov. McDonnell’s desk. I, along with 1,136 of you, urge the governor to veto this poorly contrived component of the bill.