Virginia Students "Connect the Dots" on Climate Impacts Day

 

–Cross-posted at WeArePowershift.org

Last Saturday, 350.org and other similarly-minded groups organized a Climate Impacts Day (climatedots.org), where activists throughout the country “connected the dots” between climate change and its associated impacts. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) coordinated with many of these activists in Maryland and Virginia to facilitate their events. In Virginia, CCAN worked with student groups to highlight important climate sources and impacts on or near their campuses.  

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Earth Week in Virginia

Cross-posted at WeArePowershift.org

 

On April 22, 1970, students participated in an massive action declared by Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin. Motivated by the recent Santa Barbara oil spill, teach-ins were held at college and university campus across the United States to protest environmental degradation. “Earth Day,” as the event was known, later became a prominent, annual avenue for citizens to discuss important issues affecting both their local communities and the wider world.

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Coal Too Expensive for VA Ratepayers and Taxpayers

Last night, I filled the tank of my Zipcar with gas that was almost $4.00 per gallon. It was quite a pricey reminder of the volatility of fossil fuel markets. While coal prices have traditionally been less linked to global events, U.S. coal prices are becoming increasingly set by worldwide demand. That’s just one of the reasons that the Union of Concerned Scientists named the building of new coal-fired power plants “an extremely risky long-term investment” in a new report released last week.

“A Risky Proposition: The Financial Hazards of New Investments in Coal Plants” lays out the multitude of reasons that it’s bad for business for electric utilities to make new investments in coal-burning power plants, such as Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s proposed power plant in Surry County, VA.

While CCAN opposes this plant because it would spew out about 15 million tons of global warming pollution

Take that King Coal!

Today is a great day for fighting coal in Virginia! Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) has announced its plans to delay moving forward with a 1500 MW coal plant proposed for Surry County in Hampton Roads. Citing a down economy, reduced energy consumption and pending federal regulation by the EPA, ODEC announced it will wait up to two years before resubmitting permit applications to the state.

Make no mistake though, there is still a fight ahead of us. We will continue to build a community of opposition to this proposal until this project is permanently withdrawn or rejected.

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Transparency…What is that?

In our recent efforts to educate member-owners and ratepayers of the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative through phone calls and door-to-door visits, I have realized that this campaign goes so far beyond stopping a coal plant. Of course at an estimated 110,000+ pounds daily of toxic emissions daily, this would be one big smokestack of doom for the Chesapeake watershed. But this is not simply an environmental issue disguised as a transparency/accountability issue to involve co-op members that are not necessarily eco-minded.

Our educating co-op members really is empowering people.

Canvassing yesterday I heard from several member-owners that they

$6 Billion Coal Plant?!

This blog post is written by Stephanie, a CCAN fellow reporting from Fredericksburg, where CCAN has just opened a new office to educate local electric co-op members that they have a say in whether the $6 billion coal plant that’s been proposed for the Hampton Roads area of VA goes forward. Throughout the summer, our fellows will be writing posts on our progress.

Since starting two weeks ago I have learned a lot about the proposed coal plant and all of the devastation it would cause to the sensitive Chesapeake Bay ecosystems, many of them already struggling. As well as the more immediate effects it would have on the people of the electric co-ops who would necessarily see an increase in rates, one that as I have heard could break some of these families or older couples already experiencing tough times in this economy. What’s more, even if they are not in such dire financial straits, they are going to be paying for this $6 billion plant whether they support it or not and most of them have never even heard of it! One of the most motivating things about the campaign (in addition to the purely environmental) is finding out and then changing the fact that almost none of the co-op member-owners seem to have any clue about what kind of dirty energy their money is being invested in!

The most fun thing I’ve done on the job with CCAN is in

No Jobs but Yes to coal??

Last night the Dendron town council moved forward on permitting the Cypress Creek coal-fired power plant. Can’t say they really voted for it since the 3 council members against the plant abstained from voting. The Mayor decided that this was still considered a tie vote and cast the deciding vote in favor of re-zoning the land. Legal experts feel that this highly unusual so we shall see what happens on that front.

During that meeting, an economic analysis was publicly released for the first time. The analysis estimates that during the height of construction, only 3 Dendron residents would be employed to build the plant and only 14% of those temporary construction jobs would go to Surry County residents. Even fewer locals would be permanently employed if the plant is built due to the highly specific skills required for the jobs needed. You have to wonder how half of the Town Council and the Mayor could still vote in favor of such a destructive project with so few jobs coming to the local community.

Nevertheless, coal plant opponents are winning. You may be scratching your head wondering how I came to that conclusion, so let me tell you. ODEC submitted its applications for this project to DEQ in December 2008. A year and 3 months later they are just now getting the local permits so that that application can begin moving forward. What should have been the easiest part of this lengthy process for them took over a year. ODEC should be wondering if this is how long the EASIEST part is going to take, how long will the more in-depth applications take? Only time will tell, but we will be there along with thousands of other Virginians to stop this plant in its tracks. They may have won this battle but we prolonged it and we WILL win the war!