Fellow (Blue) Virginians and bloggers, did you know that Dominion Virginia Power is the largest non-party political contributor to Virginia’s candidates and committees? As such, Dominion has crafted energy policy in Virginia in its own image, an image that doesn’t always reflect the interests of all Virginians under Dominion’s umbrella. For instance, Dominion was awarded $76 million for meeting Virginia’s weak renewable energy standard while literally generating ZERO wind and solar power in Virginia. There is clearly little benefit to rewarding Dominion to buy renewable energy from outside of the commonwealth when the renewable energy standard was constructed to create renewable energy inside Virginia.
On top of that, Dominion executives plan to keep on developing fossil fuel power plants and ignoring renewable energy. According to the company’s 2011 Integrated Resource Plan, which looks 15 years into the future, they plan to still generate less than 3% renewable energy in 2026.
These are a few of the reasons why the Chesapeake Climate Action Network along with other environmental groups is holding a rally and a march outside of Dominion’s HQ in Richmond on March 24 at 12PM. On March 24, supporters of clean energy will meet at Kanawha Plaza to march around Dominion VA Power’s HQ and form a human chain. We will demand that Dominion invest in clean energy for VA’s future now. There will also be world-renown and Virginia-based environmental speakers such as Phil Radford of Greenpeace USA and Mike Tidwell of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) who will discuss the need for clean energy in Virginia, the role of corporate money in politics, and how Virginia can become the example for clean energy use and construction. If you support clean energy, now is the time to come out and show it. This will be the biggest environmental rally in Virginia’s history. I hope to see you all on March 24 and we can make history together!
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