Today marks another very sad day for Virginia but, we haven’t had too many happy days since Bob McDonnell took office. Unfortunately, today’s victory for Bob McDonnell over women is par for the course of the last three years.
In 2009, Virginians voted for Bobs for Jobs because he avoided all discussion of social issues. He promised to put Virginia back to work by making us the energy capital of the east coast and investing in transportation. People bought that story and he won.
The following three years have been an abhorrent failure for Bob’s promises. Virginia has fallen further behind in the race to be the east coast energy leader, and we have mortgaged our future to accomplish nothing on transportation.
On energy, Bob claimed to support an all-of-the-above approach. It seems that all-of-the-above only meant to Bob McDonnell if I can get oil, coal and gas then I’ll consider solar, wind and efficiency. Since President Obama took action to protect the air we breathe from toxic pollution, Bob has chosen to blame the president for his failures.
See, Bob McDonnell could have invested in energy efficiency, solar power and wind power but chose to ignore these clean energy sources. Could this be because dirty energy wrote the checks that put him in office? Probably.
Bob could have launched the solar industry in this state if his administration would have worked with solar providers to allow non-profits and higher education facilities to sign power-purchase agreements with independent solar companies. He chose to sit that one out.
He could have harnessed the winds blowing in Virginia’s mountains or off our coasts by asking Dominion Virginia Power to meet the renewable portfolio standard with power actually produced in Virginia. Instead, he said wind is too expensive without looking at what the Commonwealth could do to control prices.
McDonnell could have made Virginia the nation’s leader in energy efficiency by investing in home weatherization programs in southside and southwest Virginia. When presented with this opportunity he said we just need more coal. Bob didn’t realize that if your losing heat out of your house because of poor insulation, leaky windows and out-of-date construction that it doesn’t matter how cheap the coal is you’re still going to use too much electricity.
And, that’s how we end up at the truth about Bob McDonnell. He’s a used car dealer. He’s the guy that sells you the lemon and hopes you’re dumb enough to buy from his again.
When it comes to making Virginia the east coast energy capital, Bob McDonnell has sold us a lemon. The question is will Virginia buy one of the lemons standing in line behind him?
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
