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Stunning Atlantic Coast Pipeline Book, “Gaslight,” Is Best Ever Written About Communities Fighting Fossil Fuel Goliaths

By
Blue Virginia
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2

by Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. His newest book about climate change, The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2025

Review of Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America’s Energy Future. Island Press, 346 pp. $30

I’ve read lots of books about communities fighting the abuses of fossil fuel companies, but Jonathan Mingle’s new book is the best I’ve ever read — Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America’s Energy Future. This is a masterwork, hands down, and one that every American concerned about climate change and corporate excesses should read right now.

The pipeline in Gaslight is not just any pipeline. It’s the 600-mile-long, $8 billion dollar Atlantic Coast Pipeline that Dominion Energy proposed in 2014 to run through West Virginia and Virginia. And the story of how that methane superhighway was defeated over a 6-year battle turns out, in Mingle’s hands, to be an unputdownable combination of tense courtroom drama and heroic land-owner resistance. It’s a masterfully written primer on how Goliath can fall hard in the face of never-say-die community organizing with a focus on human and ecological justice.

Full disclosure: My nonprofit was one of scores of groups that fought the ACP over a half-dozen years until Dominion cancelled it in 2020. So I approached Mingle’s book with the view that I already knew pretty much everything about this story. But holy cow was I wrong. Mingle guides the reader from the kitchen tables of resistant Appalachian farmers all the way to the US Supreme Court. The writing could not be more vivid and the reporting more ambitious. I blissfully lost a whole weekend to this book, abandoning chores and skipping church so I could turn the next page – even though I knew the ultimate outcome.

Mingle traces this fight to the discovery in the mid 1700s of methane bubbling up through seeps in present-day West Virginia. He describes the subsequent greed and sloppiness of Dominion to get that gas to market 250 years later with a radical pipeline design traversing the most arduous mountain route of any pipeline in world. He describes the heroic efforts of career regulators at the US Forest Service who were ultimately overwhelmed and silenced by the combined forces of reckless investors, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the pro-pipeline staff at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and a host of corrupt Trump Administration officials. He describes the saving grace of a federal court system where facts still mattered, with the Fourth Circuit Court in Richmond insisting on regulatory integrity in ways that ultimately delayed the pipeline as activists on the ground continued to build momentum and Wall Street grew weary of cost overruns and missed deadlines.

But the book’s real strength comes from the people on the ground Mingle interviews. Their stories of resistance are laid out in a seemingly effortless, riveting way that makes the pages fly by: the ranchers and hotel owners along the pipeline route, the nature lovers and low-income retirees, the indigenous families whose roots go back centuries. They are — in the mountain parlance — the “from heres” and “come heres” who banded together to stop Dominion. Naturalist Rick Webb of Highland County, Virginia postponed a retirement of trout fishing to devote himself fully to stopping the pipeline, forming the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition. Webb accurately captures the up-from-the-ground resistance movement across the region by saying, “Everybody thinks the fight against the ACP began around their kitchen table.”

Mingle points out that, in the end, the victory over Dominion was so close that the absence of any one protestor, any one kitchen table, could have led to the pipeline’s construction. Among the seemingly endless cast of pipeline heroes, a few stand out: Greg Buppert, the senior lawyer at the Southern Environmental Law Center; Ernie Reed, the grandfatherly leader of the group Wild Virginia; Nancy Sorrells, community organizer extraordinaire in Augusta County, and the tireless Fenton family whose rustic hotel on the edge of the Appalachian Trail led to the lawsuit delay that put a final nail in the ACP coffin.

And then there’s gadfly Vicki Wheaton of Nelson County who asked Dominion officials early on if they truly understood the extreme rain the mountainous county was historically prone to. Astonishingly, the remnants of Hurricane Camille in 1969 killed nearly one percent of the county’s human population through floods and landslides. Now, with intensified precipitation from climate change, critics like Wheaton wondered not only if Dominion could keep its pipeline on each mountain, but “if it could keep the mountain on the mountain.”

Gaslight’s only real flaw is underplaying the huge role Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe played in promoting the pipeline. As Dominion’s nefarious cheerleader-in-chief, McAuliffe whipped Wall Street into a frenzy early on and bullied many statewide green groups into silence over the pipeline. (The governor’s environmental harms also included supporting Dominion’s plans to dump coal ash in rivers and weaken Obama-era climate rules). But McAuliffe, like the pipeline, was ultimately cancelled, punished by voters when he ran for re-election in 2021.

Few environmental victories in American history involve as much drama and high-stakes consequences as the win over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Now, in Gaslight, that victory has an instant-classic book worthy of the story.

 

Memorial Day 2024 News: “World leaders condemn Israeli strike after 45 are reported killed in Rafah tent camp”; “What To Expect As Trump’s Criminal Trial Nears Its End”; “Virginia solar projects stall after Dominion Energy required pricey upgrades”; “Bill and Hillary Clinton to headline Virginia fundraiser for Biden”

By
lowkell
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24

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Memorial Day 2024.

Sunday News: At West Point, “Biden urges ‘constant vigilance’ to maintain democracy”; “No Wannabe Dictators!” – Trump Booed by Libertarians; “As Trump trial hurtles towards verdict, are Americans paying attention?”; “For Levar Stoney, do more opponents mean more opportunities?”

By
lowkell
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10

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Sunday, May 26.

What Deporting 15 Million People Would Actually Look Like

By
kindler
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3

By Kindler

This time, we sure as hell better take Trump LITERALLY. When he says he intends to do something crazy as president, we need to let every voter out there know what his plans are and what they would mean in real life — to make sure he never gets the opportunity.

So when a journalist or analyst does a great job delving into all the implications of a stated Trump policy, we need to spread such work far and wide – as I’m doing today with Radley Balko’s superb piece, “Trump’s Deportation Army,” a well-researched effort to calculate what the Trump/Stephen Miller promise to deport 15 million allegedly undocumented immigrants would actually entail.

The answers Balko comes up with are stunning. Let me start with a few key points (most of which, as he explains in detail, are based on conservative estimates):

  • “15 million people [is] about the size of the three largest U.S. cities combined — New York, L.A., and Chicago — plus Pittsburgh.”
  • “The deportation army Miller and Trump want to assemble…would likely exceed the size of the U.S. Army itself.”
  • “According to the Center for Migration Studies, under Trump’s plan about 5.7 million U.S.-born, U.S. citizen children would lose one or both parents.”
  • “The pre-World War II Jewish population of Europe…was about 9 million. So just in terms of transporting people, we’re looking at an operation that would need to be two thirds larger than the Nazi transport of Jews during the Holocaust…”
  • “In 2017, ICE estimated that it cost an average of $10,854 to deport one person, or about $14,000 in today’s dollars. Under this calculation, Trump’s plan to deport 15 million people would cost about $210 billion, or about 14 percent more than the annual budget of the U.S. Army.”
  • “As of January, federal immigration courts were already working with a backlog of 3 million cases. Adding millions more cases would likely grind the system to a halt.”
  • “Miller and other immigration hawks are fond of citing the epithetically named ‘Operation Wetback’ as their model. This was the lawless, militaristic deportation program carried out by the Eisenhower administration. […] Historians have put the number of deportations [at around] 250,000 […] So even the notoriously brutal, civil-liberties trampling mass deportation that Miller and other immigration hawks recall so fondly only removed between 2 and 7 percent of the immigrants Trump wants to deport.”

In short, Trump and his cheerleaders are promising us an unimaginably disruptive, devastating, expensive, resource-intensive and epically cruel operation, which would impact people in every corner of the country and leave the kinds of wounds in our society and across the world that may never heal.

Yet the threat to deport 15 million human beings is too often reported as just another policy proposal, often with mealy-mouthed euphemisms like “dealing with our immigration problems.” Nope, sorry, that’s not acceptable – if anyone wants to have this discussion, let’s drag them through the reality of what this evil idea would actually encompass. And Balko’s piece should serve as a foundation for all future discussions of the topic.

Twisted Logistics

Some will say, “Oh, that’s just Trump spouting off” and that it’s a waste of time to take him seriously.  And it’s certainly true that he got very little done in his first term, thanks to his famously short attention span, the sheer incompetence of his administration and actual resistance he faced even among his own appointees.

But this time is different.  The would-be fascists are learning from their mistakes and making detailed plans to ensure they succeed this time, whatever the cost to all of us in lives, dollars and freedoms. The Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025 deserves to be read, studied and reported on extensively for its fiendishly detailed blueprint for upending American democracy and replacing it with something awful.

And nefarious Trump adviser Stephen Miller has been giving interviews that show he has been thinking very hard about how to achieve their unspeakable goals of Making America White Again.

As Balko spins through the twisted logic of this proposal:

“Trump’s deportation plan would mean identifying the undocumented people in virtually every decent sized city, town, and county in the United States, detaining those people in some regional facility, transporting them to a bus station or airport, then flying, walking, or driving them across the border.” […]

“Imagine the number of buses and [planes] you’d need, the number of holding facilities, and everything you’d need to staff and equip those facilities. You’d need security. You’d need medical staff and food services. You’d need bathroom and shower facilities. You’d need janitorial staff, bus drivers, and pilots.”

But rest assured, like Adolf Eichmann calmly working through the details of how to transport, contain and handle millions of Jews across a continent, Stephen Miller is thinking through all of these fine points.  Here’s a typically chilling excerpt from an interview he gave to Charlie Kirk:

“So you build these facilities where then you’re able to say, you know, hypothetically, three times a day are the flights back to Mexico. Two times a day are the flights back to the Northern Triangle, right. On Monday and Friday are the flights back to different African countries, right.”

“On Thursday and Sunday are the flights back to different Asian countries. So you create this efficiency by having these standing facilities where planes are moving off the runway constantly, probably military aircraft, some existing DHS assets. And that’s how you’re able to scale and achieve the efficiency.”

Efficiency. Yes, that’s precisely the principle you should be following when breaking down the door of a suspiciously ethnic-looking person so you can tear them away from their children and send them to a detainment camp in the desert somewhere. Just make sure you do it efficiently!

This is one of those cases where the devil – or a whole bunch of devils – is truly in the details.  Balko, to his credit, spares us none of those details.

Such as that a Trump administration would have to enlist both local police forces and National Guard troops in order to come anywhere near the manpower needed. But these people are so certifiably insane that they are actually talking about having red state National Guard soldiers invading blue states for this purpose – per Miller: ““And if you’re going to go into an unfriendly state like Maryland, well, there would just be Virginia doing the arrest in Maryland, right, very close, very nearby.”  (As a resident of increasingly blue Virginia, let me just say — dream on, bro!)

As for the issue of where do you put 15 million detained people, Balko cites a Ron Brownstein article in The Atlantic: “Brownstein consulted with experts who made the dystopian suggestion of housing immigrants in warehouses and abandoned shopping malls.” Yeah, might as well put that shuttered Macy’s to use…

Deportation, of course, will also require massive resources to send migrants to other countries — and those countries’ cooperation. Imagine how much that cooperation will break down, with enormous diplomatic consequences, when we start sending hundreds of thousands of people to them. Will airports become filled with homeless people with no country willing to accept them?

(Please check out my Substack!)

Suicidal Economics

You’ve probably figured out by now that all of this would tank the economy.  I’m not going to walk through Balko’s detailed estimates of the hundreds of billions of dollars needed to even come close to accomplishing this dirty work. But here are a few other economic consequences that he notes:

  • “Tens of thousands of mixed-status families would be plunged into poverty, as the average annual income of households with at least one undocumented family member would drop from $41,000 per year to $23,000. The plan would also put more than 1 million mortgages in jeopardy, destabilizing the housing market.”
  • “[Center-right think tank] AAF…estimated that [Trump’s 2017 immigration plan] would result in a 6.4 percent reduction in the labor pool, which over 20 years would result in a U.S. economy about 6 percent smaller than it otherwise would be, at a loss of $1.6 trillion…A more recent calculation of the 15 million deportation plan estimates that GDP would immediately drop by 1.4 percent, and by $4.7 trillion over the next 10 years.”
  • “If Trump manages even a fraction of his deportation goals, expect to see a more punishing surge in inflation, driven by an increase in the cost of groceries, services like childcare and elder care, and new home construction.”

I could keep going, but you get the idea. The whimpering “I’m going to vote Trump because inflation!” crowd needs a big-time wake-up call so that they face up to what’s going to happen when you make all that immigrant labor disappear.  It won’t be pretty.

Moral Stain

But Balko, again to his credit, makes it crystal clear that this is not simply an accounting exercise.  It’s ultimately about looking ourselves in the mirror and asking who we are as human beings and how much cruelty we are willing to inflict on our neighbors – or just as bad, to stand by and watch it happen. I will end with a few of his observations on the moral implications of Trump’s plans:

  • “…when you combine Miller’s plan and personal history with Trump’s recent rhetoric portraying immigrants as diseased ‘animals’ turned loose from foreign prisons and mental facilities who ‘poison the blood’ of the country…you could be forgiven for noticing that we’re accumulating the necessary ingredients of a genocide…At the very least, they’re creating the conditions for a mass humanitarian crisis.”
  • “The goal will be to deport as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and purge anyone who tries to slow it down. Sticklers for legal restrictions or basic human rights will be quickly dismissed. If it costs too much or becomes to impractical to house and transport detained immigrants humanely, they’ll do it inhumanely. If it costs too much to afford them basic due process rights, they’ll ignore due process. If the immigration courts are moving too slowly, or if there just aren’t enough of them, they’ll just go around the courts.”

Finally, regarding the following quote from Stephen Miller – “If President Trump is back in the Oval Office in January, this is going to commence immediately, and it will be joyous, and it will be wonderful, and it will be everything you want it to be” – Balko comments:

  • “That last line is really depraved. Opposing undocumented immigration is one thing. Finding joy and glee at armed enforcers pulling people from their homes, cramming them into camps, and dumping them off in countries they barely know is diabolical.”

The sheer. evil ugliness of what working to deport 15 million people would mean is a series of mental images that we need to spread far and wide. In fact, everything Balko outlines makes for extremely compelling imagery, closer to what we would see in a dystopian sci fi movie than the daily news.

But really, that’s the whole point. Democrats need to learn to stop communicating in dry technical PowerPoint bullets and start throwing in everybody’s faces the ugly reality of what a fascist, Trumpist GOP will mean to America if he is allowed back in power. Better to see it in dramatic re-enactments or CGI or even just graphic descriptions today than playing out in our neighborhoods for the next four years or more.

Please check out my Substack!

 

Saturday News: “Senate Democrats Ask John Roberts To Meet ‘As Soon As Possible’ Over Samuel Alito Mess”; “The odds, the stakes and the scariest media news I saw all week”; “Trump rants about ‘bookkeeping error’ in latest attack on hush money judge”; VA10 LWV Forum

By
lowkell
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18

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, May 25.

Video: “Friday Power Lunch” Features Democratic Candidates for Congress Across Virginia

By
lowkell
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8

See below for video from today’s Network NOVA “Friday Power Lunch.” Today was a chance to “meet these Virginia Democratic Congressional Candidates running in the June 18 primary”; each candidate got a “hot minute” to talk about themselves, so there wasn’t a chance to go into any detail or ask any questions, but still, at least you can see and hear the Democratic candidates for Congress from across Virginia in one relatively short sitting. Enjoy!

VA1 – Leslie Mehta (“I’m motivated by service. I’ve been a lawyer for over 20 years and I’m proud to have served as the former legal director of the ACLU of Virginia. I’m also a mom – a mom who lost her 5-year-old daughter to a severe and rare disease and then channeled that grief back into passing federal legislation co-sponsored by Representative Abigail Spanberger, who has now gone on to endorse my campaign”) and Herb Jones (“What makes me a champion of Democratic values are, #1, my values are freedom, democracy, truth and justice. I’ve demonstrated my commitment to these values…throughout my entire life through service…I’ve worn the uniform of the United States Army officer for 30 years; I’ve LED soldiers in peace and in war; I’m a disabled combat veteran; I was awarded the Bronze Star for my service in Iraq”)
VA2 – Missy Cotter Smasal (“I’m the candidate who will beat Jen Kiggans in November. I’m a Navy veteran; I served as a surface warfare officer during Operation Enduring Freedom…I am committed to protecting and defending our abortion and
reproductive rights, our voting rights and our democracy. I’m the DCCC Red-to-Blue candidate that signifies the campaigns that are key to a Democratic majority, and I was the first challenger in the country to earn Hakeem Jeffries’ personal endorsement I’m also endorsed by…the entire Virginia Congressional Democratic delegation”) and Jake Denton (“I’m a constitutional law and civil rights attorney. The day I decided to run for Congress was the day that I realized the Supreme Court was going to grant Donald Trump’s appeal that he’s above the law; this argument is a dagger at the heart of our constitution”)
VA5 – Gloria Witt (“I value faith and family, justice as well as community building. Three decades of corporate leadership experience, a small business owner and four decades of community service. What drives me – our rights and freedoms are under attack and I wanted to re-energize disappointed voters, particularly African-American men”)
VA6 – Ken Mitchell (“To me, integrity is what it’s all about; I believe that defending and keeping our democracy is based on the common shared belief that we must always choose to do the right thing for our country and for our fellow Americans. I know it’s not always easy to do the right thing, but right now it’s the most important thing that we can do in November – we must vote people with integrity and who are strong enough to do the right things when things get tough. We must reject those who do whatever it takes to stay in power. Our democracy depends upon it.”)
VA7 – Andrea Bailey (“I am running for [CD] 7 and my favorite word is servanthood with a little caveat of faith…what that means to me is taking a little girl from St Louis, Missouri raised by a single parent, but in a four-generation home who taught her
the value of voting, who taught her the value of good health care, who taught her the value of just fighting for your community no matter what. And so I bring that to the table as a veteran’s wife, 23 years in the Marine Corps serving nationally and internationally. And I’m running for this race to save our democracy, to bring back those servant entities with the Democratic strong arm to make sure that we are serving our community while we’re fighting for our democracy”); Margaret Franklin (“I am running because I understand the challenges that working families face. I grew up in a single-family household where my father raised my sister and I when my mother passed away from colon cancer. From there, I understood the challenges that he faced with regards to health care costs and so I’m pushing to reduce health  care costs, to expand access to healthcare, also focusing on education, public safety and of course women’s reproductive health. I’m running for this office because I have the experience from working on Capitol Hill for eight years in both the House and the Senate and also I’ve been effective on the local board…”); Elizabeth Guzman (“The very reason I got involved in politics was to defend our Democratic values when Republicans in Prince William County passed a racist policy targeting people like me and my family. I led the effort to repeal it and help flip the Board of Supervisors and the school board. The 2016 election of Donald Trump and his anti-immigrant rhetoric was a turning point. My son, born and raised in Virginia, feared we may have to leave our home. Seeing his fear ignited a fire in me to safeguard our freedoms. That is why I ran for delegate in 2017…I flipped a seat held by Republicans for 26 years by double digits. I introduced over a 100 bills in Richmond…”); Briana Sewell (“My word for our campaign is commitment – a commitment is a promise, and as your next congresswoman I am committed to supporting an assault weapons ban; I am committed to fighting for reproductive freedom; I’m committed to ensuring that our farmers and small businesses have the resources that they need and investing in an economy that works for all. And I am committed to protecting an environment and our open space. But most importantly I’m committed to listening to the needs and the desires of the seventh congressional district and representing the vision in Washington”); and Eugene Vindman (“I’m a husband, a father, a vet, an immigrant – my family came to this country, five of us, we had less than $800 in our pocket and I’m proud to say that now I’m living the American dream. I spent 25 years in the Army. I stood up to Donald Trump; I reported his corruption and that threat to democracy is not over yet. And so I’m fighting to preserve democracy, protect reproductive rights and get the politics out of the classroom. I’m proud to have been endorsed by The Washington Post recently and I’ve put together really a  humbling grassroots campaign. So I’ll pause there and reserve the remainder of my time for Memorial Day to remember those veterans that are not with us.”)
VA9 – Karen Baker (“My opponent has had seven terms and he’s done nothing for the district. My word today and my word every day is service – I gave 30 years of service to the federal government as a lawyer and a judge; I’ve given my time and my whole life to service, also as a nurse in a small rural hospital. What I want to do is share with my district that you can do something. There’s a lot of disappointed voters, a lot of voters who think that nothing will do any good. Of course they’ve had this man here for 14 years who’s done nothing. But I want to show them that I will work for them and we can do this, we can make change – and if we get out and vote we’ll do it.”)
VA10 – Jennifer Boysko (“I am someone who leads with my heart and with my values. I’ve been able to get a lot of stuff done – I’ve passed 62 bills in my time in the General Assembly and I do that without bullying other people, without manipulating people and without cutting deals…You know who I am…that’s what you get. And I will always work collaboratively with people, I’m the recognized champion on reproductive rights in the Senate”); Marion Devoe (“I am the barrier shielding the Virginia voters
from career politicians; I myself I’m not a career politician, I am a public servant and have been for over 30 years. I’m also the only real Vietnam combat veteran in this particular run. So I’m advocating for affordable housing, women reproductive rights, gun violence prevention…I’m running for Congress to make life better for all Americans, not just that 1%”); Eileen Filler Corn (“I’m running for Congress because now more than ever we need women on the front line defending our rights and our freedom…my mission has always been to protect our families. As the first woman to be Speaker, I took on Republicans, I led the charge to roll back extreme right-wing abortion restrictions, I protected our democracy, holding election deniers accountable. Now it’s time to take that fight to Congress, to codify Roe and protect our democracy. We need a leader with the courage and the knowhow to hit the ground running on day one, someone proven effective, tested and a leader like me – I believe I’m that candidate”), Dan Helmer (“…serving in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, I saw what happens when extremists trample on people’s rights, which is why after the attacks on January 6th, I wrote the bill to ban January 6 insurrectionist from serving in office. And when extreme Republicans sought to deny access to safe and legal abortion, I led the effort as our campaign’s chair to successfully flip the House for the first time in 60 years when the other party had the governor’s mansion…I am proud to be standing up to make sure we fight to protect ourselves against threats to our democracy, protect our rights against attacks by extremists, make sure we keep dangerous weapons off our streets”); Krystle Kaul (“I’m the only woman from Loudoun who’s running in this race. I am the daughter and granddaughter of Indian immigrant…I was a former director at the Department of Defense in the highest civilian rank, I broke a lot of barriers to get there. I work closely with Secretary Mattis, but I stepped down when I was under the Trump Administration and I saw MAGA extremism taking over and I am running to fight back against that…I’m a national security Democrat, I have spent my life protecting this country. I want to fight for reproductive health freedoms, having worked…gun safety having lived in conflict zones and fighting MAGA extremism”); Mark Leighton (“I’m a librarian, I am a longtime Democratic volunteer. Let me tell you about my ambition for this seat – I think the best politicians are the ones who are thought leaders, the ones who are pushing a policy agenda and that’s what I aspire to in this role…This is one of the most politically sophisticated districts in the country and I think we should be a thought leader and we should elect somebody like that”); Michelle Maldonado (“These unprecedented attacks on reproductive rights, contraceptive care, voting rights, DEI, affirmative action, our environment, all of those things are unacceptable. And we have fires all around the world – the Middle East, the genocide in Sudan, Haiti; we need people who can day one come and help bring skill sets that navigate polarized places and bring people together, have extreme and deep technical experience which I do through the AI and the new and emerging technologies…This is a moment in time where we need people who understand this 360 to help our nation and our people”); Travis Nembhard (“…son of two Jamaican immigrants…I’m running to build pipeline for the next generation of leaders. I bring a broad swath of experience despite being the youngest candidate in the race – a former judge, former financial regulator, former legislative counsel, Assistant Attorney General and working on various civil rights matters as well…I have experience running last year in a House of Delegates race; thanks to many of you on this call and your support there, we had outperformed  expectations…we’re going to need someone who can inspire the Black community”); David Reid (“I decided that I owed something back to the nation that had given me so much; that’s why I joined the Navy in 1988, why I ran for delegate in 2017 and why I’m now running for Congress in 2024. All of those life experiences inform who I am as a person and who I am as a delegate”)
VA11 – Gerry Connolly (“I’ve been a leader in Congress making sure that the Ukrainian people have the resources they need to fight depraved Russian aggression…standing up for free people around the world is a core value of our party and indeed what makes us Americans, and we can’t give into to those who offer false choice between securing essential services for our constituents or standing up for Ukrainians – we can and must do both…I’m the only candidate in this race with a clear record of fighting for women’s reproductive rights, gun control. recruiting and electing scores of Democratic women here in Virginia, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and standing up to Donald Trump. I was proud to share my experience on January 6 right here with you on this forum just days after the tragedy, and I’m proud to have been one of the architects of turning two of Virginia’s largest localities blue. And I’m proud to have been named the most effective member of Congress by the Center for Effective Lawmaking…”)

The Democratic candidates who weren’t there today include: Gary Terry in VA05; Carl Bedell and Clifford Heinzer in VA07; Atif Qarni, Adrian Pokharel and Suhas Subramanyam in VA10; Ahsan Nasar in VA11.

20-Year Navy Veteran Charley Conrad: Memorial Day Is a Reminder to Fight for Democracy and the Right to Vote

By
Blue Virginia
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6

by Charley Conrad, 20-Year Navy Veteran

As a twenty-year Navy veteran, I have had the honor of serving our country on five different ships, and defending the ideals that strengthen our democracy. I have witnessed the sacrifices that so many Virginians have made in the name of freedom.  Those Veterans and Military Family members know the pain of long-term separations.

I watched my son serving in the Navy sail off to war.  That sinking feeling in my heart as he sailed away cannot be explained, but Veterans and Military Family members know that feeling all too well.   And throughout my Navy service, the values of integrity and duty guided my actions.

These values are not just encapsulated in our military; they permeate through the spirit of all Virginians, forming the bedrock of our most important civic duties, including voting.

Unfortunately, these values are threatened by restrictive voting laws, dark money, and power-hungry politicians who place their own interests over those of the electorate. Simply put, those pushing anti-democratic practices are not acting in good faith; they are traitors to the values we hold dear.

As we approach the Memorial Day holiday, I remember my Dad, a World War II Army Air Corp Veteran.  His plane was shot down and he ended up a prisoner of war.   It is not only a time to reflect on his values and our values — it is also a time to act on them – realigning our democracy with what it ought to be.  My Dad was fiercely patriotic and loved this country and always voted. He instilled the importance of voting in my sister and me.

Thankfully, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are vehicles through which we can protect our Democracy and the right to vote.  Both Acts are currently on the docket in Congress.

The Freedom to Vote Act addresses threats to our democracy head-on, ensuring that every American can register to vote and cast their ballot free from undue influence. The bill recognizes the diverse needs of our population, including service members stationed overseas and disabled veterans, and works to ensure these groups can carry out their civic duties. Provisions for early voting and voting by mail are not mere conveniences; they are essential measures that respect the responsibilities of American voters.

Likewise, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act empowers Virginians by extending all the resources needed to identify and fight back against suppressive voting practices. This legislation honors the legacy of those who have stood up for free, fair, and transparent elections, restoring provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and protecting the cornerstone of our democracy – civic participation.

In tandem, these bills work to hold our leaders accountable, reaffirming that our democracy is based in principle and serves the will of the people.

US Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine have played a pivotal role in advancing both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in Congress. Their commitment to these values reflects a deep understanding of what it truly means to fight for the interests of Virginians and not personal gain.

This Memorial Day we cannot be complacent. The right to vote, which too many Americans have fought and died for, is too precious to be eroded by partisanship or neglect. It is time we enshrine the crucial measures laid out in the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act as the law of the land.

 

Will Virginia’s Residential Solar Market Survive the Coming Year? Unfortunately, the VCEA Came with a Ticking Time Bomb.

By
Blue Virginia
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6

by Ivy Main, cross posted from Power for the People VA

When the Virginia Clean Economy Act became law in 2020, solar advocates celebrated. In addition to creating a framework for a transition to a zero carbon electricity sector by 2050, the VCEA and sister legislation known as Solar Freedom swept away multiple barriers to installing solar in Virginia. Among the new provisions were some that strengthened net metering, the program that allows residents, businesses and local governments who install solar onsite to be credited for excess electricity they feed back to the grid.

Currently, the law requires that customers of Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power be credited for the electricity they supply to the grid at the full retail rate for electricity. The credit is applied against the cost of the electricity they draw from the grid at night. The policy makes solar affordable and supports small businesses across Virginia.

However, the VCEA came with a ticking time bomb. It provided that in 2024 for Appalachian Power, and 2025 for Dominion, the State Corporation Commission would hold proceedings to determine the fate of net metering, and in particular the terms for compensating new net metering customers.

Well, it’s 2024, and the bomb just went off. On May 6, the SCC issued an order directing the two utilities to file their suggested changes. Appalachian’s proposal is due by September 2; Dominion’s is due by May 1, 2025. The SCC will establish a schedule for each case that will include provisions for the public and interested parties to participate.

There are two important protections to note. First, low-income customers will have their choice of installing solar under either the existing rules or the new ones. Second, customers who install solar panels and interconnect to the grid before the SCC issues its final order will continue to be covered by the existing provisions for retail net metering.

For anyone who’s been on the fence about installing solar, I can’t overstate the urgency of acting now. Nonprofits Solar United Neighbors and Solarize Virginia can help you get the best deal. Also check out the excellent advice and sample quotes from HR Climate Hub.

Make no mistake, utilities hate net metering and will destroy it if they can. The more customers who install solar, the less control the utility can exercise over them — and, even more critically, the less money the company makes for its shareholders from building new generation and transmission.

That’s not what our utilities tell legislators and the SCC, though. Instead, they promote a narrative that net metering customers impose extra costs on other ratepayers, creating a “cost shift.” The idea is that residents who go solar are making everyone else pay more of the costs of the grid while they themselves rake in money with their free electricity from the sun.

This argument has raged across the country for years. Utilities often argue that solar customers should be paid for their surplus electricity only the amount of money the utility would otherwise have had to spend to generate or buy that same amount of electricity from somewhere else. This “avoided cost” can be less than one-third of the retail rate for residential electricity. (The net metering changes would also affect commercial and non-profit properties, which pay a lower rate than residential – but still well above avoided cost.)

With a payback period of nine to 15 years in Virginia, residential solar is a reasonable investment with retail rate net metering, but it’s hardly a get-rich-quick scheme. Brandon Praileau, the Virginia program director for Solar United Neighbors, said in an email that lowering the net metering rate would eliminate the energy savings that homeowners see from solar today.

“It is the full retail 1:1 value of solar that allows solar to not be a boutique purchase that only fits a certain demographic but something that every homeowner can benefit from,” he noted.

Praileau added that the loss of net metering would also hit Virginia’s solar installers hard and lead to job losses, something I confirmed with industry members. Russ Edwards, president of Charlottesville-based Tiger Solar, says any devaluation of solar would have a “significantly adverse” impact on local companies like his that serve the residential market.

But the “cost shift” argument doesn’t actually depend on whether rooftop solar is affordable for customers or profitable for installers. The way utilities think about net metering, a homeowner could even lose money on solar and still be guilty of shifting the costs of maintaining the grid onto other customers.

Net metering supporters counter that rooftop solar provides valuable benefits to the grid and to other customers that the utilities overlook, like relieving grid congestion and lessening the need for utility investments in new generation and transmission. Solar also has larger societal benefits like increased energy security, local resilience, clean air and carbon reduction.

Over the years this dispute has spawned literally dozens of studies estimating the value of solar. A Michigan study found that rather than being subsidized by other ratepayers, residents who install solar actually subsidize their non-solar-owning neighbors. Closer to home, a Maryland study also concluded that distributed solar provided a value greater than the retail cost of energy.

But every state is different. California’s public utility commission recently slashed the net metering rate all the way down to a so-called avoided cost, in part because the huge growth of solar in the state has led to a power glut in the middle of the day. The residential solar market cratered as a result of the PUC’s action, with an estimated 17,000 jobs lost in the solar industry.

Virginia does not have California’s problem. With only about 6.5% of our electricity generated by solar and the world’s largest energy storage facility in the form of Bath County’s pumped hydro plant, rooftop solar still helps Virginia utilities meet peak demand. We also face a skyrocketing demand for electricity from data centers, which militates in favor of all the clean energy we can generate.

Ten years ago, Virginia set out to do a study on the value of solar, led by the Department of Environmental Quality. Unfortunately, our utilities pulled out when they didn’t like what they were seeing, so the study never progressed beyond a framing of the issues.

Since then, Dominion and APCo have often repeated the “cost shift” narrative but have never backed it up with evidence. Their efforts have had some effect with legislators, most recently with passage of a bill instructing the SCC to “make all reasonable efforts to ensure that the net energy metering program does not result in unreasonable cost-shifting to nonparticipating electric utility customers.”

But of course, that simply begs the question of whether a cost shift is actually occurring. Under the VCEA, the SCC will now have to “evaluate and establish” the amount a net metering customer should pay for “the cost of using the utility’s infrastructure,” and the amount the utility should compensate the customer for the “total benefits” the customer’s solar panels provide. The SCC is also instructed to evaluate and establish the “direct and indirect economic impact of net metering” and consider “any other information the Commission deems relevant.”

Presumably, this other information should include the state’s energy policy. The policy specifically supports distributed solar, including “enhancing the ability of private property owners to generate their own renewable energy for their own personal use from renewable energy sources on their property.”

The SCC will now have to navigate these opposing positions in what are certain to be contentious proceedings. Meanwhile, residents and businesses would be well advised to get their solar panels up this year.

This article was originally published in the Virginia Mercury on May 21, 2024.

Video: New Robert De Niro-Narrated Ad, “Snapped,” Details Trump’s Unhinged Pursuit of Revenge and Retribution

By
lowkell
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2

From President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign:

New Robert De Niro-Narrated Ad Details Trump’s Unhinged Pursuit of Revenge and Retribution

Biden-Harris 2024 Launches “Snapped” Ahead of First General Election Debate Next Month

Today, Biden-Harris 2024 is launching a new ad highlighting Donald Trump’s increasingly unhinged and dangerous quest for power since he lost the 2020 election.

“Snapped,” narrated by legendary actor Robert De Niro, reminds voters of Trump’s tumultuous presidency, which was just the beginning of Trump’s decline into the unhinged, power-hungry candidate he is today – as the ad says, “[Trump] lost the 2020 election and snapped.”

After four years of chaos – from suggesting Americans inject themselves with bleach to tear-gassing peaceful protestors outside of the White House to appointing the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, taking women’s reproductive rights backward a half-century – Trump tried and failed to cling to power and is now running a campaign of revenge and retribution, promising to be a dictator on “day one,” saying he’ll “terminate” the Constitution, and threatening a “bloodbath” if he loses in November.

Part of Team Biden-Harris’ $14 million paid media buy for May, “Snapped” will go live today on general market television across battleground states and on national cable. The spot will also go live on digital platforms across battleground states starting today.

“Donald Trump is obsessed with his own revenge and retribution, claiming there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses and promising to be a dictator on ‘day one’ if he wins — even calling for the ‘termination’ of the Constitution,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden-Harris 2024 Campaign Manager. “This ad lays out the clear contrast voters will see a month from now when Trump stands on the debate stage next to Joe Biden: Trump is running to regain power for himself, Joe Biden is running to serve you, the American people.”

WATCH “SNAPPED” HERE

DE NIRO: From midnight tweets, to drinking bleach, to tear-gassing citizens, and staging a photo op. We knew Trump was out of control when he was president.

Then he lost the 2020 election – and snapped.

Desperately trying to hold onto power.

Now he’s running again. This time threatening to be a dictator. To terminate the Constitution.

TRUMP: “If I don’t get elected it’s gonna be a bloodbath.”

DE NIRO: Trump wants revenge.

And he’ll stop at nothing to get it.

BIDEN: I’m Joe Biden and I approve this message.

###

Paid for by Biden for President

Friday News: Far-Right SCOTUS Justices Continue Vicious “crusade against voting rights”; “Trump’s fascist talk is what’s ‘poisoning the blood of our country’”; “Trump’s Assassination Fantasy Has a Darker Purpose”; Cao “doubles down on ‘podunk’ comments” About Rural Virginia

By
lowkell
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8

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, May 24.

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