Tag: Dominion

( – promoted by Dan Sullivan)

At an E-Coalition event last weekend one discussion centered on Environmental Injustice and addressed what are sometimes referred to as “sacrifice zones.” In 1994, then President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order No.12898 aimed at environmental justice in low-income and minority populations. Do the proposed natural gas pipelines violate that order?

From a Daily Kos article last February entitled, Racist Sacrifice Zones With XL Pipeline Are Grounds Alone for Rejecting Permit:

For years, low-income and minority areas have been targeted to benefit corporations. Many corporations have a history and pattern of locating energy and other projects in or near minority, Indian or low-income communities.

They force the burdens of projects designed (they say) to benefit society primarily on these targeted communities, which can thus create “sacrifice zones.”

The projects devastate the lives of the people in these zones by harming their culture, health, lives, lands, natural resources, wildlife, homes and/or quality of life. These people are marginalized by commodifying them. They are harmed in the name of the “greater good” of the dominant culture for the provision of energy and disposal of waste.

Beneficiaries of these zones are the corporations operating the projects for huge profits and the dominant culture society, who are provided energy to run their air conditioners or cars without suffering the extreme harms forced on the targeted community in the sacrifice zone.

The US Census Bureau’s color-coded Percent in Poverty map helps illustrate that both the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines have been placed in rural areas, many of which are stricken with high poverty rates, populated by low income families, and/or consist of minority communities. The contrast along the path of the proposed pipelines is telling:  

The E-Coalition’s Eco-Fest last Saturday was set up to offer West Virginians information on two 42″-pipelines which will dissect their communities. The first, Dominion’s proposed 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, begins in the Clarksburg, WV area traversing through Harrison, Lewis, Randolph, Upshur and Pocohontas Counties before reaching Virginia’s borders. A second pipeline begins in the area around Mobley, WV. The Mountain Valley Pipeline, is 330-miles and planned by EQT and NextEra Energy and will travel south through West Virginia, entering Virginia into Giles County, moving through Pulaski, Montgomery, Floyd, Franklin and finally Pittsylvania, where it will intersect with Transco’s Compressor Station 165 in Chatham.  

In West Virginia, energy companies have been allowed to devastate the environment with mountaintop coal removal and are now compounding the environmental issues with fracking in the Marcellus shale.  While the energy companies make off with millions, West Virginians are being stripped of their natural resources and its people left with black lung, and contaminated land, water and air.  The median household income in WV is $40,400, the average owner occupied home value of $97,300 is among the lowest in the region, and the state’s poverty rate sits at 17.6%.  The proposed ACP would further devalue the private property of West Virginians and fracture and degrade the Monongahala and George Washington National Forests.

Making its way from West Virginia into Virginia through Highland and Augusta Counties, the ACP, instead of traversing into Albemarle, Fluvanna and onto Cumberland County where poverty rates are lower and minority and low-income communities are more scarce, Dominion chose a route from Highland and Augusta into Nelson, Buckingham, Cumberland, Prince Edward and on toward the southeast.  A side-by-side comparison of neighboring counties shows a stark contrast in land and home values, poverty rates, population and basic standards of living.  For example, Albemarle’s population is 103,00 versus Nelson’s 14,789; African American population percentages 9.8% versus 12.9%; Median Household Income $67,797 vs. $48,888; Owner Occupied Home Values of $332,400 for Albemarle and $195,00 for Nelson with poverty rates of 8.9% in Albemarle versus Nelson’s 11.6%

An even more stark contrast is presented in comparing Fluvanna and Buckingham.  Fluvanna’s population is 25,977 with 15.5% of the population being African American.  In Buckingham, total population is 17,136 with 34.8% of the total population being African American.  Median household income rises to $71,181 in Fluvanna while Buckingham sits at $37,843. Owner occupied home values are within a few thousand of the state average in Fluvanna at  $234,700 versus Buckingham’s  home value sitting $117,500 and the poverty rates…Fluvanna’s 6.7% versus 24.7% in Buckingham County. These comparison’s hold true throughout the path of the pipeline. By moving one or two counties north of the proposed ACP route in Virginia, poverty rates, as well as low-income families and minority populations dwindle.  

The same types of comparisons can be found within county borders in the path of the ACP. In Nelson, the proposed ACP route steers clear of all of the properties located within Wintergreen Resort, whether on the mountain or those located in Stoney Creek in Rockfish Valley. Instead the proposed route goes through farms, forest lands, and very near low-income communities or through family-owned businesses where family members have spent their entire lives working to build successful businesses. In an effort to bypass a tract of land in a conservation district, Dominion moved the proposed path of the ACP on to several small pieces of property of an acre or so, along Route 56 near Wingina.  Those small properties will mostly likely be condemned.  

The comparisons are being made, not to insinuate the ACP should be built in Albemarle or Fluvanna, or even within the confines of Wintergreen Resort.  They are presented here simply to illustrate the options available to Dominion and the choices Dominion’s company executives ultimately made.

As the path of the ACP moves into North Carolina, it becomes even more clear the choices being made at Dominion, as the proposed pipeline traverses communities with minority populations of 58% and 53% in Northampton and Halifax Counties with home values less than 50% of state averages, and with poverty rates well above state averages at 25.3%, 26.5%, and as high as 31.9% in Robeson County.

Here at home, in Virginia, approximately 550,000 or 6.6% of the population live in the 13 counties the proposed ACP will traverse, but 31.9% or 174,703 of those citizens are African American-a much higher rate than the statewide average of 19.7%.  Of the 550,000 human beings, 157,447 live in the 10 rural counties of Highland, Nelson, Buckingham, Prince Edward, Cumberland, Nottoway, Brunswick, Greensville, Dinwiddie and Southampton.  The average minority population across these 10 rural counties is 33.7% or 53,060 African Americans citizens, 14% higher than the statewide average.  The median household income average for these counties is $42,550, only 67% of the statewide average of $63,636.  The 10-county average for home values these citizens and their children live in is $143,400, just 57% of the $249,700 statewide marker.  The average poverty rate among the 10 rural counties is 17.6%, half again higher than the Commonwealth’s 11.1% poverty rate.

Most in the path of the ACP will receive no local benefit, but will suffer the fracturing, degradation and devaluation of their private property, our public lands, the environment, and their way of life.  Why would Dominion choose as its “best possible route” communities like Highland, Nelson, Buckingham, Prince Edward, Cumberland, Brunswick, Southampton, Nottoway, Greensville, and Dinwiddie?  Conjecture would lead one to believe nothing more than money.  It certainly would be more expensive to purchase the rights-of-way in counties like Albemarle, Fluvanna, or Goochland.  They, because of their standards of living, would also have many more resources to fight the path of the ACP were it located in those jurisdictions.

Many of the citizens in the 10 rural Virginia localities don’t have the wherewithal to hire lawyers to represent their best interests against a corporate giant like Dominion who has the backing of the Governor not only of Virginia, but of North Carolina and West Virginia!   Many of our citizens on the path of the ACP cannot afford to hire the appraisers required to determine the value of the property they will lose. In the end, the path chosen is easier, and much more profitable for Dominion.  Being the good neighbor Dominion is, it will force them to “sacrifice” their land, their homes, their way of life for the “greater good.”  

Note: After consternation regarding the use of the absolutely oxymoronic right-wing figure of speech “crazy environmentalist” in the letter below, the word crazy was removed and the text changed. However, comments that had already been posted lost their context following the changes, so I have restored the original. Here’s the bottom line: anyone who isn’t an environmentalist is the crazy. If you believe human behavior does not invite disaster then dip your toes in “Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed” by Jared Diamond or “The sixth extinction: an unnatural history” by Elizabeth Kolbert. – Dan Sullivan

Here is the 6th is our series, “We’re Rural, Not Stupid.”  In this letter, our contributor, Johnny Ponton, writes about Dominion’s legal goodwill contributions to our elected officials.  He hopes by contributing to this continuing series, our elected officials will begin to hear their constituents’ concerns and do the job they were elected to do…represent the people.

Johnny Ponton has lived in Nelson County all his life, with the exception of time he spent in North Carolina while attending college and during his service to our country in the military in the 1960’s.   He served on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors in the 1990’s.  He’s now retired, and builds tables in his woodworking shop in Lovingston.

Here’s Johnny’s letter:

I’m not a crazy environmentalist or tree hugger, but that is how the press likes to portray me.

I’m not going to physically assault or threaten anyone, but that is how Dominion wants you to see me.  

I’m not a left-wing liberal, but that’s how some in my party, as well as others would have you look at me.

Who am I?  I’ll be 70 years old in October, a native Nelsonian, a moderate, life-long Democrat.

Never before have I seen our elected leaders kowtow to big business as they are today.  

Terry McAuliffe shouts from the Commonwealth’s mansion about the energy super highway and ignores the people who elected him.  He chooses big business over those who will be directly affected by what he claims will give us new jobs and needed infrastructure.  

Mark Warner signed into law Virginia Code Section 56-49.01 in 2004 allowing natural gas company surveyors to “legally trespass” on any and every Virginian’s private property to find  “the best route” for its pipeline.  Interestingly, a Dominion rep at Nelson’s “Open House” told us Virginia is the only state of the five in which he has worked which gives Dominion this privilege.  This Dominion rep suggested we get our legislators to change the law.

Tim Kaine sits quietly in Washington, taking no stand, making no audible sound, being quiet as a mouse giving us no indication of his support of or opposition to Dominion’s proposed pipeline.

Creigh Deeds, while voting against Code Section 56-49.01 in 2004, now leaves his constituents to their own devices to fight it.

All of these men were elected by the voters to represent their best interests–their health, their safety and their welfare. VA Code Section 56-49.01 does not represent any of those laudable goals. . Additionally, this law, in my opinion, puts a cloud on the title of every piece of land and home in Virginia.  Why?  Because at any time, Dominion or another private company disguised as a “utility” could decide to choose “as the best route” to lay pipe through the counties of Handley, Clarke, Loudoun and Fairfax, instead of Highland, Augusta, Nelson, and Buckingham.  If you live in Virginia, I suggest you ask your elected officials how they feel about eminent domain and particularly Virginia Code Section 56-49.01.  

In taking land through eminent domain there was to be a benefit to the people who would be affected by the taking, by losing their property rights…local takings for local benefit…for a school, a highway.  No one, for many, many miles on this pipeline route will see any local benefit.  There will be no permanent jobs created in Nelson County.  We will not use this fracked natural gas.  We will, however, be faced with devalued property and some threat level of methane leaks, explosions and resultant fires in perpetuity.  

During Dominion’s dog and pony show earlier this summer, one of the things it used to show its “good neighbor” efforts was how much money it had donated to local charities in an effort to buy our goodwill.   If I remember correctly, in Nelson the figure was $35,000.  What Dominion didn’t tell us was how much it had donated to our state and federal legislators to purchase their goodwill.

According to the Virginia Public Access Project: Terry McAuliffe has received at least  $150,000; Mark Warner has received at least $155,000; Tim Kaine has received at least $88,000; and Creigh Deeds has received at least $107,000 from Dominion.

There is not doubt these contributions are all quite legal. They were received and duly recorded.  However, perhaps these contributions indicate why our government, and more precisely the gentlemen I mentioned, while elected by the people, are no longer representing them.  Instead they seem to be doing the bidding of big business to the detriment of those who voted for them. They are willing to sacrifice Virginia’s rural landscape, farms, and way of life to improve the bottom line of a for-profit, privately held corporation.  

To be sure, Dominion is very effective in applying its corporate contributions across the board, not only to Democrats, but to elected officials to all stripes.  Dominion has successfully and easily pushed ALEC written legislation through the Virginia General Assembly-most of the time to the detriment of the citizens of Virginia.  It seems these goodwill contributions have become the “Virginia Way.”

Our leaders hide from us, label us, and call us names while we do nothing more than ask them to do the right thing-to represent the people.  Perhaps we should use sign language to speak to them, because they certainly aren’t hearing us!

Johnny Ponton

Lovingston, VA

( – promoted by lowkell)

Here is the 5th in the series, “We’re Rural, Not Stupid.”  The photo included in this post [below the fold] of the mudslides in Nelson was included in this Washington Post article. The photo is part of a collection owned by Nelsonian, Dick Whitehead. Mr. Whitehead’s father, Bill Whitehead, was the sheriff in Nelson County in 1969 when the flood occurred.

Tamra Marshall lives in Nellysford, Virginia. Her family has a long history in the hills of Nelson County. Her Grandpa Jack Marshall worked with the Citizen Conservation Corps building the [Blue Ridge] Parkway, as locals refer to it, and many of the local roads during lean times. Tamra has strong opinions about Dominion’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline relating to the unmarked graves of those Nelsonian’s who lost their lives and were never found in the aftermath of Hurricane Camille.

Here is Tamra’s story:

I feel a connection to most who call this area home and feel a personal affront that some huge corporation wants to destroy our peaceful way of life and homes for the purpose of their bottom line. If this pipeline is so safe, why not use the already in place rights-of-way for the Interstate Highway System and run it beside that?

When I first heard of the pipeline possibly coming through these hills, I actually thought it was a joke. I mean, why would anyone want to destroy the beauty of this area? There was a discussion about the proposed pipeline outside of Wintergreen Hardware. The topic of our lost loved ones after the flood caused by Hurricane Camille in 1969 came up. After Camille, there were many whose remains were never found. I share a kinship either by blood or marriage to many of those lost, as do many in our little valley. I take this pipeline as an insult to the memory of those lives lost and those left behind.

With these facts in hand, Dominion should NOT be allowed to desecrate Nelson County. The Virginia Antiquities Act and General Cemetery Protection laws make it a felony to remove human remains from a grave without a court order or appropriate permit. Since sections of Nelson are effectively unmarked graveyards because of Camille, if Dominion insists upon moving forward, then they should have to foot the bill for comprehensive (and expensive) archaeological surveys and excavations for every single inch of land Camille touched to ensure that no unmarked burial grounds are disturbed. Anything less would not and should not be acceptable to ANY citizen of Virginia.

( – promoted by Dan Sullivan)

This is the third in our series of letters from Nelsonians relating their concerns about Dominion’s Atlantic Coast pipeline.

Marion Kanour is an involved and active member of the Nelson community.  She was born and raised in Norfolk, served in the US Marine Corps for 4 years as an Aviation Supply Officer and has been an ordained Episcopal Priest for 21 years.  Marion currently serves as the Priest of Grace Episcopal Church, Massie’s Mill, Nelson, VA.  She has a knack for seeing needs in our community and setting about to fill those needs.  As well as supporting many community groups (i.e, the renovation of a local baseball field), she has played an integral role in the creation of Nelson’s Domestic Violence Task Force, as well as being the organizer of one of Nelson’s anti-pipeline groups, Free Nelson.  She and her wife, Barbara Heyl, live in the Greenfield area of Nelson County.

Here’s Marion’s poignant letter:

We first bought our small 15 acre Nelson County farm in 2002, falling in love with the land and the people. Season after season, we continue to marvel at the beauty of where we now call home. The land is generous, allowing us to try our hand with dairy cows, beehives, laying hens and a rooster, as well as our organic gardens. All allow us the chance to provide much of our own food and connect us at a deeply satisfying level with the personal honesty homestead farming teaches…and requires. Working our land has created within us a sense of connection with place that we’ve not experienced in quite the same way anywhere else we’ve lived. We’re “come here’s” with an acquired sense of rootedness that goes well beyond simply being “residents of Nelson County.”

Words fall short of describing the sense of despair we felt when first we learned of the proposed pipeline. If you’ve worked on the land, have its dirt under your nails, if you’ve watched calves birthed, chicks hatched, crops thrive and fail, if you’ve wept at the beauty of the sunset and the sun-studded morning fog, then the proposed pipeline is a profane violation of all you know to be sacred.

Some folks have asked us why we’re so upset about the pipeline, saying once it’s in place, we’ll never know it’s there. We’ve spent twelve years attuning ourselves to the deep pulse of our land. What folly to suppose we’d overlook a 42″ pipeline buried in a shallow grave, forcing fracked gas at a rate of 1440 psi.

I’ll thank the proposed pipeline for two things: for reminding me of the strong will and fight bequeathed me by my Scots-Irish heritage and for connecting us one to another, as we stand together to oppose this would-be intruder. No Pipeline. It takes a village. We are the village.

Marion Kanour

Greenfield, VA

( – promoted by lowkell)

The second in a series of posts to Blue Virginia sharing letters from Nelsonians which outline their concerns, frustrations and determination to stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.  We hope from these letters, BV readers, our local, state and federal officials will begin to acknowledge and understand the validity of the arguments being made by residents of rural Nelson County. Our elected officials would allow a for-profit, privately held company, in this case Dominion Power, to encroach upon our lands and our way of life.  Nelsonians may live in a rural area, but are not stupid.  They are well-informed, knowledgeable and will not stop their efforts to shine a light on the issues that affect them.  Governor McAuliffe can hide in a restaurant rather than speak to protesters, some officials can vote against the best interests of their constituents, but Nelsonians are united in their fight.

Sherri Moyer Brooks and her husband, Nelson County Sheriff David Brooks are native Nelsonians and life-long Democrats.  Their property is in the path of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Sherri and David received one of the dreaded letters from Dominion Power “asking” for permission to survey their property,  which also outlined Dominion could do so without their permission.  David recently asked the Warner campaign to remove his name from a letter Senator Warner sent out listing Sheriff Brooks as having endorsed him, when David had not.  You may read that story here.

Here is Sherri’s letter:

Our home sits on land that has been in my husband’s family for three generations.  From the time George Brooks picked apples in what was part of Red Apple Orchard, he had a love for the land.  He later purchased a portion of the orchard which he and his family farmed.  My father-in-law, Billy Brooks, grew up on this land and farmed with his father for some years.  He built his home on the land which is now our home.  My husband, David, is now the caretaker of the land and his family’s heritage.

To be informed by Dominion Power it has plans to put a pipeline through our land whether we wish it or not has us saddened and anxious.  It is alarming to witness our elected government officials turn a deaf ear to the citizens of Nelson County and surrounding counties in the interests of big business.

A google search shows the contributions made by Dominion to politicians in both the Democratic and Republican parties.  If there is ever a time for Nelsonians to stand up and take back their power, it is now.  If not now, when?  Stand now to oppose the pipeline and stand in line to vote these politicians out.  They are not serving us well.

Sherri Moyer Brooks

Shipman, VA

( – promoted by lowkell)

Today I begin a series of posts to Blue Virginia sharing letters from Nelsonians which outline their concerns, frustrations and determination to stop the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.  We hope from these letters, BV readers, our local, state and federal officials will begin to acknowledge and understand the validity of the arguments being made by residents of rural Nelson County. Our elected officials would allow a for-profit, privately held company, in this case Dominion Power, to encroach upon our lands and our way of life.  Nelsonians may live in a rural area, but are not stupid.  They are well-informed, knowledgeable and will not stop their efforts to shine a light on the issues that affect them.  Governor McAuliffe can hide in a restaurant rather than speak to protesters, some officials can vote against the best interests of their constituents, but Nelsonians are united in their fight.

The letter below is from Susan McSwain, who worked for Nelson County for many years as our recycling guru.  Under her leadership our recycling program was built and operates today.  She describes herself as “A dismayed, lifelong Democrat who owns 500 acres of forest and pasture, who leases land to a hunt club (Mr. Warner professes to enjoy hunting), who has worked all my life to save this planet for future generations.  NO PIPELINE!!!    NO FRACKING!!!”  Susan’s letter begins with an email she sent to me regarding my resignation as chair of the Nelson Democratic Committee and continues with a letter she sent to Max at Senator Warner’s campaign office in Charlottesville.  

Sharon, I very much appreciated your reply, but it is alarming to hear that you are stepping down from the chair position due to your increasing level of disillusionment.  The reason I use the word “alarming” is that Robert and I have reached that point as well, and it is very, very depressing.  For the first time in my life, I have started to feel like our country has been sold to the highest bidder, and the bidders continue to get wealthier at the risk of the hard-working poor.  For crying out loud – no other developed nation leaves poor people to fend for themselves with no health care!

Below is a letter I sent yesterday to the Warner office in Charlottesville.  My letter may go into a “delete” file, but I am not the type of person to roll over and play dead – remaining silent is not an alternative for me.

Dear Max,  

Last week, I got a call from the Warner office in Charlottesville, asking if I would help in the Warner campaign for re-election this year.  I was on the call list due to the fact that in past years, my husband and I have helped sponsor Democratic fund-raising events in Nelson County.

I asked the person on the phone if he could tell me about Mr. Warner’s stand on the proposed Dominion Pipeline.  The person replied that he was only vaguely aware of the pipeline, but that he would find out and get back to me about Mr. Warner’s position on the topic.  I told the caller that before he contacted any more residents in Nelson County, he needed to know about the pipeline, and before I could commit to assisting in the Warner campaign, I needed an answer.  I have not heard back from the person who called.

The proposed pipeline has become a property rights issue that has united citizens from all political persuasions – Tea Party, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent.  When Mr. Warner was governor, he signed legislation to allow privileges and rights to companies like Dominion that trump the rights of private citizens.  This is not the “American Way.”  Money and corporate greed are increasingly dictating the way our country operates.  The laws need to be changed, and Mr. Warner is in a position to effect the required changes.

I realize that it is doubtful Mr. Warner has time to read a letter from me.  Since you are working for the re-election campaign, I am hoping that you will find a way to get the message to him.

This is a hot topic throughout Virginia, and it appears that the citizenry is at odds with the leaders at this point in time.  In fact, it is having an effect on Democratic voters.  Governor McAuliffe’s September 2 announcement of support for the pipeline created a firestorm among Democratic voters in my area that I have never before witnessed.  At least a dozen staunch Democrats who vote in every election have told me that they intend to boycott the polls in November.  They don’t see the point in supporting candidates who can’t be trusted.  While running for office, Mr. McAuliffe was against fracking, but many people feel that he allowed the $150,000 campaign contribution from Dominion to change his mind.  The pipeline is being built for one use – to transport fracked gas from the abused land belonging to our neighbors in West Virginia.

75% of the people in Nelson who received Dominion’s letters of request to survey their land for the pipeline, denied such permission.  If, as expected, Dominion files with the FERC for the pipeline and it is approved, the company can use eminent domain to take people’s property away from them in the form of a perpetual easement.  Dominion is a private, for-profit company with shareholders and a CEO whose salary is nearly half of the entire annual budget for all of Nelson County.  The people who will pay the price so that the company executives can make million dollar bonuses are not wealthy.  The median annual income for a household in Nelson County is $36,769.

Independent university studies are now showing that the rush to use fracked gas was initiated without adequate information.  Taking into account the massive environmental harm and the self-reported (and grossly under-reported) methane leaks, fracked gas creates 3 to 4 times the amount of greenhouse gases as coal.  There is nothing “natural” about this at all.  Not only is fracking actually speeding up Climate Change (the very thing it is supposed to reduce!), but our water resources are at risk.  Every single fracking site contaminates nearby water supplies, making water unusable for human consumption, agriculture, forests, and wildlife.  A huge amount of water is also required to test pipelines.  It has even been predicted that if fracking continues at the current pace, potable water could become one of the most expensive commodities in the future.  We cannot drink or breathe methane.

Please pass this message to Senator Warner.  Let him know that his constituents want to know if he will consider doing the right thing and take a position against both the pipeline and fracking.  Only fools refuse to ever change their mind or learn something new.  A moratorium should be called on fracking due to the long-term harm that this unsustainable practice will wreck on our people, our land, our environment.  Fracked natural gas is NOT safe, effective, or affordable.  The hope that it can be a “bridge” to buy time while renewable energy processes can be developed is a tragic myth.

Sincerely,

Susan McSwain

Shipman, VA

It would be nice to find one issue — just one! — on which Ken Cuccinelli puts the public interest ahead of his own political ambitions and the interests of his corporate donors.  Well, let’s just say — the search continues.

Here’s the latest: Dominion Virginia Power, starting to get the message that it’s time to clean up its act, even a little, has proposed a series of energy conservation programs that, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch “could save energy equivalent to the output of a midsize power plant.” Not having to build another power plant would save everyone a lot of money — money like the $1.8 billion Dominion is spending to build a coal-burning plant in Wise County — and reduce the growth of emissions in the state.  

So who could be against this great idea?  You guessed it.  When Dominion spoke before the State Corporation Commission last week in favor of its energy conservation plan, Cuccinelli’s office sent a paid consultant to testify against it:

Scott Norwood, an energy consultant to the state attorney general’s office, testified before the commission that “there will be little or no customer benefits from proposed (demand-side management) programs over the next 15 years.”

“Moreover, there is significant uncertainty in Dominion’s (demand-side management) program cost estimates,” Norwood said, “and the program savings estimates are similarly uncertain and overstated,” not accounting for recent decreases in natural gas costs and assuming future regulations on carbon emissions.

Wait a second — Cuccinelli’s office criticized Dominion for not taking into account “future regulations on carbon emissions” — the same sorts of regulations the man has devoted his life to preventing?  That’s…interesting.

If you want to know what’s really going on here, it’s not too hard to figure out.  As our Ayatollah General ramps up his campaign for governor, one of the first issues he’s signaled he will be demagoguing is electric utility rates.  But you can bet your SUV that our Cuccinelli won’t be attacking big corporations for electric rates — why bite the hand that feeds you?

No, I can tell you right now who the enemy will be revealed to be: THOSE EVIL ENVIRONMENTALISTS!  They want to raise your rates as part of a vast global conspiracy to steal your money and use it to create a totalitarian world government dedicated to infiltrating your precious bodily fluids!

So by opposing Dominion’s energy efficiency programs — and it’s not the first time his office has done so, by the way — Cuccinelli can say that he is fighting against rate increases proposed by the evil environmentalists.  Except that, as usual, his extreme right wing politics make for terrible policy.  

Dominion’s “demand side management” or energy conservation measures would require a short-term investment of $53 million, adding $1.10 a month to the average resident’s electric bill — but save the cost of having to build future plants like the one in Wise County, which added about $1.84 per month to customer’s bills.  It’s called “pay now, or pay more later” — also known as investing wisely rather stupidly.

So once again, Cuccinelli scores cheap political points at the expense of helping people and the planet.  Oh, well, at least the guy’s consistent…