Mark Warner clearly "gets it" when it comes to energy. Take this headline: "Warner: Everything Depends On Energy" and this subhheader, "Ex-Governor: Nation's Future Requires A Change Of Policy." Or how about these comments (bolding added for emphasis)?
"Security, jobs and wealth, spending, Iraq: All these things are connected to finding alternative energy," Warner, a Democrat, told students gathered at James Madison University."If we don't fix these issues, America's standing in the world will dramatically change."
Or how about this?
...the one [area] in which he sees the greatest opportunity [for entrepreneurial success] is alternative energy."It's in the intersection between energy, global warming and jobs," he said. "It could be as big a driver of the economy as telecom and IT have been. You could argue those jump-started our economy during the 1990s. We're at the same point in time in alternative energy."
Or this?
Speaking of energy and global warming, Gov. Warner said, "I come late to this issue. As governor, I should have done more. But I now have all the passion of the newly converted."He described the topic of energy as "a moral issue; a security issue; a jobs issue," and said that in his travels across the United States, the topic of energy receives more response than even Iraq does. He said energy isn't just an environmental issue, it is a patriotism issue, and that there is an opportunity for Virginia and the U.S. to take leadership roles.
He said we need to grapple with energy as citizens, with our votes; as consumers; as shareholders; and as students and staff at the university. H said we are going to have to take a "portfolio approach" - conservation, nuclear, a host of new ideas. "This is something we can act on and solve," he said, adding that it is going to take all of us, making daily decisions, to achieve those solutions.
Speaking critically of current policies, the Governor noted that the U.S. is the biggest contributor to global warming. He said our failure to act gives rising economies reason to step back from their own responsibilities. He also said the U.S. continues to buy oil "from people who don't like us," and stated that in sending $250 billion a year to countries that want to destabilize America, we are funding both sides of the war on terror.
I couldn't have said it better myself. This is just one reason, a big one, why I'm so enthusiastically supporting Mark Warner for U.S. Senate this year. You think Jim Gilmore understands this stuff? better than Mark Warner does? If so, please go ahead and vote for Mr. "No Car Tax." If not, Mark Warner's your candidate.
I am very thankful Mark Warner feels so strongly about alternative energy, and hope he sees the need to IMMEDIATELY block construction of the new MASSIVE coal plant being planned right here in Virginia (Wise County).
If he's so committed to this cause he'll go down to Richmond right now and use his influence (which is truly great) to ensure that instead of wasting money polluting the air and water, harming the health (both literal and economic) of SWVA, and warming our climate, Virginia should do what it does best: be the cutting edge of the technology our future needs.
This new coal plant is really annoying me, especially because I know it will succeed (it can't fail when EVERY politician - Republican and Democrat from the area puts 70 jobs above the health of their region and the world). I just read elevandoski's front page post. Shame on Senator Norment. He represents my school, and has always been good to Williamsburg and William & Mary, but the next time I see him I will confront him on why a Tidewater moderate was sticking his nose into this affair (on the wrong side). Especially when his district (and my school) are shamefully powered by Dominion's Yorktown plant, the largest coal plant in the Commonwealth and second largest polluter in all of Virginia (after Chesterfield's oil plant).