The resolution was originally scheduled for a full council committee hearing at the beginning of February but it was postponed at the very last minute by, you guessed it, Mr. Pantele. The decision was so last minute that not even the sponsors of the resolution knew that it had been removed from the agenda until walking into the meeting. Pantele told me himself that everyone on council had been getting “a lot” of phone calls from constituents on this. Apparently the wishes of his constituents are irrelevant.
While we waited for the resolution to be rescheduled, Dominion representatives had time to meet with each member of City Council.
It was set for the Land Use, Housing, and Transportation Committee and conveniently scheduled for the same day as the DEQ public hearing on the Wise County power plant. If it hadn’t meant taking people away from the DEQ hearing, the room would have been packed full of clean energy supporters. Those in favor of the resolution were asked to speak first which meant we wouldn’t be able to rebut any of Dominion’s statements. Seven of us spoke in favor of the resolution, each focusing on how this plant will affect us in the City of Richmond and why the council should act. Then Dominion’s top lobbyist spoke. When he was done one of the resolution’s sponsors, Marty Jewell, stepped up to ask him some very good questions on pollution and climate change but no one else from council had anything to say to him.
For some reason, Bill Pantele was there. He is not on that committee. He has no vote, no voice on that committee. There was no reason for him to be there that night. Once all the regular debate on the resolution was over, he spoke. He ignored all our arguments and proceeded to tell us it’s not our business. He told us that the city doesn’t have jurisdiction, that we have the General Assembly and regulatory bodies for that. He told us that our city doesn’t have the right to speak up on this. Then he asked the committee to strike it and that’s exactly what they did. They did just as they were told without a second thought.
So now I’ve got some questions.
How to contact Bill Pantele:
Bill.pantele@richmondgov.com, bill@billpantele.com
PO Box 8, Richmond VA 23218
804-646-5460 Council office
804-646-6531 Council office voicemail
804-646-6041 Council office fax
804-646-6532 Council Liaison
crossposted from www.chesapeakeclimate.org
It's pathetic to see supposed environmentally friendly Democratic leaders wither at even the slightest efforts to actually protect the environment. If they can't even pass a resolution, how the hell are they going to pass anything that makes a difference?
I'm sorry we're now in this together - Richmond and Fairfax County. Both with lip service leaders letting Dominion lead the way. Way to go Bill Pantele and Gerry Connolly.
2. After line 121, enrolledinsert
4. That the third enactment clause of Chapter 933 of the 2007 Acts of Assembly is hereby repealed.
What's this, you ask? Well, it's an amendment recommended by Governor Kaine that apparently repeals this:
3. That it is in the public interest, and is consistent with the energy policy goals in 67-102The Commonwealth shall have a stated goal of reducing the consumption of electric energy by retail customers through the implementation of such programs by the year 2022 by an amount equal to ten percent of the amount of electric energy consumed by retail customers in 2006. The State Corporation Commission shall conduct a proceeding to (i) determine whether the ten percent electric energy consumption reduction goal can be achieved cost-effectively through the operation of such programs, and if not, determine the appropriate goal for the year 2022 relative to base year of 2006, (ii) identify the mix of programs that should be implemented in the Commonwealth to cost-effectively achieve the defined electric energy consumption reduction goal by 2022, including but not limited to demand side management, conservation, energy efficiency, load management, real-time pricing, and consumer education, (iii) develop a plan for the development and implementation of recommended programs, with incentives and alternative means of compliance to achieve such goals, (iv) determine the entity or entities that could most efficiently deploy and administer various elements of the plan, and (v) estimate the cost of attaining the energy consumption reduction goal. The Commission shall, on or before December 15, 2007, submit its findings and recommendations to the Governor and General Assembly, which shall include recommendations for any additional legislation necessary to implement the plan to meet the energy consumption reduction goal. In developing a plan to meet the goal, the Commission may consider providing for a public benefit fund and shall consider the fair and reasonable allocation by customer class of the incremental costs of meeting the goal that are recovered in accordance with subdivision A 5 b of 56-585.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Unless I'm totally missing something, this repeals a key conservation piece (10% efficiency gain) from last year's Dominion-written (and already extremely weak from an environmental perspective) reregulation bill.
That's right, WTF?!?