The Green Miles got a lot of emails after Wednesday's Virginia Commission on Climate Change in Williamsburg about some potentially shady testimony. It seems some energy company representatives used their testimony to cheerlead for the proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County and bash the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a Senate bill designed to cut national carbon emissions about 70% by 2050.
I spoke to a commissioner after the hearing, who assured me that attempts to change the subject weren't fooling anyone. He said the commission remains focused on solutions to climate change.
But serious questions have been raised about the commission's makeup. As one emailer told me, "With so many pro-development interests on the commission, it’s going to be a real challenge for this commission to come up with a strong recommendation that recognizes that change needs to be made."
Any questions about the commission should be of grave concern to Gov. Kaine. He's already taken a beating regionally and nationally for his refusal to take stronger climate action. Gov. Kaine has put every last chip of his environmental legacy on this commission's recommendations.
Two people who attended the hearing, both Virginia environmentalists, agreed to let me reprint their comments here:
The hearing took place at the College of William and Mary. Students who spoke up were uniformly concerned about their future and asked the commission to keep that in mind. A student asked why Dominion wants to invest so much money, $1.8 billion and growing, in the proposed Wise County coal-fired power plant, saying Dominion should be investing instead in alternative energy.It seemed that while the conservationists on the commission were outspoken, it appeared as though the business interests were working behind closed doors and discreetly encouraging their employees to testify. With so many pro-development interests on the commission, it’s going to be a real challenge for this commission to come up with a strong recommendation that recognizes that change needs to be made.
But the oddest part was the testimony on the proposed coal-fired power plant in Wise County. The governor tasked the commission to develop appropriate policies for Virginia to deal with global warming. Instead, pro-Wise plant forces are trying to use the commission hearings to support their coal plant. It’s ironic because no matter how efficient Dominion Virginia Power claims the plant will be, it’ll put 5.8 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year.
Global warming deniers were pushing their agenda as hard as they could, challenging even the basic premise of man-made climate change. Fortunately, they weren’t fooling anyone. As one flat-earther made his case in the public comment period, the audience openly laughed in derision. The very next commenter, an elderly man, said, “I’m throwing out what I’m going to say, and instead ask you not to fall into the trap that was just laid for you. Don’t reopen the science, focus on solutions.”
And this report from another environmentalist at the hearing:
It certainly didn’t surprise me to hear energy executives talking up the voluntary actions they had taken or were planning to take, and talking down some of the actions that some states have taken and with which they now have to deal.But wait … as the presentation wore on (and this was Paul Loeffelman from American Electric Power), he started to get into hypotheticals about emission allocation auctions, despite the fact that no one has an auction yet that AEP has to deal with, and it wasn’t something they were volunteering for. But there it is, down on slide 26.
The next slide gives it all away – two slides that take potshots at the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Now there is plenty left in the presentation, except Mr. Loeffelman was out of time and so ended by talking bad about Lieberman-Warner. The remainder of the online presentation (which we didn’t hear) is AEP’s wish list for climate change, including bad ideas like not auctioning the allocations and having the artificial price cap on carbon credits (called the “safety valve”).
Looking back at the agenda, it seems that this is pretty big liberty since they were invited to tell about experiences, not for them to lobby against the only piece of federal legislation that has any real hope of advancing the ball this session. Not only is talking about L-W beyond the scope of what they are supposed to be doing, but their models are biased and one sided.
All the commission members had to sit there and listen about how bad L-W will be, without any offsetting information, such as a discussion about the cost of doing nothing as shown here.
Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but it just seemed like a blatant attempt to turn State Climate Commission members against the only piece of federal legislation that has any chance of moving.
The commission's next meeting takes place on May 13th on the campus of George Mason University. Northern Virginia environmentalists need to make a strong showing in the public comment period to let the commission know we expect strong action on climate change!