Virginia's a coal, state, right? After all, we get an entire fifty percent of our power from coal. How could we possibly hope to have a mandatory renewable energy standard as Chap Peterson proposed last General Assembly session? Does that treehugger want to destroy Virginia's economy?
But the pro-coal forces are strangely silent when the House in Kansas, which gets more than 70% of its power from coal, fails to override the governor's veto of a plan to build two new dirty coal plants. Also this week, Ohio, which gets an incredible 87% of its power from coal, set a mandatory renewable energy standard of 12.5% by 2025.
Note that these states aren't shutting down all their existing coal-fired power plants, as Gov. Kaine implies environmentalists want when he repeatedly says, "We are not going to eliminate coal," creating a false choice. Kansas and Ohio are just taking the first sensible steps towards a clean energy future.
Of course, when you look at this graph of plummeting Virginia coal production, you have to wonder ... exactly whose coal is it we're staying hooked on?