While I was serving as chair of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (the state agency that holds open space easements) we came under political pressure to help an out-of-state foundation violate the terms of an easement in Virginia in order for the foundation to make millions of dollars. What the foundation lobbied for was in direct violation of the intent of its deceased benefactor who wanted to protect the land in perpetuity. Our citizen board stood firm and we patiently explained why we could not make an exception under state law and the language in the easement deed. The state's attorney general at that time, Jerry Kilgore, stood behind us and the political interference stopped.
The difference between then and now is that Governor Warner did not contact us directly by phone or otherwise and certainly he would not have done it by mail for the whole world to witness had he been so inclined. The contact we did receive from his office via his Secretary of the Commonwealth was more in the form of an inquiry rather than any thinly-veiled threat. We later proved bad faith on the part of the foundation (including lying to state officials and legislators) but if we had folded when pressured by others, the integrity of the state's entire open space easement program would have been threatened.
Likewise, if a governor can intimidate a citizen board to narrow its scope to something less than mandated by the federal law it is helping to enforce, then we best get ready for the environmental consequences. Many of Virginia's state agencies are already very weak on water quality control, logging and consumer protection. The good news is that our state's coal mining regulators have come from dead last in the nation to one of the most effective in the eastern United States. However, day in and day out, the Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Forestry are unabashedly and consistently on the side of business with mostly lip service being paid toward federal and state environmental law enforcement; at least that is the case here in far Southwest Virginia.
The state's gas and oil board is merely an appendage of industry as well. The assistant attorney general assigned to that body sits with industry counsel and intimidates the various unsophisticated landowners coming before them. It is something to behold.
Last year, when Governor Kaine re-appointed a water polluter twice cited by DEQ back to the state's water control board due to political connections it was a portent of things to come. Therefore, it is not a surprise to find out about the Governor's recent and well-timed letter to members of the air pollution control board.
Virginia hosts the most biologically diverse eco-system in continental North America (the Clinch River Valley, where the new power plant will reside) and many other natural jewels so it is ironic that even with these unique treasures our state leaders show lackluster concern for protecting them for future generations.
Of all the Virginia governors I have observed or dealt with regarding conservation issues over the past thirty years, I have not seen this kind of direct bullying by the state's chief executive officer in order to influence a pending permit decision. Kaine's assertion that his letter to the citizen board members of the Air Pollution Control Board has nothing to do with the permit decision in two weeks is nothing short of disingenuous, and that choice of words is being kind.
Reasonable people can differ about the need for the power plant, and many have done so vigorously, but citizen board members being strong-armed into following the Governor's viewpoint is not something Virginians should tolerate.