Yesterday Al Gore gave an historic speech saying that a switch to 100% clean electricity by 2018 is "achievable, affordable and transformative." Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr was there and Gore said he had held conversations with both Barack Obama and John McCain. Shortly after the speech, Sen. Obama seemed to pick up on Gore's challenge and released this statement:
"For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President. It's a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer."What does this have to do with Governor Kaine? A lot...
PLEASE COPY-PASTE THIS TO LIST SERVS YOU'RE ONBarack Obama, who officially supports strong action on global warming, is seriously considering one of the biggest pro-coal governors in America as his running mate. Democratic Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia has aggressively supported a huge new coal-burning power plant in Wise County, Virginia. With Kaine's constant public and governmental support, the plant's construction actually began in June 2008. With no capacity whatsoever to capture carbon, and with extremely high mercury emissions, the plant has drawn unprecedented public opposition and is now facing a court challenge from leading Virginia environmental groups. So dirty and controversial is this 585 megawatt coal plant that Washingtonian magazine last April named Gov. Kaine one of the ten biggest enemies of the environment in the D.C. region, calling him a "Dirty Rotten Scoundrel."
This is the man Barack Obama wants as VP? In an era of rapid global warming, Tim Kaine is ferociously pro-coal and he'll be pro-coal as next-in-line to the president. Yet Kaine's name is constantly in the news as a prominent member of Obama's short list.
EMAIL THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN HERE: http://my.barackobama.com/page...
OR GIVE THEM A CALL TO VOICE YOUR CONCERNS: (866) 675-2008
Then, join our group on change.org here: http://www.change.org/changes/...As a nation we are hurting from our dependence on dirty energy-energy that devastates the environment and dramatically increases global warming. As a nation, we can't afford to miss out on the world's next energy revolution. We need leaders who understand
the importance of putting dirty energy in our past and will lead the way to a clean energy revolution.Help us tell Obama that a pro-coal governor is NOT the right choice for America's next Vice President.
I don't think this has any impact on Kaine's chances for the slot. There is a vast difference from a policy speech and actual policy making. The energy policy likely to come out of the next Congress will most likely not achieve 100% by 2020 or even come close (look at our G8 partners and their success with the Kyoto Protocols =P). 100% means replacing 84,309 MW of nameplate generation capacity every year for 10 years. And it means shelving all of the natural gas and coal plants planned for the next 4 years. So, in addition to replacing existing capacity, the renewable energy sources would need to replace planned capacity additions as well. That's a tall order.
If you think about it, Mt.Storm and Chesterfield two of Dominion's largest coal plants have a capacity of over 2 GW. You're going to replace all of that in ten years and find the transmission capacity to get whatever renewable energy we're talking about to NoVA and Hampton Roads. What percentage of economic activity is that going to be? Are we going to have shift a massive amount of labor and capital in the economy to achieve this? Because the utilities have a limited workforce, they certainly aren't staffed to replace half their capacity in a 10 year time frame. Also, the utilities are already leveraged, so we are talking about adding a massive amount of new debt to their balance sheets. Unless the government is going to fund this through grants.