This is absolutely freakin' brilliant, and yet another great reason to elect Roemmelt to the House of Delegates. Bolding added for emphasis. Bruce, you rock!
Testimony of Bruce RoemmeltDelivered to the Commonwealth of Virginia
State Corporation Commission Hearing on August 10, 2007RE: the Application #PUE-2007-00031 of Dominion Resources to build a 500 Kilovolt power line
My name is Bruce Roemmelt and I live at 2666 Collins Court, in Prince William County. I'm also on the Board of Directors of the Bull Run Mountain Estates Civic Association.
A reading from Proverbs tells us, "Without vision, the people will perish."
I am here to oppose Dominion's power line proposal and talk about how a vision can help us through this. But I want to address my opposition to the proposal based on changing the dialogue from the perspective of impact if it is built, to rethinking the proposed actual need for these impacts to be addressed in the first place.
We should have new purpose - developing and implementing a vision of how we address our energy policies - which will lead to a very important outcome: it will determine how our children will evaluate the actions and decisions made as a result of this process.
We have chosen to be reactive when our energy production, transmission and usage paradigm should be proactive. Perhaps in some small way this entire controversy might finally spark our Commonwealth to lead the way to an energy policy with vision that does not just depend on consume - build, consume - build, consume - build and consume.Continuing our current paradigm will always find us behind and in real danger of perishing.
The obvious parallel to our lack of energy vision is the growth and transportation mess we have in our area. We have no vision to which we have demonstrated the courage to commit.
We currently have 50 thousand houses that can be built tomorrow in Prince William and Loudoun with no infrastructure improvements.
We need to be developing that vision and then be courageous in our implementation.
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, in his famous dissent with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, stated?
"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country."
We here in the Commonwealth need to summon that courage, especially in light of the tremendous power that Dominion Resources has gained in Richmond by showering thousands of campaign contribution dollars and fancy high-priced Redskins box seats on our politicians.
The issue should not be how we can minimize the proposed power line's impact on conservation easements, view shed, property rights, health risks, the incredible national parks that can never be replaced, the economic loss to those adjacent to the line, protection from terrorism, whether we can bury such a monstrosity using technology that has not yet been invented, and squandering energy produced from ever diminishing fuel sources, but how can we change our lives, just a little bit, to eliminate the need for this project.
Dominion wants us to focus on the issues that will raise their ugly heads after the line is approved. They and their supporters are playing a classic "whack a mole" game with us. Don't like proposed route A - ok we'll change to B (or C or D). Don't like overhead lines - perhaps we can bury them. It's the Feds, no, the State, no, local governments that are to blame - oh wait it's the consumers. And all the while Virginia has nearly the lowest investment in demand management of all the 50 states.
I want to focus on how we can avert the need for this project in the first place by making the most of existing energy saving technology and techniques.
I'm not here to dispute Dominion's estimated peak energy demand ten years out, but I will accept those reams of figures as one tool with which to work and build my argument against this proposal.
If Dominion states the peak demand is "X" and we reduce "X" by ten to fifteen percentage points in ten years we will have eliminated the need for this power line.
It is also disturbing to note in the 50 megabyte Dominion Application Appendix file on the SCC website, there is a BRIEF analysis of 12 alternatives to the 500 Kilovolt line BUT each one was rejected as a solution individually. There was NO analysis of one or more of these alternatives taken together to avert this environmental, cultural, and economic disaster.
My belief is that Dominion is probably elated with all of the band aids being proposed to deal with the project when again I state that the question should not be how do we best build the power line, but how can we avoid building the power line?
I am a retired fire fighter from Prince William County and over the 40 plus years I've been running into burning buildings and responding to auto accidents and heart attacks one lesson is more obvious that all the rest.
Prevention is the most important key to reducing risk and damage. Preventative health care leads to longer life and reduced time being sick. Fire prevention and automatic sprinklers reduce and often eliminate serious catastrophe.
We need to be courageous and develop a "prevention policy" now and be intrepid in its implementation.
Which brings me to the solutions that I have not invented - but which I fully support - that will take us to where we can live safely and happily in our communities.
The Piedmont Environmental Council has commissioned a study that has already been introduced into evidence at these hearings. The study, called Summit Blue, proposes several initiatives that will address the energy vision that we need to have in the Commonwealth.
Our political leaders need to use this comprehensive analysis and its recommendations as the blueprint for developing a state energy policy that will show dramatic results in two to three years.
Since you all have the entire report I will just hit the high points that will allow us to develop our energy vision and implement it. And the beauty of this proposal is that Dominion will be afforded excellent opportunities to maintain income levels even as power consumption is reduced.
Blue Summit examines at the demand side management alternatives previously dismissed by Dominion in their appendix.
o Residential and Commercial High-Efficiency Lighting Programs
o Residential HVAC Retrofit and Quality Installation Programs
o Residential and Commercial New Construction Programs
o Residential and Commercial High-Efficiency Appliance/Office Equipment Programs
o Commercial Data Center Efficiency Programs
It is also important to realize that each of these programs provides financial incentives and education to end-use customers to participate, AND in light of the re-regulation bills passed in the last General Assembly session, has the following inducements for Dominion:
* Provides incentives for utilities to find renewable forms of energy and establish demand-side management and conservation programs;
* Allows each utility to seek rate adjustment clauses to recover costs of FERC-approved demand response programs and costs of providing incentives for the utility to design and implement demand-side management programs; and
* Directs the SCC to "conduct a proceeding to establish goals for the amount of energy and demand to be reduced by the operation of demand side management, conservation, energy efficiency, and load management programs, and develop a plan for the development and implementation of recommended programs."
These opportunities, along with the Blue Summit recommendations will allow the Commonwealth to develop and implement an energy policy vision that will not only eliminate the need for this power line, but will put us in the forefront of energy management in the entire country.
It can be done. When my twenty year old heat pump went out I replaced it with an Energy Star certified unit that cut my electric consumption by 30%. I've installed several compact fluorescent bulbs and I turn stuff off when it's not being used. My coffeemaker even brews into a thermal, insulated carafe that requires no electricity whatsoever AND keeps my coffee hot four times longer.
An appropriate application of technology and technique will save us, and when we're at the top of the nation in energy conservation instead of the bottom, we will have done something significant not only for ourselves, but also for those that will follow us.
We cannot depend on the Federal government to solve these problems. The mess of national energy policy, immigration, health care and other issues calls out to us to build one of Justice Brandeis' laboratories that "try novel social and economic experiments".
I implore the SCC to listen to the people.
I urge the SCC to recommend the building of such a laboratory here in the Commonwealth.
I know we can find the courage to prevail.
Just listen to the passion and testimony given here already by my neighbors.
We need a vision for energy and we do not want to perish.
Bruce Roemmelt
Box 959
Haymarket, VA 20169
As I said, this is brilliant. I'd just add two more concepts: "net metering" and "decoupling." According to Wikipedia:
. Under net metering, a system owner receives retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity they generate. The ideal has your existing electricity meter spinning backwards, effectively banking excess electricity production for future credit.
Pretty cool, huh? It's a powerful concept, turning every home into a potential solar, wind, and energy efficiency power plant.
Now, "decoupling."
In public utility regulation, decoupling refers to the disassociation of a utility profit's from its sales of the energy commodity. Instead, a rate of return is aligned with meeting revenue targets, and rates are trued up or down to meet the target at the end of the adjustment period. This makes the utility indifferent to selling less product and improves the ability of energy efficiency and distributed generation to operate within the utility environment.
That's right, change the entire paradigm from one where Dominion makes more money generating more electricity from more dirty coal, to one where Dominion makes more money by encouraging conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable powerl. In other words, change the model from one which rewards Dominion for destroying the planet to one which rewards Dominion for PROTECTING the planet.
Why wouldn't we do these things? Is it lack of vision, or are too many of Virginia's elected officials more concerned with Dominion Power than with Planet Earth?
As the Tysons Corner Task Force sits with their magic pencils calculating high density for luxury housing a simple question should be asked: What will be the energy requirement and is it available?
But no, this is not a question of importance because Dominion stands at the starting line ready to build more power lines. I question how much Dominion stock is owned by Connolly and others who seems to be pushing for more density and more density.....all which will require more and more energy from Dominion.
Those little windmills that our tax dollars recently purchased will be a drop in the bucket for meeting the energy needs of the proposed density. A green roof on a building won't make a dent in the energy requirments either.
As Roemmelt said: That's right, change the entire paradigm from one where Dominion makes more money generating more electricity from more dirty coal, to one where Dominion makes more money by encouraging conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable power. In other words, change the model from one which rewards Dominion for destroying the planet to one which rewards Dominion for PROTECTING the planet.
Maybe there is a need to change out the greed machine that keeps calling for more and more energy sucking density.