Dominion Virginia Coal Plants and the Mountaintop Removal Sites that Feed them
New Content:
Synapse Energy Associates study of the economic risks of the $6 billion coal plant proposed by Old Dominion Electric Cooperative. Click Here to download the full report. -.pdf/1.6mb/Released 4/27/2009/33 Pages
OR you can download the two page fact sheet which is shorter and less technical. Click here to download the Fact Sheet -.pdf/2 pages
Contents
1. Sign Up for Regular Updates
2. Learn About Your Legislators
Who they are, how they vote, who gives them campaign money.
3. Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy
- FULL COLOR PAMPHLET: “RePower Virginia” View>> (View Online Preview)
- FACT SHEET/TALKING POINTS: Energy Efficiency Talking Points View>>
- REPORT: “Energizing Virginia: Efficiency First,” prepared by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. View>>
- REPORT: “Economics of Efficiency,” prepared by Abt Associates. View>>
Pictures and maps of Mountaintop Removal, some showing socioeconomic status.
From extraction to burning, click here to get the A to Z on coals effects on land, air, water and people. Graphic courtesy of the Sierra Club.
Sign up for Regular Updates
The best resource is up to date information on what is happening and how you can help. Click here to sign up for the Wise Energy for Virginia e-mail list serve. We send only one e-mail per week at most.
Learn About Your Legislators
The Virginia Capitol Building in Richmond
Through our fall Wise Energy Tour, our coalition met with Virginians from all over the state and talked to them about the benefits of clean and efficient energy. We strongly believe in the power of democracy and encouraged all the Virginians we met with to form a relationship with their elected officials and educate them about energy issues. Although the tour is over, the following links and resources are provided so everyone can learn more about the legislators that make the decisions that affect our state.
Who is my Legislator?
Fill out the form and this Virginia government website will tell you who your state delegate and senator are.
How do they vote?
The Virginia League of Conservation Voters has tallied up all the votes on the environment that every legislator has ever made and rated them based on their votes to create an Environmental Scorecard. This is useful in knowing how to approach your legislator. There is a download-able .pdf as well as an online interactive scorecard that both provide a way for you to find out your legislators voting record.
Where do they get their money?
Our legislators take campaign money from a variety of private individuals, PACs and large corporations. Learn who they get their funds from by visiting the Virginia Public Access Project (a non partisan tracker of money in Virginia politics) where you can look at donations by industry, by delegate, company, party etc.
Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy in Virginia
Click here to see which energy efficiency bills Wise Energy for Virginia is supporting.
Full Color Pamphlet - RePower Virginia: Efficiency first for a Clean Energy Future
The Wise Energy Coalition has prepared a full color 12 page pamphlet that concisely makes the argument that efficiency and renewable energy are far better options than building more coal facilities, both environmentally and financially.
FACT SHEET- “Energy Efficiency Talking Points”
The Wise Energy Coalition has prepared a fact sheet about energy efficiency in Virginia. It contains essential information for talking to our elected officials or your friends about what is possible in Virginia.
Energy Efficiency and the ACEEE report
Energy efficiency is Virginia’s greatest untapped resource. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, “Energy efficiency is technology-based (unlike conservation which is rooted in behavior).” Click here for a brief explanation of energy efficiency and a current example of its practical use.
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) recently finished a report calculating Virginia’s energy efficiency potential. You can download the whole report below. Please note that the executive summary (short and easier to read than the whole report) is contained between pages iii and vi.
Economics of Coal and the Abt Report
The new report conducted by Abt Associates compared the economic effects of building Dominion Power’s Wise County coal plant with investing in energy efficiency measures that would meet the same electricity demand. The study finds that avoiding construction of the coal plant by investing in efficiency would save the average household in Dominion’s service territory between $52 and $91 per year in 2012. The benefits would be even greater if, as anticipated, the federal government enacts controls on global warming emissions.
The analysis was performed by Abt Associates, an independent, global research firm that works with clients including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and major U.S. corporations. The report found that investing in energy efficiency instead of building the Wise County coal plant to meet the same electricity demand would yield hundreds of millions of dollars more annually for the state and create at least 2,600 more jobs than the controversial 585-megawatt coal-fired power plant.
Mountaintop Removal
When communicating the devastating practice of mountaintop removal, where whole mountains are removed to expose coal, it can be hard to relate without a picture. Pictures of mountaintop removal sites in Virginia General information about mountaintop removal can be found at www.ilovemountains.org and you can find a short video that tells the story of the effect of Wise County’s mountaintop removal here. Click here to download a pdf map of Wise County, that shows the area strip mined. Click here to download a map of all the strip mining in SW Virginia Click Here to download a map that shows the relation of poverty to mountaintop removal.
Click Here to download a Google Earth image that shows from which mountaintop removal sites Dominion gets their coal.
