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Green
is Good
Virginia
needs a comprehensive plan to encourage
conservation and renewable energy. Here's what it
should look like.
The
environment has always been a top priority in our
family. It is a personal commitment all my family
members share, and it has shaped our public life. I
have been recycling long before there was curbside
pickup, and I worked hard as Governor L. Douglas
Wilder’s appointee to the Chesapeake Bay Local
Assistance Board to protect and improve the Bay.
Since 2000 we‘ve had solar cells on our house in
McLean, and we supplement that power source by
purchasing green energy[i]. One of
our family cars is a hybrid. Our house has Energy
Star appliances, and we use compact fluorescent
light bulbs wherever practical. My campaign uses
recycled paper. My husband invents and develops wind
power technology & gives renewable energy
presentations to schools, camps, & civic groups.
We
need a comprehensive environmental program in
Virginia, one that encourages conservation and the
development of renewable energy sources. By doing so
we can also spur economic development in
economically stressed areas of Virginia.
We
need:
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A
statewide conservation program for both the
public and private sectors. It has been
demonstrated that for every $1 invested in
conservation $3 of economic benefits are
returned. In most cases all that is necessary
is information. I would begin by calling for
the transition to Energy Star appliances and,
wherever practical, compact fluorescent light
bulbs in government buildings and schools.
-
Recycling
programs in all state agencies and public
schools, and purchase of recycled products by
state agencies and public schools. As
with conservation, recycling typically returns
about $3 in public benefit for every $1
invested. Every aluminum can recycled
saves enough energy to power a color TV 3
hours. One hundred percent post-consumer waste
recycled paper uses 43 percent less energy and
49 percent less water, and produces 36 percent
fewer greenhouse gas emissions, than
100-percent virgin paper.
-
Reform
of electricity rates and dissemination of information to encourage conservation and
relieve economic pressure on low income
families. Present residential utility rates
charge more per kwh for the first 800 kwh per
month. The rates should be prominently
listed on the bill, and should be
significantly lower for the first 500 kwh for
both distribution and production (the
“initial rate”), twice the initial rate
for the next 500 kwh, and four times the
initial rate for everything after 1000 kwh.[ii]
This tarriff has been proven to work. In
California, which has a similar plan, the
average resident (who has an equal or higher
standard of living than in Virginia) uses
about half the electricity a Virginia resident
uses. Virginians also use more than 10 percent
above the national average.
-
Significant
and mandatory goals for conservation and
renewable energy usage. The
deregulation bill that passed the legislature
sets only modest suggested goals for
conservation and renewable energy use. The
modest goals it does suggest [§56-585.2D],
not mandate, are five percent for conservation
and 12 percent for renewables by 2022. Compare
this to New York, where 25 percent of
electrical energy must be from renewables by
2013, or California, 33 percent by 2020. We
need a mandated renewable energy portfolio.
-
In
2004 Virginia utilities spent ZERO on energy
efficiency programs. In contrast Californians
spent $380 million on such programs, and New
Yorkers $147 million[iii].
The present deregulation bill also gives
utilities four times more “basis points”
if they construct coal or nuclear plants
compared to environmentally friendly landfill
gas, methane generator, biomass, wave, or
tidal plants, and twice as many basis points
as wind or solar facilities.
-
The
conversion of old tobacco and other depleted
crop lands in rural Virginia to growing
ethanol producing crops. The present use of
corn for making ethanol is not sustainable,
and extremely inefficient. Corn must be grown
on good soil, and even using the best
techniques we get an energy output only 1.2
times greater than the energy input.
Switchgrass, on the other hand, grows anywhere
(even on depleted tobacco soils), and with
reasonable practices we can get an energy
output five times the energy input. We can get
1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre from
switchgrass, with the residue used as biomass
in methane generators to produce electricity.
Small ethanol plants can be located in every
rural county in Virginia and can guarantee
purchase of switchgrass from farmers in the
county, increasing jobs while improving the
environment (ethanol burns cleaner than
gasoline) and reducing our dependence on
foreign oil.
-
Low
interest loans from the state to farmers and
feedlot operators throughout Virginia for
methane generators can greatly reduce water
and air pollution (including the global warming gases methane and carbon
dioxide). The methane generators can be hooked
up to the grid to provide electricity to
everyone at costs competitive with coal (and
with greatly enhanced environmental benefit)
in addition to supplying all the farmer’s or
feedlot operator’s energy needs. Methane
generators have been shown to be money makers
for dairy farmers throughout the country,
allowing the loans to be repaid with a low
default rate and no net cost to taxpayers.
--
April 2, 2007
Footnotes
[i]
Anyone can just go to www.powerchoice.com,
click on “electricity…green energy”, then on
“green energy”, then “residential”, and
the rest is self explanatory. You can buy
either 10, 51, or 100 percent “green energy”
(usually from landfill gas) or “wind energy”
(100 percent wind)
[ii]
For example, 4¢ per kwh for the 1st 500 kwh per
month, 8¢ for the next 500, and 16¢ for
everything over 1000 kwh per month.
[iii]
“Voltage Hogs”, baconsrebellion.com.
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