Pending Termination
by Steve Haner
“I hope the General Assembly will reaffirm its confidence in localities to make these critical decisions on behalf of our residents.”
So said Richmond City Council member Katherine Jordan in opposition to pending legislation that would establish in law a right for Virginians to use natural gas and require localities that wish to close their own gas utilities to instead sell them.
The problem is, the council resolution Jordan sponsored back in September expressing the city’s desire to close the Richmond Gas Works does not just affect her “residents.” The 120,000 customers include homes and businesses in Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover counties.
The bill faces a key floor vote in the House of Delegates today and then again Monday. After months of silence, Jordan is the first Richmond leader to publicly speak about the bill, in this case to Virginia Mercury. This is also the first major story on the issue besides coverage here, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch remains missing in action on the story, a huge one for its readership.
Jordan further told the Mercury it was “concerning that there’s an effort to take away the agency of localities to regulate utilities for the benefit of public health, affordability and environmental sustainability.” Translation: The resolution was not just a virtue signal, but part of the plan.
It is time for sleepy Virginia voters to wake up to what the anti-fossil-fuel movement has in store for them. They want no use of natural gas or even propane in homes or businesses. They want no use of gasoline, diesel or even super-clean compressed natural gas in vehicles or power tools. And of course they want our power grid dependent on wind, solar and related batteries, with almost no reliable baseload.
The majority of people may indeed understand what is going on and support it. Polling indicates otherwise. But likely most have not focused on it because the discussion always pushes the deadlines to “by 2035” or even “by 2050.”
On the immediate question at hand, any doubt that Richmond City Council has the Richmond Gas Works in the crosshairs has been removed.
