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Virginia is itching for a PowerShift

So take Virginia, the old Commonwealth, the birthplace of some of the most esteemed leaders of American history: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and television’s the Waltons. Where are Virginia’s leaders now? On today’s political front, you have politicians such as potential VP candidate Governor Tim Kaine, a strong outspoken proponent of a new waste coal plant in Wise County Virginia and a dismal goal of 7% green house gas reductions by 2025. This is not even in the ball park of where scientists says we need to be. If that wasn’t enough, you have Rick Boucher in Virginia’s fightin’ 9th and one of Congress’s biggest champions of so called Clean Coal and the myth buster Carbon Capture and Sequestration technology. Granted there are some potential Clean Energy champions in the mix, but they need the loud uncompromising voice of the people in their ear demanding a clean and just energy future.

There’s an old story about Franklin D. Roosevelt that captures how the movement needs to think in terms of responsive leadership. A group of activists met with FDR in the Oval Office to urge his support for some liberal reform. After listening to their arguments, Roosevelt responded, “Okay, you’ve convinced me. Now go out and put pressure on me”

His point: Even a president can’t always act with ideal freedom. He too faces constraints–powerful leaders in Congress, bureaucratic resistance and inertia, opposition from state and local government leaders, potential roadblocks in the courts, and so on. Sometimes a president needs “pressure” in the form of a visible, well-organized, vocal, and articulate public movement to provide him with both political cover and supportive energy that permits him to do what he really wants to do anyways.

Student leaders from across Virginia are calling for exactly that, a PowerShift this October 10th - 12th at Virginia Tech. Noticing that the politicians of the Old Dominion aren’t quite where they need to be, the youth of today are excited, driven, and frankly a little pissed at the prospects being put on the table for their future. You saw it when they blockaded themselves to Dominion’s headquarters in calls of desperation and solidarity from a generation that will bear the load of a coal filled economy. Now they’ll show it with the largest mobilization of young people (apart from the Civil War) in Virginia’s history.

The plan:

1) Bring 1000 students from across the Commonwealth to Virginia Tech to be and hold the largest state summit on clean energy and youth activism. We need to be a LOT louder and where better to start then the cradle of coal country.

2) Get trained and inspired to take this movement on as our own for the taking.

3) Influence the major media: The Society of Environmental Journalists will be holding their annual conference three days after Virginia PowerShift. We will make sure they know what was accomplished!

Check out www.vapowershift.org and get more plugged in. There is a need for speakers, trainers, sponsors and great minds who can help make this thing a reality.

We Shut Down a Major Corporation On an Hour of Sleep and So Can You!

Published by tomowens, April 17th, 2008 global warming 5 Comments

Written by Willie Dodson of Blue Ridge Earth First!

This past Tuesday (April 15th) I was blessed by my creator and honored by my friends to participate in a blockade that shut down Dominion Power’s headquarters for close to two hours at the beginning of the work day. The action was taken by Blue Ridge Earth First!, a Virginia-based chapter of the decentralized global Earth First! movement. As supporters stood by holding signs and a large banner reading, “No Coal, No Compromise, Earth First!” three activists locked down to trashcans filled with concrete and blocked both lanes of the only road in and out of the office complex on the banks of the James River in Richmond. The blockade was the latest action in the campaign to stop Dominion’s proposed dirty coal power plant in Wise County Virginia.

Since announcing it’s plans for the dirty coal plant in 2006, a steady groundswell of citizen opposition has taken many forms from protests to petitions to a marathon 11-hour long hearing before the State Corporation Commission full of passionate challenges to the project. Several municipalities across the state even went so far as to pass resolutions through local government opposing the plant. Regulatory channels have slowed but so far haven’t stopped Dominion’s deadly agenda from moving forward. As our state law-makers’ inaction on the issue seems to be dictated by the $3.8 million they’ve accepted from Dominion in campaign contributions in the past eleven years, Blue Ridge Earth First! has chosen to take matters into our own hands and bring serious, strategic direct action into this movement.

CHECK OUT THE SICK VIDEO COVERAGE OF THE ACTION HERE Continue reading ‘We Shut Down a Major Corporation On an Hour of Sleep and So Can You!’

Dominion CEO Presented with Virginia Fossil Fool of the Year Award

Published by tomowens, April 2nd, 2008 Act Locally 3 Comments

About 30 Virginia citizens and students gathered outside of the Dominion Power building in Richmond, VA where a mock award ceremony was held to honor Dominion’s CEO, Tom Farrell, as the Virginia Fossil Fool of the year. The award committee decided to honor Tom Farrell because of Dominion’s plans to build a 585 megawatt coal plant in Wise County Virginia despite the fact that it would contribute heavily to global warming and mountaintop removal coal mining.As part of the mockery, characters representing the General Assembly, State Corporation Commission, Department of Environmental Quality, and a “Coal Baron” representing the coal industry, lauded Tom Farrell his achievements so far.

According to the Coal Baron, Mr. Farrell deserves the award, “for backing our calloused vision to look at the oldest mountains in the world with huge dollar signs in our eyes….[and] for his ability to dupe the General Assembly into thinking that if this coal plant isn’t built we will be plagued with rolling blackouts. We in the industry know that Virginia is last in energy efficiency in nearly every way…”

Continue reading ‘Dominion CEO Presented with Virginia Fossil Fool of the Year Award’

VA Students tell DEQ “Read my Lips, No More Coal”

Published by tomowens, February 20th, 2008 Climate Justice , Coal Campaign , Dirty Energy , Extraction , Impacted Communities , Politics , Youth Leaders , global warming 3 Comments

About 350 people packed a Richmond VA meeting room last night to sound off on a proposed Southwest Virginia coal-fired power plant that is becoming a hot issue across the state. The room was filled with the musk of lobbyists, politicians, and coal officials standing hawkishly in the back waiting for those who would speak out against the plant. Overall, about 115 people signed up to speak at the state Department of Environmental Quality hearing last night, including over 30 students from 8 different colleges and universities representing the statewide clean energy activist coalition, Virginia Climate Action Network. Their message was simple. Young people are going to have to deal with the problems of tomorrow while Wise County residents are already dealing with the problems with antiquated coal and mountain top removal TODAY. Please email comments opposing the 585 MW Coal Plant to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality here by March 12th.

Dominion Virginia Power wants to build the $1.8 billion plant near St. Paul in Wise County, VA that would burn primarily waste coal and would be compatible with Carbon Capture and Sequestration technology once that technology becomes commercially viable. VA Coal officials have even commented that this technology is 10-15 years away at BEST. Dominion Virginia Power is also spinning their wheels trying to fund “Green” Carbon Capture technology at Virginia Tech to mask true clean renewable energy solutions.

Each year the plant would release 5.3 million tons of carbon dioxide and would cause harmful effects to the health of the entire region. This project under Virginia law would be paid for by the wonderful Virginia ratepayers who still have no clue what this plant would mean to their pocketbooks, their daily health, or the future of the Commonwealth.

With less than two years left in Governor Kaine’s tenure as the leader of the great Commonwealth of Virginia, questions are starting to get raised as to whether his partnership with big industrial interests such as Dominion will threaten his ability to get another job. An article on Grist seems to paint a picture of a Governor whose stock is rapidly falling due to his steadfast support of Virginia’s major polluters. The author cites figures from the Virginia Public Access Project (vpap.org) that states that Tim Kaine has received over $135,000 from Dominion… no wonder he hasn’t spoken out against Dominions Wise County Coal fired power plant…

So who is the Governor going to be loyal to? Dominion Power and their money, or the hundreds of thousands of Virginians that were the ones that voted him into office by the narrowest of margins? Right now, it looks like he is standing by Dominion.

Governor Kaine can’t buy another term as Virginia’s governor with Dominion’s money, but he can buy himself some national attention and save his reputation by stopping the Wise County coal plant.

America wants a leader Mr. Kaine, not another industry stooge.

This power plant will be your legacy whether you like it or not. It is up to you how the legacy will read.

Click here to tell the Governor to stop the Wise County plant today!

New CLEAN Energy for the Old Dominion

Published by tomowens, January 11th, 2008 Act Locally , Climate Justice , Coal , Coal Campaign , Impacted Communities 1 Comment

There is no argument that a coal rush is underway in the United States. The writing is on the wall as energy providers hasten to build new coal fired powerplants before the passage of national legislation that places a price on carbon and hinders the economic viability of coal. Even Virginia’s own Democratic Representative Rick Boucher has stated, “… it’s now virtually certain that within the next three years, Congress will pass a law that will impose mandatory controls on greenhouse gases.” despite his close ties to the coal industry. Strong words for a representative upholding a new coal fired power plant in his very own district in Southwest Virginia.

This past Tuesday, nearly 300 citizens from across the Commonwealth of Virginia turned out in droves to implore judges from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to deny a permit for the construction of a coal fired power plant in Wise County Virginia. Lawyers who have been working with the SCC for upwards of 30 years have said that they have never seen anything like the public turnout that the Wise County plant is receiving. Just as promising was the remarkable student presence at the January 8^th public hearing. While it’s easy to take a long winter break after the rush of finals, students in the Virginia Climate Action Network, a network of colleges, universities, and high schools, put their priorities in a different order. Together they organized a 60 student climate convergence surrounding the public permit hearing and also held anti-coal actions at the Dominion Virginia Power headquarters. Continue reading ‘New CLEAN Energy for the Old Dominion’

tomowens

Tom graduated in the spring of 2006 with a degree in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech and has experience working on a variety of environmental and health issues while on campus. After vagabonding in South America and wandering around the scenic mountains of Virginia until graduation, he decided to take a stab at the non-profit world and join his generation's fight to stop global warming. His primary focus is working on the Campus Climate Challenge campaign and fighting the injustices surrounding coal. Tom enjoys open minds and open hearts and the thrill of a student who realizes their potential.