Right now the Northam administration is developing its Virginia Energy Plan, a roadmap for the commonwealth’s energy policy over the next decade. We need to ensure Virginia’s economy is built on energy efficiency, solar power and smart storage solutions instead of more fracked gas pipelines. Now is the time to tell Governor Northam that you support investments in clean energy!
There are five upcoming public listening sessions where you can ask questions and tell the administration that we should work to replace an outdated, fossil-fuel based economy with a sustainable, clean energy economy:
July 23, 1:00-4:00 p.m. in Richmond on Energy Storage (Virginia State Capitol, House Room 1)
July 25, 12:00-2:00 p.m. in Newport News on Offshore Wind Energy (Gaines Theatre, Christopher Newport University)
July 30, 5:00-7:00 p.m. in Roanoke on general energy issues (Room 212, Roanoke Higher Education Center)
July 31, 5:00-7:00 p.m. in Abingdon on general energy issues (Room CR 103/104, Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center)
August 16, Potential meeting from 5:00-7:00 p.m. in Northern Virginia (location TBD)
The administration is specifically seeking input on policies affecting solar power, offshore wind power, energy storage, electric vehicles, and energy efficiency, but you should feel free to weigh in on all energy issues. For details and meeting materials, visit the Virginia Energy Plan website.
In particular, it is important to tell the Governor:
Eliminate barriers to customer-owned and third-party financed solar power
Encourage customer-owned battery storage
Develop pumped hydroelectric storage facilities to store wind and solar power — NOT fossil fuel generation — and construct them on brownfields, not greenfields
Require utilities and regulators to work harder to reduce retail electricity consumption 10% by 2020
Place a moratorium on new fracked gas pipelines because existing infrastructure can already meet our energy needs
Eliminate the $20 million mining pool bond cap, so that funds will be there to clean up land previously mined for coal.
This is an important opportunity to tell Governor Northam that Virginians want energy policies that work for the customer: policies that encourage conservation, zero-emission electricity production, and lower customer bills.
Cannot attend one of the public listening sessions? You may still submit written comments through August 24, 2018 at: http://townhall.virginia.gov/L/ViewNotice.cfm?gnid=856
For a clean energy future,
Peter Anderson
Virginia Program Manager
Appalachian Voices