RK ARCHIVE - CCAN Delivers Mile-Long Clean Energy Petition. Will Dominion Listen?

The Green Miles was in Richmond Thursday afternoon for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's rally at Kanawha Park. About 200 climate activists gathered in the shadow of Dominion Virginia Power's headquarters to deliver CCAN's Mile-Long Petition for Clean Energy.

It was a great mix of people, from college students to business people to community activists from Wise County, site of Dominion's proposed $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant. As Richmond City Councilman Marty Jewell told the crowd, we can't possibly hope to confront global warming if we're investing billions of our money in a power plant that would spew 5.4 million tons of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere every single year.

Strangely, there was a strong police presence, about a dozen officers including four mounted patrols. Were they worried we were going to go all Seattle WTO on them?

Not a strong presence - local media. One TV photojournalist came straggling in after the petitions had already been delivered and started videotaping the band. Better late than never, I guess?

Comments

Will Dominion listen? (Lowell - 5/9/2008 8:49:25 AM)

Short answer: No, of course not. Longer answer: Maybe, but only if Gov. Kaine and other Virginia elected officials -- plus the general public -- force them to listen.

The man to solve this problem (tx2vadem - 5/9/2008 5:10:08 PM)

His name is Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy. He funded an ad campaign in Texas to tank the coal plants that TXU wanted to build. In return, we would probably have to go with a natural gas fired plant, but that would be much cleaner than coal.

I read this article in Fortune and I thought who better to go toe-to-toe with Dominion than a mighty billionaire. Incidentally, it could probably still be located in SW Virginia. Either Columbia's or William's pipelines pass through the area I think.

Oh the lobby they have setup (tx2vadem - 5/9/2008 5:28:57 PM)

is called CleanSkies.Org. They are just right across the river in Washington. What would be a better victory for them than increasing the share of natural gas in VA's generation? Sounds like win-win to me.

Ahem, Miles... (elevandoski - 5/9/2008 5:33:07 PM)

Contrary to your headline, Miles, there were actually 5 groups involved: Sierra Club, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, and Southern Environmental Law Center. We all worked our arses off collecting signatures, organizing rallies, etc.

I was confused too. (Lowell - 5/9/2008 5:49:44 PM)

Was there anywhere on the petition where it said which groups were involved? The only ones I heard from were from CCAN. Anyway, excellent work by all the groups involved! What's the next step?

Petition was group effort - 6 and many more (joshtulkin - 5/12/2008 11:03:42 AM)

Hey folks, as much as i like the praise, the petition was truly a group effort.

The "core" of this coalition included 6 groups: CCAN, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, Appalachian Voices, and the Virginia Climate Action Network (statewide student coalition).

Each group personalized their petitions, but kept the coalition logo (see cleanenergyva.org). However, in addition, literally dozens of groups were involved. Here are a few, and they all deserve praise.

Tidewater Climate Action Network, Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, tons of Unitarian Universalist Churches from across the state, the Wise Energy Alliance, Williambsburg Climate Action Network, several LWV activists, Loudon County Citizens for a Sustainable Society, and many many more.