Green Energy and a Clean Environment: 5 Point Strategy for Virginia

Greening our energy policy is a win-win proposition for Virginia.  We can create thousands of new green jobs by creating wind power off the coast and improving efficiency inland.  We can cut carbon emissions and help combat global warming—a vital interest to Virginians, with our miles of beautiful coastline and our strong agricultural sector.  We can reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  And we can preserve the natural beauty of our hills and shores, decrease environmentally caused diseases, and provide healthier spaces to live, work, and enjoy the outdoors—for hunters and fishers, for those enjoying or profiting from Virginia's tourism industry, and for the children who will inherit the earth.  

As Virginia’s next Lieutenant Governor, Mike will promote the following five-point strategy:

1.    Reduce energy consumption by 20% per person by 2025.   Investing in proven technologies – better heating and cooling systems, improved industrial processes, weatherproofing, efficient lighting and others – is a sure way to cut billions of dollars from our energy bills, create thousands of jobs and clean up the environment.   In Virginia, the opportunities are tremendous.  We use 25% more electricity per residential consumer than the average state and almost twice as much as leading states like California and New York.   We need to bring our policies into the 21st Century.

As Lieutenant Governor, Mike will work to:

• Efficiency goal: Set a target of reducing per capita energy consumption by 20% by 2025, a goal that would cut $15 billion from our energy bills and put 10,000 people to work in Virginia.  
• Weatherization: Put $148 million in federal funds earmarked for weatherization to work immediately.
• Incentives: Work with state agencies and the legislature to enact financial and tax incentives to encourage utilities, homeowners, and businesses to invest in efficiency.  
• Establish a “lead by example” approach.  State and local governments should build new facilities to high efficiency standards – to stimulate the development of energy-efficient businesses, create hundreds of new jobs, and lower energy costs for taxpayers.

           
2.    Generate 25% of our energy from clean, renewable sources by 2025.  Technologies that can harness clean, renewable sources of energy – wind, solar and biofuels – are now viable for large-scale use.  Wind turbines are cost-competitive with coal-fired plants, and last year accounted for 40% of all new capacity installed in the U.S.  We are blessed with abundant wind power off Hampton Roads, an educated work force, and a vibrant agricultural sector.  With the right policies, we can begin to clear our skies and rivers, cut greenhouse gas production, reduce dependency on foreign oil, and create jobs. 
   
As Lieutenant Governor, Mike will work to:

• Renewable portfolio standard (RPS).  Mike will support an RPS for power producers of 25% of their power from clean, renewable nonnuclear sources by 2025.  This target is well within our reach, and setting a clear, enforceable target will give new-energy businesses the boost they need.
• Promote investment in renewable energy.  Today, Virginia has one of the best sources of wind power in the U.S. off Hampton Roads, where wind turbines could provide 12 percent of the state’s energy—at a cost competitive with that of new coal-fired generation and well below the cost of a new nuclear facility.

   
3.    Don’t double down on the most harmful fuel technologies.  We will continue using fossil fuels for many years to come, but we should not make new investments in the dirtiest or riskiest technologies.  Today’s coal-fired generators emit particulates, mercury, and tons of greenhouse gases. They are also a risky investment because federal regulations may raise the cost of carbon emissions.  Mountaintop-removal coal mining destroys Appalachia’s mountains, valleys and streams but creates few jobs. 

As Lieutenant Governor, Mike will work to:

• Coal-fired plants.  Mike will work to impose a moratorium on investments in new coal-fired generating plants unless they can show pollution-capture technology has substantially reduced carbon dioxide emissions and meet stringent standards for particulate and mercury emissions.
• Mountaintop removal coal mining.  Mike will work to end this practice and replace lost rural jobs by bringing business and government together to create more sustainable jobs – in forestry, forest products and tourism, and energy generation from small-scale, sustainable plants using forestry waste – to preserve Appalachia’s economic base, cultural heritage, and natural beauty.

4.    Build a smart energy grid.  Smart grid technology will let us shift energy use away from peak hours and let consumers who generate solar, wind or thermal energy sell surplus power back to the grid.  This will require fewer generators, less storage of energy and will lead to fewer brownouts.   To build a smart grid, we need to install meters in homes and businesses that can communicate with utilities. Virginia is far behind other states.  Just 0.2% of Virginia power customers have smart meters installed, compared to 24% of Pennsylvania power customers and 4.7% nationwide.  

As Lieutenant Governor, Mike will work to:

• Build the grid.  The federal government has earmarked billions of dollars for a smart grid.  Mike will lead in pushing federal funds to a smart grid, and bring utilities and the legislature together to promote a statewide rollout of smart grid technology.

   
5.    Create at least 13,000 green jobs by 2011.  Greening our energy policy is not only sound environmental policy and smart economics, it will also create good jobs that can’t easily be outsourced and that will make Virginians competitive with other states in industries primed for explosive growth. 

The policies Mike is fighting for can create at least the following jobs by 2011:

• Weatherization - 5,000 jobs.  We should put $148 million in federal funding to work on weatherization, making homes and offices more energy efficient and safe.
• Smart grid jobs - 5,000 jobs.  These are high-skilled jobs in grid design and software engineering and labor jobs in building, manufacturing and installation.
• A wind farm off Hampton Roads - 3,000 jobs.  Installing and servicing turbines is a good fit with the skills of Virginia’s shipyard workers.  A recent study showed that wind power currently employs more people than coal mining, and the gap should only grow.  Virginia should get ahead of this trend, while still working to grow rural jobs.