Virginia environmental group, CCAN, and Attorney General Cuccinelli find rare common ground

Maybe the world is coming to an end in 2012, after all! One of the first signs of the cataclysm may have been witnessed on Monday after the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) released a report card[1] which agreed, by and large, with Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s concerns regarding Virginia’s renewable energy law. Let me repeat, a Virginia environmental group, CCAN, and Attorney General Cuccinelli agree on the ludicrous nature of the incentives offered to Virginia’s two biggest utility providers.[2]

Cuccinelli said in a report released last month that analyzed the costs and benefits of incentives given to the Commonwealth’s two biggest utilities, Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power, that the incentives have not “served their purpose” and called on the Virginia General Assembly to get rid of the bonuses.[3]

On Monday, Cuccinelli’s office also spoke to the General Assembly’s Commission on Electric Utility Regulation about their worries. The attorney general’s office was reportedly asked to find a compromise with the two utility companies by January 16 over how the law distributing their bonuses should be reworded.

According to CCAN’s Virginia director, Beth Kemler, “The way the goals are structured, utilities really don’t have to do much to meet them, and don’t have to do anything that spurs the growth of renewables in Virginia. We need to fix it so it fulfills its original intention.”[4] In other words, the Virginia renewable energy law gives Virginia’s two biggest utilities large taxpayer handouts while giving little in return, especially renewable energy generated in Virginia.

CCAN has proposed replacing the bonuses that exist now in favor of a tiered system that would require utility companies to generate a portion of its energy from wind and solar power from locations in Virginia.

This is one of those beautiful no-brainer action items that even the most beholden political representatives to Dominion Virginia and Appalachian Power cannot avoid or defend without raising the public ire. Why are Virginians paying bonuses to companies for behaving in a manner that does Virginians no good? It simply doesn’t make sense.

Thanks to groups like CCAN, the Virginia Sierra Club (among other groups), and concerned Virginians, reason may once again shine upon the General Assembly, if only for this legislation anyways.

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[1] http://www.chesapeakeclimate.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3568:va-utilities-receive-failing-grades-in-renewable-energy-%E2%80%98report-card%E2%80%99&Itemid=23

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/cuccinelli-environmental-group-find-consensus-on-va-renewable-energy-law/2012/12/17/556de85e-4883-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html

[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/cuccinelli-environmental-group-find-consensus-on-va-renewable-energy-law/2012/12/17/556de85e-4883-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html

[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/cuccinelli-environmental-group-find-consensus-on-va-renewable-energy-law/2012/12/17/556de85e-4883-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story.html