Cross-posted fromhttp://bluevirginia.us/diary/10159/winds-of-hypocrisy-catching-up-with-dominion-va-power">Blue Virginia
.
While
wind power continues to grow across the country, the winds of hypocrisy
have blanketed the Commonwealth of Virginia in the form of Dominion Virginia
Power. While Virginia’s energy Goliath leased close to 113,000 acres of the
Atlantic Ocean off Virginia Beach to
supposedly construct an offshore wind farm, “their statements and company
documents showed they have no intention of building anything larger than a
small, two-turbine offshore test project unless the costs come down.” Did
I also mention that Dominion Virginia Power’s executives are liars?
On the one hand, it’s impressive that Dominion Virginia Power
would go to such great lengths to deceive the people of Virginia into believing
that it was serious about Virginia’s future. During a six-round auction held by
the Department of the Interior, Dominion managed to outbid Apex Virginia Offshore Wind with a $1.6
million winning bid to build wind turbines 27 miles off of Virginia’s coast.
As it turns out, Dominion’s investment in Virginia’s energy future was nothing
more than an investment in protecting Dominion’s virtual monopoly on
large-scale renewable energy efforts off Virginia’s coast.
By staving off serious competitors from actually following
through on building large scale wind farms, Dominion Virginia Power has
fortified its comfortable place as Virginia’s fossil fuel distribution king. That
is, a push towards renewable forms of energy like wind power would disrupt
Dominion’s current business model and potentially reduce its profits in the
short run.
What has been abandoned by Dominion and its political puppets,
then, is the future of Virginia’s energy needs, ecosystem, and the welfare of
its people in favor of Dominion’s own narrow interests. As long as Virginians
and their political representatives remain apathetic about this unnecessary situation,
business as usual will remain business as usual for Dominion.
To demand that Dominion Virginia Power begin investing more
heavily in renewable energy is not to request that Dominion forego all attempts
at turning a profit in Virginia. Dominion
has been given a privileged position in Virginia’s energy infrastructure by
the people of Virginia through their elected representatives and as such, has a
responsibility to look out for the welfare of Virginians in addition to turning
a profit every quarter.
It can no longer be argued that fossil fuel energy is in the
best interest of Virginians or the planet. The consequences of fossil fuel
energy on our planet have become so clear that even energy giants like Dominion
have pretended to mitigate its use of fossil fuels vis-à-vis renewable energy. Dominion’s
false promises, however, must come to an end and the people of Virginia and
their elected representatives must hold the executives at Dominion Virginia
Power accountable for their deceit and their stubborn inability to do what is
right for Virginia. The costs of the average Virginians energy bill may rise,
but so too will our health care and insurance costs as a consequence of fossil
fuel energy’s negative effects on Virginia’s ecosystem.
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