To State Senators Emmett Hanger and Mark Obenshain, and Delegates Tony Wilt and Steve Landis, as signed by participants of a presentation by Virginia Conservation Network’s Policy and Campaigns Manager Chelsea Harnish at Ruby’s on April 8, 2014, concerning the recent General Assembly session.
Dear Gentlemen:
Many states in the mid-Atlantic region have enacted legislation to require a percentage of electricity sold in the state to be generated from renewable sources, i.e. Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards. Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania all have legislation requiring the generation of 15 to 25 percent of electricity from renewable resources in the next decade.
Not only are Virginia’s Renewable Portfolio Standards weak but they are merely voluntary. In 2012 Dominion Virginia Power generated 552,033 MWh from renewable sources, out of a total of 64,600,000 MWh sold. That’s about 0.8%, none of it from wind or solar.
We call on you, our elected representatives, to join the states around us in bidding farewell to the fossil fuel economy that is destroying Earth’s ecosystems. We call on you to put Virginia on the path of progress toward a renewable energy economy that will generate jobs, stimulate innovation and research, create new industries, and restore ecosystem health.
We call on you to enact real and credible Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards in the next session of the Virginia General Assembly.
On behalf of the CAAV Steering Committee and the Citizens signing the following pages,
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 