Statement of Glen Besa, Director, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter
Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell and Dominion Virginia Power President Robert Blue continue to take us backwards in the critical work of addressing climate change. Dominion’s long term electricity generation plan calls for more than a 30% increase in climate changing carbon pollution over the next 15 years.
Over the past five years, Dominion has built or announced plans to bring on line more than 5,000 megawatts of new gas powered generation.
By contrast, Dominion’s frequent announcements of renewable energy projects, 12 megawatts of offshore wind in a pilot project off our coast, a 20 megawatts solar farm in Remington and even its February announcement of 400 megawatts of solar by 2020, amount to tokenism in the face of the company’s rush to build new fracked gas-fired power plants. In 2013 alone, North Carolina installed over 300 megawatts of solar power.
Governor McAuliffe’s support for Dominion’s proposed new gas plant in Greenville County and its massive Atlantic Coast Pipeline are disappointing, in light of widespread opposition to the pipeline project and the need for the Commonwealth to address climate change with a sense of urgency. Dominion and the Governor need to make real plans for the kind of carbon pollution cuts that are called for to address global warming.
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