 With U.S. Senator Mark Warner at his side both at a press event in Roanoke and later via conference call, Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds yesterday announced "a comprehensive plan to create jobs and renew Virginia's economy through targeted tax cuts for small businesses, innovative partnerships to generate new jobs in the alternative energy industry, creative initiatives to jump-start an economic recovery in rural regions, as well as a commonsense approach to finally solve Virginia's statewide transportation challenges through responsible, bipartisan leadership".
"Virginia led the nation in telecom in the 1980s, we helped lead the Internet revolution during the 1990s, and I firmly believe that the next generation of jobs and wealth will be found in the 'green' economy," Senator Warner said. "Creigh has put together a road map that allows Virginia to grasp that opportunity and take advantage of all of those possibilities if we prepare Virginians to take a leadership role in the alternative energy field."
"Virginia must take advantage of opportunities in rapidly expanding fields like biomass production,
wind power generation, and clean coal research", he writes in his plan. "By developing innovative ways of reducing fossil fuel consumption, Creigh will create thousands of new jobs in the Commonwealth and attract millions in new investment from private and public sources".
Standing out within his economic plan is a call for creation of a strong business environment for green energy companys.
"Green energy companies are attracted to states that have made a firm commitment to alternative energy. Creigh believes that we cannot afford to lose opportunities to create good-paying jobs in this high-growth industry, simply because our policies lag behind."
To this end, Deeds proposes expansion of the Solar Manufacturing Incentive Grant (SMIG ) program to all "green energy-related industries". He wants to offer competitive grants to green energy companies that invest at least $50 million
and create at least 200 jobs.
Believing that Virginia's current voluntary RPS is "simply not enough to keep Virginia competitive with states like Ohio, which passed a law requiring that utilities produce 25% of their energy from renewable source by 2025, and neighbors like Maryland, which has a 20% by 2022 mandatory requirement", Deeds proposes a mandatory RPS of 15% by 2020 and 22% by 2025.
The Renewable Electricity Standard as it stands right now within the Waxman-Markey (aka ACES) bill that just passed Congress calls for a 20% standard by 2020. This RES target is a national floor. States are allowed to set higher standards. Virginia's current standards are voluntary and call for 12% by 2022. The Governor's Commission on Climate Change recommended increasing that voluntary call to 15% by 2025.
Click here to read Deeds' entire economic plan. Click here to read how Virginia can easily meet a Federal RES of 25% by 2025. |
