 As many of you know, Dominion Power is not exactly my favorite company. I think it's fair to say that it's not Miles' favorite company either, or Eileen's, or most other Virginia environmentalists'. Why is that, you ask? So many reasons, so little time. :)
In all seriousness, Dominion Power is a big-time corporate bad actor (with big-time money to burn) influencing government policy to its own benefit, but NOT to everyone else's (certainly not to the environment's benefit, that's for sure). From writing and ramming through its own reregulation bill; to resisting mandatory renewable portfolio standards (26 states now have these, while 6 others - including Virginia - have "voluntary" RPS's); to pushing dirty, mountaintop-removing, coal-fired power; to constantly pushing the lying lie that energy efficiency and clean renewables are not sufficient to meet Virginia's energy needs; to richly earning the mock slogan, "Dominion: Global Warming Starts Here," Dominion Power is pretty much the worst of the worst.
You'd never know any of this, of course, if you only read the corporate, print media (where Dominion places expensive, full-page advertisements). You'd never know any of this if you only watched Dominion's propagandistic, faux-warm-and-fuzzy TV ads. And you'd certainly never know any of this if you only looked at the pro-Dominion voting patterns of many Virginia politicians.
How does Dominion spread its (false) narrative and distract peoples' attentions from the true (but not so flattering) story? The answer is very simple: MONEY, and lots of it. In fact, according to VPAP, since 2005, Dominion has given nearly $2.5 million to Virginia state politicians, Democratic and Republican alike.
Why does Dominion spend all this money? Obviously, it's not out of any altruism on the company's part. I mean, let's get real here; if Dominion's exec's really had wanted to be altruistic, they could have given that $2.5 million to help poor families weatherize their homes or to help working people reduce their energy expenditures (e.g., by subsidizing the purchase of energy efficient appliances). They could have spent some of that money promoting green building standards. They could have pumped that money into health care for poor communities in coal-mining regions of the Commonwealth. Etc., etc.
But, of course, Dominion CEO Thomas Farrell and Company haven't done any of that. Instead, they've used their money to buy what really matters to them: political clout in Richmond's halls of power, used to "persuade" lawmakers to do Dominion's bidding, time and time again.
Well, here we are in the year 2009, with the ice caps melting, with 90% of scientists agreeing that temperatures are rising (and 97% of climatologists agreeing that mankind is playing a role in causing that to take place), and with a major breath of fresh air having come to Washington.
Today, it's time for change - voters just finished sending a huge message that this is exactly what they want - in a big way. That's why I'm challenging all Virginia 2009 candidates to "just say no" to Dominion's dirty money. Refuse it. Reject it. Return it. Just don't take any money from Dominion Power.
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