Welcome to ArticleXI.com!
We are a group of environmental advocates united in providing a one-stop source for Virginia's environmental news. We each focus on different issues, but share the vision of a Commonwealth that preserves and protects its natural resources. Please join us!
A draft management plan released by the George Washington National Forest in Virginia on Wednesday will limit the type of gas and oil drilling that could occur within its 1.1 million acres of territory while opening up segments of the forest to the potential for wind energy construction.
The plan would disallow horizontal drilling, a form of drilling typically using hydraulic fracking to reach deposits of natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing has become more and more controversial as increasing evidence has mounted against its unsafe use.
Half of the George Washington National Forest sits on top of the Marcellus shale natural gas formation, a natural gas deposit that ranges from the state of New York to the Virginias.
Fortunately, there is no drilling being undertake at the moment in the national forest, located in Virginia and West Virginia.
Wind energy would itself only be considered for development in areas not deemed "sensitive," according to the draft management plan.
The insistence by many to "drill, baby drill," is as obviously compulsive as it is dangerous to human beings and the surrounding ecosystems, which is why the national forest's draft management plan comes as such a great relief.
Until hydraulic fracking in particular can be done in a safe way, there is no sensible reason why it should continue.
The ultimate goal is an energy independent future for the U.S., but the U.S. will not have a future if it continues to search and rely upon nonrenewable sources of energy, the extraction of which does much more harm than good.
The Roanoke County Planning Commission revised a proposed zoning ordinance on energy generation from wind turbines on Tuesday, requiring large and utility-sized wind turbines to be at least half of a mile away from the closest occupied homes.
According to the Roanoke Times, the ordinance would require proximities of wind turbines to the closest property lines to at least 110% of the height of the turbines. Furthermore, the noise coming from the turbines must be no greater than 60 decibels at the property line. Wind turbine developers would also be required to obtain special-use permits for each project.
Proposals for constructing up to 18 wind turbines had been proposed by Invenergy, a Chicago-based wind turbine developer.
This latest news regarding wind turbines illustrates once again the continuing barriers to greater numbers of land-based wind turbines in Virginia.
For a number of Virginians, wind energy isn't seen expressly or primarily for its cleanness or its inexhaustibility. More often than not, wind energy is seen as a potential nuisance that should be kept away from centers of living.
But while the barriers are raised, other sources of energy like coal, nuclear, and natural gas become even more attractive to utilities in Virginia. Perhaps not the eyesore that wind turbines are perceived to be, these forms of energy generation are exponentially more dangerous to human and environmental health.
For now it seems that aesthetics are more important than safety. I hope this view changes and does so soon.
What's the answer to meeting Virginia's energy demands over the next 10 to 15 years? The Virginia Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Green Jobs Alliance and Virginia Interfaith Power and Light are putting their money on offshore wind power.
These groups joined forces earlier today to layout their plans for a new campaign with a goal of moving Virginia's largest investor owned utility, Dominion Virginia Power, to invest in offshore wind. The groups all agree that Virginia needs to move forward quickly on offshore wind for our environment, our economy and the necessity of generating more energy.
Specifically, offshore wind would help the environment because it is a non-polluting source of energy. The wind does not combust, it does not burn, and it does not spew carbon dioxide. Transitioning to offshore wind will reduce our dependence of global warming causing fossil fuels.
Offshore wind can be a boon for Virginia's economy. Research has shown that development of Virginia's offshore wind capacity would lead to over 10,000 career-length jobs in the Commonwealth. These are jobs constructing and maintaining Virginia's offshore wind farms. Good paying jobs that can't be outsourced.
Finally, offshore wind is a critical component to helping meet Virginia's energy demand. Virginia's utilities and Virginia's state officials agree we must produce more energy over the next 10 years in the Commonwealth, or continue to import energy from other states. Offshore wind is a key ingredient in our ability to produce energy in Virginia for Virginians.
Look after the flip for the press release from today's launch.
VA4Wind kicked off this week in Richmond, a new wind energy campaign that will be encouraging the development of offshore wind in Virginia.
The organizers for VA4Wind include the Sierra Club and the Green Jobs Alliance.
The coastal waters off of Virginia are viewed by those who have researched the issue as a strong location to place offshore wind farms due to the strong and sustained winds.
Gov. Bob McDonnell made a campaign promise to include wind energy in his "energy portfolio." However, McDonnell's continuing strong emphasis on offshore oil and gas exploration should leave one dubious about his administrations sincerity regarding offshore wind energy.
While Dominion Virginia Power studies the option of an offshore electric transmission line to promote wind farm development, the political will from the McDonnell administration has been lackluster.
Anything besides a full-fledged effort at elevating offshore wind energy to the top of Virginia's energy agenda is not acceptable.
All of the benefits are present with wind energy: low longer-term costs, minimal human and environmental health risks, and sustainability. What more do you need?
Apparently the benefits are not clear enough for McDonnell, however. A lot of words have been tossed about regarding the future of offshore wind energy but the political actions have been sparse.
We need real leadership and real solutions to the urgent problem of energy security and fossil-fuel related global warming. Wind energy stands to be one major solution, but only if Virginia's political leaders maintain their course of sustainable energy solutions.
On Thursday, the Virginia General Assembly issued a joint resolution that promotes the idea of wind turbines off of Virginia's coastline. The largely symbolic move was widely applauded by the Virginia Sierra Club.
Additionally, the joint resolution also calls for a national offshore wind technology center for Hampton Roads.
Due to the interest that a number of energy companies have expressed in constructing wind farms off of Virginia Beach, the joint resolution comes at an opportune time.
The Sierra Club of Virginia also noted that the resolution further commits Virginia to developing offshore wind farms, a huge gain in the political tug-of-war that has ensued for some years now between advocates for wind energy and those policymakers unwilling to commit.
While Virginia and the rest of the country are still far behind in terms of wind energy technology, there are certain bright spots on the horizon.
Especially now that more political leaders are getting behind the idea of wind energy, onshore and offshore wind farms seem more and more like a real part of Virginia's and the rest of the country's future.
Finally, some sanity in all of the energy discussions.
The coal industry seems hell-bent on destroying the global climate, our Appalachian economy, and our state's ecology.
Why? To protect the jobs!!! of course!
In modern times its a dangerous joke to pretend that coal brings prosperity anywhere it is mined, but here's an urgent indicator that our country is headed in a new direction, and that Virginia has a chance to lead. Hopefully, its also another nail in the coffin of Dominion's dead talking point about jobs and prosperity from coal.
As of 2008, the wind industry now employs more people in the United States than coal mining.
Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase from the previous year, according to a report released Tuesday from the American Wind Energy Association. In contrast, the coal industry employs about 81,000 workers. (Those figures are from a 2007 U.S. Department of Energy report but coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it's down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the deindustrialization of the past two decades.
The big spike in wind jobs was a result of a record-setting 50% increase in installed wind capacity, with 8,358 megawatts coming online in 2008 (enough to power some 2 million homes). That's a third of the nation's total 25,170 megawatts of wind power generation. Wind farms generating more than 4,000 megawatts of electricity were completed in the last three months of 2008 alone.
So next time some coal company executive or Virginia politician tells you that we need to keep mining coal because it brings economic prosperity; coal would be great if we could sequester the carbon; environmentalists hate the economy - you say; NAY sir.
Virginia mining employment is plunging due to the fact that there is less coal and we are replacing miners with machines to get whats left. This leaves our SW region fraught with some of the worst poverty in the United States.
This isn't some lofty, abstract, academic exercise we are talking about here. We can look at a single place on the map and see the whole story.Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, is currently permitted to be mined by mountaintop removal. Not only is Coal River Mountain the last in tact mountain in the Coal River Valley, but studies show that we can create more jobs and more energy with wind power than we could by turning the mountain into a mountaintop removal site.
And yet, because so many politicians and members of the coal industry are content to erase Appalachia for a dollar, the site at Coal River Mountain is already being cleared for blasting.
I can imagine the boon our state economy will get from an clean energy and efficiency industry! Its only a matter of time before all the coal in Virginia is gone. What kind of legacy are the Governor, our Senators, and Congressman Boucher going to leave if they don't renew the economy in Appalachian Virginia?
Lets put up wind towers. Lets build 'em here. Lets invest in an efficiency industry. Let's save our economy, and do our mountains a little favor in the process.
User comments or postings reflect the opinions of the responsible contributor only, and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Sierra Club and/or the League of Conservation Voters. The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters do not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. The Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters accepts no obligation to review every posting, but reserves the right (but not the obligation) to delete postings that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate.
ArticleXI.com is paid for and authorized by
Virginia League of Conservation Voters PAC, 530 East Main Street, Ste. 410, Richmond, Virginia 23219, (804) 225-1902 and
Sierra Club VA PAC, 422 E. Franklin Street, Suite 302, Richmond, VA 23219, (804) 225-9113.
The coal industry seems hell-bent on destroying the global climate, our Appalachian economy, and our state's ecology.
So next time some coal company executive or Virginia politician tells you that we need to keep mining coal because it brings economic prosperity; coal would be great if we could sequester the carbon; environmentalists hate the economy - you say; NAY sir.
