Gov. Kaine ignores Rappahannock’s plea on amending utility bill
Ignoring a plea by the Rappahannock County government, Gov. Tim Kaine proposed some amendments to the utility re-regulation bill that passed this year’s General Assembly, but not one that would bar Dominion Virginia Power from building a second high-voltage transmission line across the county.
In his action Tuesday on the utility bill that was strongly supported by Dominion, Kaine amended the legislature’s bill to include new incentives for constructing renewable sources of power generation and for facilities to capture carbon emissions from fossil-fuel generating plants. But he did not include any amendment that would affect Dominion’s ability to push the controversial new power line through Rappahannock County.
At the request of the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors, County Administrator John McCarthy on March 7 wrote a letter to Gov. Kaine asking him to bar Dominion from building a second power line through the county, which does not serve any electric customers in Rappahannock.
The letter told Kaine that Rappahannock County should not have to “bear the burden” of a new transmission line that not only provided no local benefits to customers, but also would import coal-fired power from the Ohio Valley which is causing air pollution that hurts tourism to Shenandoah National Park, one of the mainstays of the tourist industry in the county.
McCarthy asked Kaine to amend the bill to prohibit the line from crossing Rappahannock County, or, failing that, at least provide local governments and citizens legal ground for challenging power transmission lines that offer no benefits to the community.
Kaine did not include such an amendment, and did not respond to Rappahannock County’s letter, McCarthy confirmed today.
The legislation reverses a decision made by the legislature in 1999 to deregulate the electric power industry. But in re-regulating the industry, the legislature embraced a form of regulation strongly favored by Dominion, which lobbied hard for this bill.
According to news reports, Dominion played a major role in crafting the legislation. The company sought re-regulation primarily to stabilize rates and earnings, which would make the company more attractive as it seeks low rates to finance new generating plants.But critics charged that Dominion played too strong a role. They said the measure allowed too much profit for the company without adequate price safeguards for customers or sufficient conservation requirements.
“The governor made some positive changes, but it is still fundamentally a Dominion Power monopoly bill that puts emphasis on new generation and not demand management and conservation,” said Piedmont Environmental Council spokesman Robert W. Lazaro Jr.A
Dominion spokesman welcomed the Governor’s amendments and said the company supports the amended legislation, which will now go back before the legislature next week.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that a conservation coalition said that despite Kaine’s efforts, the legislation remains “deeply flawed.” The bill, they said, strongly favors new power plants over smart energy management.”Consumers and the environment still lose,” said the coalition, made up of the Sierra Club, Piedmont Environmental Council and four other conservation groups.
-- James P. GannonComments
Comment from Secret Squirrel
Time: March 30, 2007, 12:11 pm
I agree that the Governor’s actions in regard to re-regulation were disappointing. That said, I do not believe that the bills that Governor Kaine was reviewing were addressing the feasibility of the Dominion Power proposal to run a power line through Rappahannock, Culpeper and southern Fauquier County. Nor do I believe that there was ever any possibility that the Governor would veto the bills (which would have, de facto, brought the process to a grinding halt). The real crunch is whether Dominion Power can obtain approval for the “preferred” route from the SCC in Richmond when it is filed in April. The SCC are the arbitors - and thus the target for any protests - not the Governor. Monira Rifaat is doing an outstanding job in chairing the Rappahannock Powerline Task Force and can advise citizens how to make their voice heard.
–David Rowe
Write a comment