Environmental and public health advocates representing over five million people held a news conference Thursday, urging Virginia’s governor to move ahead with a plan to cut emission of carbon and other greenhouse gases that cause global warming. They want increasing reliance on solar and wind power, but Dominion Virginia says it will comply with the Clean Power Plan largely by burning natural gas. Sandy Hausman has details.
Seven national groups concerned about health and the environment have signed a letter to Governor McAuliffe urging him to use the EPA’s Clean Power Plan as a springboard to more green energy. Glen Besa is director of the state’s Sierra Club.
“We have a real opportunity to make up ground in investments in efficiency, wind and solar where we have not done as much as other states including North Carolina, Maryland and West Virginia," he says. " There is a real opportunity there for the governor to create jobs, which is a priority of his and at the same time reduce carbon pollution, which is critically important, particularly in light of the news today that we’re going to be seeing perhaps twice as much sea level rise as was anticipated.” :27
A spokesman for Physicians for Social Responsibility pointed to higher levels of lung disease caused by air pollution and to a growing threat of Lyme Disease carried by ticks that favor warmer weather.
Sarah Bucci of Environment Virginia said the Clean Power Plan, which allows states to choose their own path to meet new pollution limits, enjoys strong public support.
“More than two-thirds of Americans and a majority of Virginians support the plan," she says. "More than eight million comments were submitted to the EPA in support of cutting carbon pollution from power plants, and that includes more than 215,000 comments from Virginians.”
At the League of Conservation Voters, Bill Holland pointed out that solar energy is more affordable than ever.
“We’re seeing all across the country solar booming," he says. "The residential market for solar has grown 50% in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and costs have declined by over 50% since 2010.”
And the Sierra Club’s Debby Cease noted that solar is a super job generator.
“Solar creates more jobs per unit of energy than any other form of generation," she explains. "Many of these jobs are local installation jobs. These are jobs that cannot be outsourced.”
Some states have challenged the Clean Power Plan in court and will make no plans until a legal decision is handed down. Twenty other states, including Virginia, are moving forward with efforts to reduce carbon emissions.