RICHMOND
The Governor's Commission on Climate Change finished its yearlong deliberations Thursday by adopting a more aggressive plan for fighting global warming than Gov. Timothy M. Kaine had suggested when he set up the panel last year.
Kaine had asked the commission to find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions - mostly carbon dioxide from cars, power plants, factories, landfills, buildings and homes - by 30 percent of the projected levels in 2025.
But the commission voted during its last work session Thursday to go further and faster. It recommended that Virginia shoot for reductions of 25 percent below 1990 emission levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
The goals mirror what President-elect Barack Obama has endorsed for a federal program to combat global warming and follow closely what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has embraced. That group shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore last year for its scientific efforts.
"Basically what we said was, 'This is a good start but we need to cut further, we need to do more,' " said Skip Stiles, a Norfolk environmentalist and one of 30 members of the governor's climate commission.
Environmentalists pushed for tougher measures Thursday, urging support for a national carbon tax and adoption of California tailpipe emission standards for cars and trucks. Both items were defeated.
The commission came within one vote of passing a policy statement that called for no new coal-fired power plants in Virginia until carbon-capturing technology is available to offset expected air pollution. Such technology is not expected to be ready until at least 2020.
Had the policy passed, it could have blocked the proposed construction of the Virginia City power plant in southwestern Virginia, a major coal-fired project sponsored by Dominion Virginia Power and protested by environmentalists.
Commission Chairman L. Preston Bryant, the governor's secretary of natural resources, cast the deciding vote to kill the policy statement.
The climate commission consists of government officials, politicians, environmentalists, industry executives, utility leaders, coal and natural gas experts, academics and scientists. It has been meeting monthly this year to study global warming in Virginia and what actions should be taken to protect the environment without ravaging an already battered economy.
Throughout the year, the group determined that Virginia emits about 175 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, more than Greece, Pakistan and other nations. That number rose by 34 percent between 1990 to 2004.
Virginia ranks near the bottom of the 50 states for energy conservation, according to scientific studies.
The commission also found that sea-level rise related to Earth's gradual warming is putting coastal Virginia - and Hampton Roads, in particular - at great future risk of flooding, storm surge and erosion.
In the end, the commission embraced more than 100 recommendations, touching on areas such as mining, home heating, auto insurance and garbage recycling.
Among the highlights, the panel voted to require energy efficiencies and conservation so Virginians use 19 percent less electricity in 2025 compared with 2006; support more nuclear power; and provide incentives for utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity by 2025 through renewable sources, including solar, wind and geothermal.
Other proposals include a requirement that, over a phased period, all new commercial buildings be built with energy savings and green architecture.
The commission will urge the governor to ask Congress to pass fuel-efficiency standards on heavy trucks for the first time. It also asks that Virginia adopt a single standard for diesel biofuel so it can be used more easily in school buses and state-owned vehicles and equipment.
The package will be compiled next month into a narrative report and delivered to the governor by Dec. 15.
To enact recommendations, Kaine can seek to pass legislation and funding in the 2009 General Assembly, issue executive orders or recommend new regulations through state agencies, said Bryant, the commission chairman.
"There's a lot for him to digest," Bryant said. "But that was our charge, to be innovative and think big."
Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com
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Hey Conservatives - Get right with Teddy Roosevelt
I see this everywhere. Moderates and liberals with reasonable concerns about scientifically serious problems are put down by conservatives who seem pugnaciously proud of their contrary opinion.
But I wonder why more conservatives dont embrace the Teddy Roosevelt tradition. He certainly did more than any moderate or liberal for conservation of nature, and he would have some mighty strong words for modern conservatives who cant face up to this climate change business.
He'd probably say something like this: You cant bully-rag every egg-head who tries to present a scientific argument about climate change. We need insurance policies, and if the policies pay for themselves, like energy efficiency measures, then all the better.
Do we know what will happen tomorrow? Heck no. But we buy life and health and auto insurance anyway. Why not this?
Did you know...
per Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Methane is responsible for nearly as much global warming as all other non-CO2 greenhouse gases put together and that Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO2? Did you know that animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of methane a year? Did you know that animals "passing gas" contributes MORE to global warming than my stinky diesel exhaust? Maybe Virginia should ban animal products and force us to be vegans instead.
How about we make the
How about we make the contributory in nature. The people who "believe" in global warming can donate their own money to the cause. The ones who do not believe can spend their money on something else. I do not make other people come to my church and give money to my religion. I should not have to give my hard earned money to your religion and your prophet al gore.
Another Maunder Minimum is on its way--sunspot activity low
When it hits, everybody will be able to walk (or even drive) across the Elizabeth River on the solid ice to attend another bogus conference on "global warming." The Elizabeth River has frozen solid like that before--if you know your Tidewater history. It will happen again--maybe sooner than you think.
Fastest way to cut carbon emissions...
...is to muzzle politicians.
Once they begin to slap their gums together, bad things happen.
The serious problem is our turning away from God
...and thinking we can fix ourselves when we are engulfed in worship of self. We want others to change, yet we're not willing to change ourselves. Proponents of global warming have control issues. They are just another group of control freaks.
If you want to do some good, examine your pride and why you ignore God in all this. Why do you want to kill American while not checking out other nations. We buy cheap Chinese goods whose factories pollute and kill, while hammering our own economy into the group. Wake up America.
Global warming is a serious problem
Global warming is a serious problem, and like most serious problems, Americans just want to ignore it until it becomes to big to handle. We have increased CO2 in the atmosphere by 39% in the last 200 years. Soon we will have doubled the amount of CO2. To read the science on global warming, cut and paste this link....http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/
Am I the only one...
...who is bored to death with global warming? So, it's hot; 1000, cold; 1400, real cold; 1750, really hot in the '30s, global cooling in the '70s and now it's getting hot again, but some glaciers are getting BIGGER. Now I'm all for reducing pollution, don't get me wrong but, it ticks me off that people are trying to SCARE me into reducing pollution. Just say "Pollution is bad, let's try to reduce it." When the governments of the world and their thousands of scientists can tell me with ANY ACCURACY whether a 500 MILE WIDE hurricane is going to strike Norfolk OR the Outer Banks with more than 24 hrs warning THEN I will believe they have the capacity to tell me that global warming is caused by my exhaust. Until then, give it a rest please.
Good investment
The cost of doing nothing is a lot higher. If the recommendations are adopted, the couple of thousand dollars spent on this commission will produce a high return on investment. They would reduce Virginia energy costs by $15 billion by 2025, create nearly 10,000 new jobs, and reduce health care costs. http://www.aceee.org/press/e085pr.htm
Hey Timmy try this
Hey Timmy how about you shut your mouth and that will reduce hot air gases by 10 fold.. Spend the funds on fixing the budget not the false climate change
Another Example of Waste
Here's an example of Tim Kaine wasting the taxpayer's money. I wonder how much this commission meeting costs? Factor in meeting space, utilities and lunches it's probably a couple thousand dollars of our tax money down the drain. Meetings like this are a perfect example of what needs to be cut out to save money.
Here We Go get Used to It
Gov Kaine has wasted no time trying to kiss up to President elect Obama at our expense. Now he will raise our taxes again under the guise of climate warming which is another FRAUD purpatrated on the American public. Their is not global warming caused by man and the temps have fallen each of the last 10 yrs, Just look at how the snow is falling in the midwest earlier and earlier each yr. Tell this useless thing called our Gov NO to this and all of his TAX increases, sooner or later Democrat's will learn that increasing Taxes is not the answer to all the problems and that Global climate change is nothing but a hoax to make Gore richer and to look somewhat important.