Virginia Beach council's vote on energy

A year ago, after Gov. Bob McDonnell asked the Virginia Beach City Council to endorse the exploration of oil and gas drilling off Virginia's coast, the council didn't hesitate.

An 8-3 vote last February gave the governor the council's support, even though a citywide task force was in the middle of studying the city's energy needs and examining the benefits and risks associated with oil, gas, wind and uranium.

"If there's going to be money made from drilling for gas, I want the city of Virginia Beach to benefit, period," Mayor Will Sessoms said at the time.

Tonight, four months after the Mayor's Alternative Energy Task Force finished its work, the council is scheduled for another vote, this time on a host of energy alternatives and policies. A draft of the resolution asks the city manager to carry out the recommendations.

The council should endorse all of the findings.

After much research and discussion, the 32-member task force supported expansion of nuclear generating capacity in Virginia but not lifting the moratorium on uranium mining because of the potential for damage to the Beach's water supply.

It supported research and development of clean-coal technologies but not the construction of the proposed Dendron Coal Plant in Surry County, because of its potential to hurt future development in Virginia Beach and the environment across the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The task force also recommended that exploration for offshore oil and natural gas be considered only if it doesn't interfere with Department of Defense and NASA operations, and only after federal regulations, production technology and spill response capabilities have been improved.

All of those are reasonable, responsible positions for the government of Virginia's largest oceanfront community.

Clean coal represents a goal, and research should continue. But coal generation remains a dirty enterprise, one that pollutes our skies and waterways. Worse, the promise of truly clean coal plants remains, for now, more fantasy than reality.

The city has acknowledged to the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission its concerns about the coal-fired plant but deferred to the regional agency's judgment.

Nuclear power must be part of any reasonable energy strategy for Virginia Beach. That doesn't mean, however, that the city - or any part of Hampton Roads - should embrace upstream mining that may result in uranium tainting our water supply.

The council has been on record opposing uranium mining, but a definitive vote is likely once the city has seen the results of its own study on the risks.

The council remains on record supporting offshore drilling, despite the myriad hazards that come with an industry so prone to pollution and accidents. Even after the nation's worst oil spill in April, the council has yet to reconsider its support.

A separate resolution tonight would allow the City Council to endorse the findings of the task force without pursuing its recommendations on uranium mining, offshore drilling and the coat plant. The council has been a diligent caretaker of the city's shorelines. It should take this opportunity to undo its vote on offshore drilling and reaffirm its stance on the proposed coal plant.