Wise Co. Officials Bribed by Dominion? "It Probably Happened If The Company Said So"
The Wise County Board of Supervisors' efforts to endorse the proposed coal-fired power plant turned into a comedy of errors last week. Within the story is an anecdote that tells you all you need to know about how ...- Easy and inexpensive it is to buy off local officials
- It's always been so easy for energy companies to have their way with rural communities
- No great atrocity can be committed without the help of enablers
Am I overselling it? You tell me:Some county officials and a handful of supervisors traveled to Richmond earlier this week to speak in favor of the plant during a State Corporation Commission hearing that eventually will determine if Dominion receives a permit to build it.
Dominion officials who met with the Bristol Herald Courier’s editorial board on Friday said the company picked up the tab for 24 supporters who stayed in $99 hotel rooms. Dominion also paid for a meal.
[Board Chairman Bob] Adkins was asked by the Herald Courier before Friday’s meeting if Dominion paid for hotel rooms of county officials who attended the SCC hearing.
"They reserved the rooms for us," he said. "We paid our own way up."
He said the tab "may or may not be picked up by the county administrator," but those who attended paid for their own meals and expenses.
When told Dominion officials said earlier in the day the company paid for a catered meal, Adkins replied, "We had a nice supper."
When told Dominion officials also said they paid for the rooms, Adkins said it probably happened if the company said so.
You can almost picture it as a comedy skit, with the chairman saying, "Whatever Dominion's answer is? That's my answer too. What? You say Dominion changed their answer? Then I change my answer too. And if they change their minds, my mind will then change with them." I just hope the voters of Wise County are paying attention.
Miles, it is too easy to reach conclusion that Dominion is bribing officials, paid off state legislators, etc. Its more complex than this, which is what I have been trying to get through to and to RK readers.
ReplyDeleteI have done my best on RK's http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=12217 to explain the root of the matter. Unfortunately RK's server or whatever, would not allow me to include all the links I had in my posting, otherwise I could have listed everything with facts from sources. Perhaps the post was too long? I do have them url sources and if anyone wants them, I can send a MS Word document with all the URL's.
To my surprise, today's WashPost reports that the State of Maryland will try to reduce electricity consumption by 15% by the year 2015 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/13/AR2008011303464.html?hpid=topnews
Gov. O'Malley's press release about the strategy was issued in July 2007. http://www.gov.state.md.us/pressreleases/070725.html. I would suspect and hope that the Summit strategy is what is being presented at today's proposed press release.
If EEC initiatives this agressive were to develop in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states, the current grid expansion proposals may take a different turn.
By comparison VA has only 10% by 2020.
On the one hand, Dominion is merely playing by the rules set for them by our elected officials. But on the other hand, when Dominion is making travel arrangements for and feeding elected officials like they're Dominion employees, it looks an awful lot like Dominion is writing the rules Dominion plays by.
ReplyDeleteButt out you smelly hippies. Wise Countians are in favor of it, so stfu.
ReplyDeleteMy take on the arrangements is that they were probably only trying to make things more convenient for them. Sort of like "sorry we have to do this, please let us try to handle your trip costs." If there was really something there, they wouldn't hide it. Besides, DVP has played this game before and of all the entities "affected" by Wise County or new transmission proposals, DVP is by far the better players in this game and you are right, they know the rules.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, when DVP announced it would be building the clean coal plant in SW somewhere, the senior Congressman, a democrat no less, pretty much sealed the deal. DVP has even finished prepping the plant site for the new foundation.
The need for the power is there. The need for baseline and peak capacity is there. The need for something cheap and reliablity is there, especially to offset more estimate resources such as renewables which are also intermittent.
Thanks to the NIETC, the PJM is allowing demand to grow in the NE and since it is a free market, DVP is exporting Virginia's electricity because it can. DVP can help bring down utility rates in the NE by supplying cheap coal while NE will get an injection of other renewable resources sooner than our state.
The PJM has allowed the industry to shuffle generation location. The plan is to replace the old more expensive & more polluting peaking generators in NJ, DC and soon the city of Alexandria, with coal from OH-PA-WV-VA to be shipped via this new extra high-voltage transmission highways. They are assuming proposals for new generation capacity in that region will meet too great of an opposition due to its crowdiness and lack of available land comparitively to the coal fields in the Appalachian mtns. The environmenal complaints the industry would face from coal plants in the mountains, will pale in comparison from those from the if they expand generation around the i-95 corridor.
The PJM method of calculating demand and constraints doesn't permit them at this time to consider the impact of EEC and intermittent energy resources because they claim they are unproven(?) and inmeasurable to their standards.
The industry has been studying how to increase incentives for EEC by decoupling profits from sales with a more dynamic pricing scheme, as you know, and basically they can't bring their model to market quick enough it appears.
In the meanwhile, the PJM has its responsibilities based on what the energy market presents.
Its very easy to see the surface as a simple matter of financial buyoffs. However, after a look back at the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and beyond, as well as recent FERC's reports on DR and AMI, plus all the info available at the PJM, you can see that these little buggers have been planning on all of this for a very long time.
Grid expansion had been "denied" or put off during the late 90's and early 2000's primary they say, from public & environmental opposition. An attempt to address the matter failed in 2001 but after the blackout of 2003 and 9/11, the EPAct of 2005 sailed thru Congress and the NIETC study went by everyone. Now they can run transmission w/o endless opposition and delays.
So here we are today, staring at all the proposals on draft and listening to the cries from the public. This is where the "overplay" of renewables comes into the equation. Like SmartGrid, renewables are moreorless immature and it will take DR to fully capitalize on their implementation, w/o replying on backup generation capacity.
Kaine is wrong on this, but o is Leslie Byrne. Her latest congressional candidate FED report shows she took $2,300 from a top Dominion Resources lobbyist and that same lobbyist also sponsored a fundraiser for her.
ReplyDeleteIronically, Gerry Connolly opposes the Wise County power plant.