Virginia cannot approve more dirty energy investment if it really wants to tackle climate change impacts

Richmond, VA — Today, Delegates Lee Carter, Del. Sam Rasoul, Food & Water Action, and a coalition of over 50 groups including the Arlington Green Party across Virginia officially released a letter urging Governor Ralph Northam to stop investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure. The letter specifically calls on the governor’s administration to deny state permits for two new pipelines in Northern Virginia and in Pittsylvania that will lead to more dependence on fossil fuels and the development of new dirty fuel infrastructure in the state.

“Virginia which today has no commercial solar farms or wind tower farms must leave coal and fracked gas in the ground, and move immediately to expand sustainable solar and wind technology throughout our state, and not expand pipelines meant to last 50 years or more,” says Arlington Greens chair John Reeder. He added that compressor stations and pipelines endanger nearby communities and cause environmental degradation.

Virginia is currently reviewing air and water permits that would allow the Southeastern Trail Expansion project to build out a new pipeline in Northern Virginia and expand several compressor stations. In Pittsylvania, the MVP Southgate Extension would also add 30 new miles of pipeline in Virginia.

The group letter criticizes past decisions to allow the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipelines that will be transporting fracked gas across the state. Both of those pipelines have garnered strong opposition because of the negative health and safety impacts they will have on Virginia communities, in particular, vulnerable communities that already bear the disproportionate brunt of fossil fuel negative impacts.

“Governor Northam should direct state agencies to deny permits for any new fossil fuel infrastructure if he’s truly committed to the 100% renewable energy future he announced last week,” said Jorge Aguilar, the southern region director for Food & Water Action. “The governor’s commitment to addressing climate change will mean nothing if his agencies are still approving pipelines and gas plants behind the scenes.”

“People of faith know that more pipelines endanger our neighbors both near and far,” said Jonathan Lacock-Nisly, Director of Faithful Advocacy for Interfaith Power & Light, which engages congregations in addressing climate change. “We urge the governor to instead join caring congregations across Virginia in shifting to cleaner power.”

This release comes on the heels of Northam issuing Executive Order 43 last week, which failed to make any mention of halting current fossil fuel infrastructure projects like the Chickahominy gas plant in Charles City and other pipelines, which will also wreak havoc on the environment and communities of Virginia.

“The fight against Chickahominy Power gas plant demonstrates what is at stake for all of us, starting with the frontline community whose well water is directly under threat and who will be near to the 6.5 million tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually from the plant,” said Dr. Mary Finley-Brook, PhD, Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative. “After stealing our water and poisoning our air, this gas plant will become a stranded asset when we move to truly clean renewables.”

Full letter here: https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/govnorthamopposeffpermitsgroupsignonletter.pdf

Arlington County gives subsidies to builders who obtain LEED certification for a new building that is supposed to cut energy use by 25-30 percent. The main subsidy given is zoning approval to add more floors and height to a new building, and in some cases tax credits. The first building was certified in the Arlington program in 2006.

During 2006-16, about 89 buildings were built in Arlington with a so-called “Green building certification” that include mainly LEED (Green Building Council), Earth Craft, Energy Star, and Water Sense EPA. But in the 13 years that program has operated, County staff have been unable to verify that these certified buildings use less energy than comparable non-certified buildings.

Nationwide, independent researchers cast doubt that LEED or similar rating systems result in any significant energy reduction. One researcher obtained energy use data for 10 major metro areas with large numbers of green certified (mainly LEED) buildings, and found that these building use MORE energy than comparable non-certified buildings, according to research from Oberlin College professor John Schofield. Perversely, he found newer LEED buildings tend to host more energy intensive activities, such as more computers and cellphones.

Thus, although Arlington has about 90 more energy certified buildings, it is not apparent that these buildings actually use less energy, and based on more comprehensive studies of ten major metro areas including Washington DC, such building would be expected to use more energy and not less.

There are proven ways to reduce energy in commercial buildings but these largely involve external factors—addition of solar panels outside the building, geothermal heating and cooling, and sourcing of renewable electricity.

The county government should revise its green building program to require developers to use external technology rather than rely on a certification program that results in no or even higher energy use. The current county program is green washing: allowing a developer to claim public relations credit and a significant subsidy for doing nothing to cut energy use.

During 2010-18 in Arlington, the use of natural gas rose by 30 percent to 91 million therms while use of electricity fell by 9 percent to 3.1 billion kilo watt hours, according to data from the Arlington County Government. In terms of carbon emissions, total carbon emissions declined by about 4 percent during 2010-2018, but most of this occurred because of lower commercial and government use related to fewer office workers in Arlington.

Residential use of electricity and natural gas both rose in this period. Use of electricity in homes rose by 3 percent to 1.7 billion kilowatt hours, and use of natural gas by rose by 54 percent to 61 million therms. Combined carbon emissions in residences rose by 14 percent to about 1.1 million metric tons of carbon. Raw data were supplied by the county government and converted to carbon equivalents using EPA data.

The increased residential use was propelled upwards by a 9-percent rise in population of Arlington rising to about 226,000 in January 2019 from 208,000 in 2010. However the rise in energy use exceeded the rise in population indicating that residents are intensifying their use of energy in their homes.
For the commercial and government sectors which experienced a drop in gas and electricity use, the large increase in empty office space and the reduction in the number of federal employees located in Arlington triggered this decline.

With the expected entry of thousands of Amazon employees in Arlington over the next 5 years or so, it is likely that the commercial sector will return to its prior energy use as office space is filled and more office buildings are constructed.

The Arlington Community Energy Plan adopted in 2013 has thus yet to indicate a shift in the energy patterns in commerce, government and residential uses, and the slight 4-percent drop in carbon emissions is entirely related to increased office vacancies. A return to high office use and the entry of Amazon HQ2 is likely to lead to a rise in overall county emissions. This will make impossible Arlington County’s energy plan goal to attain a 50-percent drop in emissions in the next 20 years.

Arlington Greens voted to oppose the removal of over 30 mature trees and paving that green space adjacent to the Reed School in Westover area of Arlington on September 4. The school board will demolish the existing Reed School and as part of that plan it would remove trees and greens pace, among the trees are a silver maple of 54-inch diameter and red maple 42-inch diameter that are over 80 years old. The plan calls for this area to be paved and thus increasing storm water run off in an area that was just flooded two months ago. The removal of the trees and paving is a landscaping plan and has no relation to the new school building.

Many local residents have objected to the removal of the trees which also shade and retain rain water which otherwise would flow into the school building site.

We urge Arlington residents to tell the Arlington School Board to leave the trees on the Reed School property alone and allow nature to co-exist with the elementary school as it has for the past 80 years. Children can enjoy the trees and green space. Email – [email protected]
U.S. Mail – Syphax Education Center, 2110 Washington Blvd, Arlington, Virginia 22204
By Phone 703-228-6015 to leave a voice mail message.

Schools and nature and trees belong together. Trees also provide canopy and cooling to Arlington which has many urban hot spots today and only getting worse. We need more trees in Arlington. it will also cost the public funds to pave over and remove the trees.