Lots of energy-related news in the Commonwealth, likely all related to Governor Bob McDonnell’s “Conference on Energy”, which opened yesterday and runs through Thursday in Richmond.
The conference, which is branded as making Virginia the “Energy Capital of the East Coast”, highlights:
- doing energy business in Virginia;
- information on state and federal regulatory activity;
- cutting edge projects;
- research and development currently underway at Virginia’s universities; and
- insights of business and government leaders about our energy future
The conference will hear from Gov. McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, both Republicans, on green jobs, so politics can’t be too far around the corner.
Reminding voters of his initiatives in green energy, and his personal investment in the Virginia economy, was former candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, Terry McAuliffe.
McAuliffe wrote via email:
Terry’s plan to produce the electric MyCar will “create around 5,000 jobs” and his other projects, including investing up to $1 billion in wind power and planning to convert a closed factory in Virginia into a biomass power plant, are all big steps to bring new jobs to the United States while lowering energy costs for American families.
McAuliffe was recently featured in Bloomberg News.
Both Bolling and McAuliffe have been rumored to aspire for their respective party’s gubernatorial nominations in 2013.
But McAuliffe’s cars will need a first-class energy grid to power them, and that’s where Google comes in.
Yesterday, Trans-Elect announced that the search-engine giant Google is investing tens of millions of dollars in an ambitious, $5 billion east coast energy grid, which will purportedly make it easier for wind farms to be established up-and-down the mid-Atlantic.
Bob Mitchell, chief executive of Trans-Elect, said at a news conference that the venture constitutes “a huge, huge bold project” that would “stimulate development that is otherwise impossible” offshore along the East Coast. The grid would transmit 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy.
Rick Needham, director of green business operations at Google, cautioned that the project is in its early stages but said, “we’re willing to take calculated risks on large-scale projects that can move an industry.” He added, “It provides a smart, scalable platform for future expansion.”
While the governor has publicly said he is for a comprehensive energy solution, it is clear that he favored beginning offshore drilling for natural gas and oil. However, those plans were put on hold by the Obama Administration after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this past April.
Opposing any offshore drilling is the Sierra Club, who used the opportunity of the governor’s conference to highlight their own report on energy.
The report argues that McDonnell’s plan is too focused on oil, gas drilling and coal. The group supports more initiatives like McAuliffe’s and Google’s.
“The Sierra Club has willfully chosen to ignore this administration’s positive record of supporting alternatives as part of a comprehensive energy solution for Virginia,” said Tucker Martin, spokesman for the governor. “We favor an ‘all of the above’ approach that uses coal, oil, gas, wind, solar and all forms of energy, along with conservation and efficiency, to create good jobs while keeping energy affordable for our citizens. Our interest is the economic well-being of the people of Virginia, not the narrow ideological demands of one special interest lobby.”
