Profile avatar
vgcclimate.bsky.social
Virginia Grassroots Coalition Working group for Climate and Clean Energy Supporting VA legislation to lower emissions and accelerate an affordable, clean energy economy. https://virginiagrassroots.org/coalition-wg-climate.php
190 posts 237 followers 230 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter

Join our weekly call-in action "Holler at Congress" on Thursday, March 20, at 12 pm to tell your legislators to let the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency do its job! us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Don't we know it. 🤑

Today on Volts: the costs of accommodating all those new data centers on the grid are being subtly shifted to ordinary electricity ratepayers, via rate cases. And in the process, Big Tech & utilities are forming an unholy alliance against grid reform. Two Harvard Law scholars get into the details.

This is some excellent good trouble

Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill that would require certain large energy users, like data centers and cryptocurrency businesses, to pay their share for electricity use.

'traditional ways of setting rates don’t fit Big Tech’s massive, immediate demand for more electricity'. County governments and co-op generators are too captured by the big $ of big tech. We need our State Corporation Commission to put the brakes on and figure out the impacts on residents.

👀 Want to see a real-life working Thermal Energy Network (TEN)? @jcsilber.bsky.social shows you in this photo tour of @eversource.bsky.social's TEN in MA - the first TEN operated by a utility in the U.S.! #EnergySky #BuildingDecarb #Geothermal #ThermalEnergyNetwork zpr.io/XnNHgiBLWS7k

wapo.st/41ify6Y [Gift Article] 'It's like having a giant new train yard in your community' & 'will increase the state's carbon emissions.' Examples of citizens fighting regulatory shortcuts in front of the utility commission in MN, & winning.

As Director of the Henricopolis Soil and Water District, Claiborne Yarbrough has been a champion for Henrico families and protecting our natural resources. I'm honored to have her support!

You got this memo, Dominion Energy?

Trump wants to privatize and pay-wall information that lets you know when to evacuate for a hurricane or a wildfire, or when to shelter for a tornado. NOAA’s forecasting centers keep Americans safe and informed every day—we can’t afford to lose this lifesaving public service.

DC rally: Fri 7 March, Lincoln Memorial 12pm - 4pm. #StandupforScience

Balico, LLC wants to build a massive methane gas plant & data centers in Chatham, #Virginia. Say NO to Balico at the Pittsylvania Co. Board of Supervisors meeting on 3/18! appvoices.org/events/march...

Strong & clear statement by @ametsoc.org: "Recent terminations within the government workforce for science are likely to cause irreparable harm & have far-reaching consequences for public safety, economic well-being, & United States' global leadership." www.ametsoc.org/ams/...

Wildfires and insurance in CA - insights from a UVA insurance scholar.

The cognitive dissonance is real, yall. H/T @ianlivingston.bsky.social

As true here, as in Australia, re utilities and their profits-over-people motivations. But what a dream case to have parties with competing home electrification proposals! And acknowledgement of climate risks that must be addressed.

Just in one year, just the clean air act, prevented hundreds of thousands of early deaths. The lowest possible estimate of the benefits found that benefits outweigh the costs by 3 to 1. The most likely estimate is 30 to 1. The high estimate is 90 to 1. Ninety. Nine Zero. www.epa.gov/clean-air-ac...

This. Every day. This. Fewer Americans die because of NOAA.

Legislation HB2037 (Bulova) progressed to the Governor's desk. ALLOW localities to require Solar canopies! #DillonRuleState

Explore clean energy tariffs and more in this installment of the @canarymedia.com series on data center impacts on our clean energy transition.

Part two of Canary Media's data center series explores a big problem for utilities trying to serve the AI boom — the uncertainty around where data centers will be built, how much power they'll need, and whether the AI boom will turn out to be a bust: www.canarymedia.com/articles/uti... #energysky

prospect.org/environment/... Understand the rigged system. Guaranteed profit, and (it can't be emphasized more) no RISK to shareholders. Risk of stranded assets, after they over build gas power plants for the voracious data center industry in Virginia - that's on rate-payers. Unless the SCC acts.

We really appreciate working with @earthjustice.bsky.social on this lawsuit. "Organic farmers and environmental groups sued the Agriculture Department on Monday over its scrubbing of references to climate change from its website." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/c...

Who gets to decide what is 'just and reasonable' profit for utilities? 'A hell of a henhouse fox'. Will our Virginia State Corporation Commission call it out?

'Utilities that have sought for years to win regulatory approval for new gas plants have seized on data center load forecasts as a new rationale.'

Look how much money they have for their data center mega-projects build out in Virginia. And our legislators just quietly let go of any plans for guardrails on them in this legislative session again, only putting forward what the State Corp Comm is already empowered to do.

315 projects, $1.8B within 50mi of Norfolk, Virginia is just one example. @bluevirginia.bsky.social @donscott757.bsky.social Investments in infrastructure and resilience all over Virginia from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law can be explored with this tool.

The costs of climate change had an accounting mechanism within our government. Removing it benefited polluters. #Project2025

“We’re going to force a vote, force everybody to declare where they are on this sham emergency declaration,” @kaine.senate.gov said. Press Release from Kaine and Heinrich. The legislation is privileged, meaning that the Senate will be required to vote on it. The vote is expected next week.

A D grade for Community Power in Virginia. If only our shareholder profit-motivated utilities were regulated to meet climate commitments - we would all be better off.

Press Release: Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) & Martin Heinrich (D-NM) & environmental leaders held a press conference calling for the end of President Trump’s war on affordable, American-made energy, which will raise energy costs for Americans and kill high-quality jobs. #NoEnergyEmergency

Where did billions in climate and infrastructure funding go? From clean energy projects to bridges, this interactive tool shows what projects lawmakers announced in your neighborhood. grist.org/accountabili... #IRA #BIL #Climate #Climate #Trump

Terrific lineup for the Friday Power Lunch 200th episode. 👉@spanbergerforva.bsky.social talks to us about her campaign, 👉Indivisible's regional organizer updates us & 👉Sierra Club Comms team shares a wakeup call on data center impacts in Virginia. Thanks @networknova.bsky.social !

On Climate and Campaign Finance in Virginia's General Assembly - the modest progress that might be made, but for a Republican Governor's veto. @bigmoneyoutva.bsky.social

We want to know if Virginia is protected against 'mobile' gas turbines. Maybe not? And the data centers just keep being built with the guarantee that our monopoly utility will get them powered.

Steve Haner used to hate the idea of offshore wind coming to Virginia. For years, he used his conservative think-tank to try and stop America’s largest project from being built. Now, he’s no longer trying to stop it: “Virginia needs the power.” My latest 👇 www.canarymedia.com/articles/off...

Virginia's offshore wind project must continue, even the heritage foundation-affiliated think tank, TJIPP, says so.

Incredible follow-up on Hurricane Helene victims from @ninalakhani.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...