Not sure which Democratic candidate is best? Take a look at their stance on climate and then please vote in Tuesday’s primary! Links are below to see where your polling place is!
In three short days, on Tuesday, June 13, Virginia will have a primary election to decide who the candidates for Governor will be. Hopefully everyone in VA is aware of how important this primary is, and are all geared up to vote on Tuesday. Now, on the face of it, you’d think both of these guys would make a great governor, and either way we’d be in good shape. But you’d be wrong.
Two Nice Guys
There is no question that Dr. Northam has been an incredible voice for women, children and healthcare in our state. All the work he did and every vote he made while Lieutenant Governor was admirable. His platform is also great – he stands for quality health care for all, a strong public school system, gun violence protection, and making Virginia a safe, welcoming place for everyone. In addition, he just seems like a very nice man.
Tom Perriello also seems like a nice guy. And everything he says reflects an incredible new vision for our state. One that features clean energy, fair minimum wages, affordable access to women’s health care, higher education and equal rights for all. I do have to note that some of those votes he made while he was a congressperson are questionable – I asked his campaign about it, and got a somewhat satisfying answer. BUT, I don’t care, because Perriello is the ONLY candidate who is aware of how important it is for us to address climate change with aggressive action.
Especially now, after Trump quit the Paris Accord, we need a Governor who will stand up to Dominion Power’s monopoly on our state, which is a disaster for the climate, and oppose the construction of its dangerous fracked gas pipelines, which are a threat to Virginians’ environment, air quality and health.
The Dominion Power & Pipeline Problem
So here’s the problem. Northam has accepted $22,000 from Dominion power this year for his campaign. In fact, Dominion donates to almost every major candidate in Virginia politics, except Tom Perriello, who refused their donations.
If you’re not aware, Dominion has a monopoly on Virginia’s energy market, and makes it very difficult for renewable energy to thrive in VA the way it is in our neighboring states. That’s because solar and wind are going to cut into their business, so they write regulations that make it hard for those models to thrive. They can do this because they actually write the laws that govern their business (no joke!), and the representatives generally rubber stamp them because they’ve received money from the company.
Now, this is extra bad because Dominion has a very similar situation to Exxon’s oil extraction commitments. The company has invested a lot of money into the natural gas market and it needs to build pipelines and pump natural gas through them in order to get a return on their investment. The survival of their business is at stake if they can’t keep Virginians using natural gas for their power. So they’ll do anything to be sure that this investment into natural gas remains viable, and wind and solar do not fit into that equation. That’s why their new Integrated Resource Plan that came out in May, which says that Dominion has a new commitment to renewable energy, is actually a craftily worded bunch of bull.
Pipelines, pipelines, pipelines!
Seems like we hear about pipelines a lot in the news lately, so what’s this all about? Well, in order to keep building, Dominion wants two brand new fracked gas pipelines to go through Virginia: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. They also want to add to another existing pipeline that goes through Fairfax County – the WB express. This spells disaster for Virginia’s environment and our citizens’ health, with the inevitable leaks, toxic chemical emissions, explosions, fires and spills. In addition, the climate will take a huge hit from these pipelines – together the Atlantic Coast and the Mountain Valley pipelines are projected to triple Virginia’s carbon emissions.
The fact that these are fracked gas pipelines is extra concerning. It’s often said that natural gas is a cleaner type of energy than oil, but that’s only true at the point of use, like in your boiler. Getting it there is a whole other story. The fracking process used to extract the natural gas requires dangerous chemicals and emits methane, which, over time, is a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than CO2. This process contaminates the groundwater around the site, harms air quality and causes damage to our climate. Then there are all the other risks along the pipeline route, mentioned above: leaks, fires, explosions and more.
So What Can We Do?
Vote for Tom Perriello on Tuesday. Plain and simple. Perriello is the only candidate who has refused Dominion’s money, and he is the only candidate who has come out against the pipelines. Of course all the other issues like health care, jobs and fair wages are important. But in the end, if our water sources are contaminated, our air is polluted, and our climate spins out of control, it just magnifies all the other problems our society faces. In fact, I would argue that if we don’t have a functioning climate, the other issues are irrelevant.
So let’s get out there! If you don’t know where your polling place is, go to http://ourrev.us/VA-Votes. To be sure you’re registered, click on http://ourrev.us/Voter-Lookup-VA. Now tell your friends, share this post, spread the word however you can, because spreading awareness is the only way we’re going to save our planet, people!
