Some call Kaine’s efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions modest

By REX SPRINGSTON
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
Published: August 28, 2008

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine should be more ambitious in cutting emissions linked to global warming, environmentalists told a state panel yesterday.

Kaine wants Virginia to cut emissions of so-called greenhouse gases 30 percent from projected 2025 levels.

Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, and others asked yesterday for an 80 percent cut from 1990 levels by 2050.

“Today, we are asking you to save our planet’s climate,“ Besa said.

The speakers addressed the Kaine-appointed Commission on Climate Change during afternoon and evening hearings at Virginia Commonwealth University.

One commission member, state Sen. Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, called an 80 percent cut “ridiculous.“

“The groups that came up there . . . represent a very small minority of Virginia’s population,“ Wagner said during a break. “What the governor proposed, I think, is ambitious.“

But another commission member, Del. Kenneth R. Plum, D-Fairfax, called Kaine’s proposal too modest.

“The numbers ought to challenge us,“ Plum said. He hadn’t decided on an appropriate goal.

L. Preston Bryant Jr., Virginia’s secretary of natural resources and commission chairman, said Kaine directed the panel to recommend ways to achieve the 30 percent cut, but the panel was free to be more ambitious.

Experts say Earth is warming unnaturally because of a continuing buildup of gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, released by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

Ned Leonard, a vice president for the Alexandria-based American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a pro-coal group, said the state should join industry in funding research into ways to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants.

Power from coal is affordable, Leonard said. “Reliance on other resources generally means higher rates.“

Other speakers asked the panel to avoid actions that would hurt the economy, or hurt farmers. Yet others spoke against power from coal and in favor of sources such as wind and solar energy.

Bruce Ritchie, a bearded, self-proclaimed “hillbilly” from Rockingham County, suggested energy conservation should start at home.

“I look around the room and everybody’s wearing coats, but some people in the back of the room are shivering” in the air-conditioning, he said.

Kaine appointed the 43-member panel eight months ago to investigate ways that global warming threatens Virginia and ways to address those threats.

The commission has held six meeting across the state. It will meet again Sept. 10 and Nov. 13, both times in the Patrick Henry Building at Capitol Square.

The panel is to present its recommendations by Dec. 15.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or