As a major employer in the state of Virginia and one of the largest industries in the U.S., the chemical industry and its 46,000 Virginia employees have an enormous stake in how lawmakers end up constructing climate legislation. ACC wants to work with legislators to create a climate policy that will benefit the environment while limiting the harmful effects on Virginia’s regional economy.

Ironically, while many of the folks at the rally mentioned here really don’t understand the danger of climate change and the need for renewable energy, many power companies do. As the article notes, Dominion Energy is already gearing up to comply with the bill. Duke Energy, one of the nation’s other largest electric utilities, publicly supports the bill. The CEO of Duke has a rather apt way of putting it. “I try to apply the grandchildren’s test.” he says. “I look at my grandchildren and ask myself, ‘Will the actions I take today create a better life for them and their children tomorrow? When they are grown, will they look back with pride on the decisions their grandfather made, to help ensure a brighter future for them and generations to come?’” While it is rare to see this type of ethical commitment applied to large businesses in the US, none of us can fail to recognize the wisdom of his words. Whether we have grandchildren or not, we all hope that someday we will have grandchildren that are proud of us. Climate change poses far too great a risk to our grandchildren to ignore.

Dominion has got the same idea as Gene Hite. Dominion’s building wind turbines because it knows that if it wants to grow as a company—if it wants its jobs to stay here in Virginia rather than get stolen by China—than the state needs to be a leader in the clean energy economy. If we don’t start the clean economy here, it’ll take root overseas instead.

The same day as this astroturf rally, Republican Sen. Frank Wagner was helping facilitate the construction of Virginian wind turbines that could provide 8,000 to 10,000 Virginia jobs. Check it out: http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_windfarm_0904sep04,0,7182547.story

Now is really the Old Dominion’s moment. I’m tired of corporate polluters and special interests having control over family budgets. Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb: why should my monthly utility bill be at the mercy of foreign regimes? Let’s take back control with clean energy that’s made in Virginia, provides jobs for Virginians, and works for Virginia in the independent way that’s the reason we love this state.

Schnare is incorrect about the loss of jobs in Virginia as a result of this bill – according to a study done by Pew Trusts, 17,000 jobs have already been created in Virginia by almost 1500 clean energy companies, with venture capitalists investing nearly $71 million in the industry. I think Gene Hite, mentioned in this article as one of the founders of the Virginia Clean Jobs Coalition, makes a very good point about the possibilities for retooling old industry – a much more cost effective undertaking than building from scratch. There are plenty of opportunities for jobs in this sector, and his is a good example.

Dominion Energy is smart to begin jumping on board. It’s common sense to think about the clean energy bill as this: it costs LESS money to save energy than to buy it. Businesses have caught on to this already – DOW has invested $1 billion in efficiency upgrades and has already saved $9 billion since. BP has already saved $2 billion in upgrades, and United Technologies has cut their energy use by 45% in just 2 years. This is why the CBO has reported that the bill will not only pay for itself, but actually pump money back INTO the economy – because upgrading and using renewable sources actually saves money over time. For homeowners, the DOE has estimated that the bill would only cost the average individual only a dime a day – and that’s taking into account the alleged rise in costs of household goods. This is because over time, people will actually save money. If you spend a few dollars caulking, the money saved on your next energy bill could be used to invest in insulation, and the money saved from that could be invested in new windows. It really is a no-brainer, and people will learn that soon.

Also, shockingly enough, Virginia’s coast has been identified as the second most vulnerable region of the United States to climate change impacts, just behind New Orleans. Do we want hurricanes along with our recession? I should think not. So let’s all of us get behind this bill, everyone from Senator Webb to the average energy consumer, because the carbon cap will ensure protection for Virginia’s environment AND economy.