West Virginia is in the Spotlight of transition already
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From the Coalition of Regional Organizations, CCAN, SUN, WV Rivers, CAG, New Jobs & WV-EE

How can the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) help YOU save money? Join our FREE event on Saturday, March 25th in Wheeling, WV.

For nearly two years, we endured the many bumps and roadblocks traversing the long and winding road that led us to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Now this historic climate legislation has the potential to deeply impact our lives and the world around us by investing in clean energy, energy efficiency and community development initiatives. But you might wonder…

How will the IRA actually impact YOUR life? Let us tell you!

Join us Saturday, March 25, at 12:30 PM in Wheeling for an exciting FREE in-person presentation on how the Inflation Reduction Act can benefit YOU and your community!

The IRA is full of unprecedented investments and ambitious climate policies that can cut climate pollution 40 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2035 while creating hundreds of thousands of family sustaining jobs while advancing racial, economic and environmental justice. Are you in?

Join us March 25 in Wheeling to learn how to sort through this enormous bill and find out how you can personally save money, make energy efficient updates to your home, uplift your community and much, much more!

CCAN will be joining forces with Leah Barbor from Solar United Neighbors, Morgan King from West Virginia Rivers, Dani Parent from West Virginia Citizen Action Group, Brandi Reece from WV New Jobs Coalition and Morgan Fowler from West Virginians for Energy Efficiency to show how individuals, municipalities, and organizations can benefit from millions of dollars of investments contained in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Click here to RSVP for March 25 and learn how you and your community can benefit from these investments.

If you want to learn more but can’t make it to Wheeling, rest assured! We have many more IRA Roadshows planned for the upcoming months. Click this link to learn more about our next stops in Morgantown and Huntington.

Invite everyone you know and we’ll see you there!

>>> Prepared by Holly Bradley, Federal Team, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

A pipeline and two power plants have been cancelled, but look out in West Virginia? CLICK HERE

Chickahominy Power LLC has officially called it quits for their pipeline and power plant project. That means that Charles City County here in Virginia is free from fossil fuel development for the foreseeable future.

The company blamed its failure on the “renewable energy industry and state legislators that supported them.” To that we say: “Good! We’re proud that CCAN played a key role, too.” The tide is turning in Virginia. Thanks to the clean energy victories we’ve achieved with your help, companies such as Chickahominy are finding it much harder to build new polluting projects.

We plan to continue working to prevent future fossil fuel injustices like the Chickahominy gas pipeline and plant, to prevent methane pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.

Chickahominy Power has been a looming threat since October 2016 when the project was first proposed. This plant was intended to be a merchant plant – meaning that it would supply energy into the regional grid for profit but not provide energy directly to Virginia customers. The business venture struggled to find financing and faced stiff opposition from Charles City County residents. CCAN is proud to have partnered with Concerned Citizens of Charles City County and other groups to defeat this pipeline project.

The cancellation of Chickahominy comes only months after another proposed gas plant — C4GT — was canceled. That gas plant would have been built just a few miles from the proposed site of Chickahominy. At a time when scientists call climate change a “code red” for humanity, it would have been lunacy to build these two new massive gas plants when we know that clean energy is our future.

But it’s not over yet. Chickahominy Power has stated that it intends to site the project elsewhere – looking to either West Virginia or Ohio. We know that NO community deserves to be home to a massive merchant gas plant like Chickahominy Power, polluting the community and fueling climate change. That’s why our federal work — efforts to inject billions into clean energy across the US — is so vitally important.

Thank you all for your tireless work. We won here and we will continue to win – against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, TC Energy & Transco-Williams pipelines**, and whatever else comes our way.

>>> In solidarity, Elle de la Cancela, Virginia Grassroots Organizer, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

** — PPS: For more about these pipelines and for information on an upcoming comment period, click here.

Solidarity Action to STOP the DAPL

Reference: Nov 15 #NoDAPL Day of Action at Army Corps of Engineers

Letter from Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, November 12, 2016

Dear Friends,

Just a week before the presidential election, Indigenous leaders and protectors in Standing Rock, North Dakota, called on us to take to the streets this Tuesday, November 15th, in a massive, nationwide day of action to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Now, after Trump’s election, it’s all the more urgent that we answer this call. On November 15th, thousands of people will protest outside of Army Corps of Engineers offices, calling on President Obama to do everything in his power to stop this 1,172-mile, fracked-oil pipeline before he leaves office.

Are you with us? Find an action at an Army Corps of Engineers office near you on November 15th, or sign up to host an action in your city.

Protectors in Standing Rock have faced violent repression for standing in the way of oil industry bulldozers, all to protect their sacred lands, our water, and the climate. Those bulldozers are now getting closer and closer to the Missouri River. But President Obama has the power to put a stop to this pipeline.

Let’s do all we can now to demand that President Obama’s Army Corps rejects the pipeline. Let’s show President-elect Trump that our resistance to fossil fuels will not fade away — not now and not ever.

Are you with us? Click here to join an action near you on November 15th, or sign up to host one in your city. Events in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Norfolk, Annapolis, Richmond, Frederick, Charlottesville, and more are on the map.

We know that if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change we can’t afford to build a single new pipeline, or drill a single new fracking well or build a single new oil rig. That means no Dakota Access Pipeline. And that means no Atlantic Coast Pipeline or Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia. That means no fracking in Maryland, no oil rigs off the coast of Virginia, and no new compressor stations or power plants anywhere in our region. Not a single one.

Whether in North Dakota, Virginia or Maryland, people are saying: “This is our home, and our land, and we’re not going anywhere.”¹

Let’s flood the streets this Tuesday, November 15th, and show that we refuse to back down — we refuse to give up hope. Find (or start!) your local solidarity action here.

>>> For a fossil-free future, Mike Tidwell, Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

P.S. We’d like to add a special shout-out to 23 activists who were peacefully arrested outside Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s house on October 5th of this year. Those activists had their day in court on November 4th, and will be working together to launch Virginia’s own Pledge of Resistance next week: asking fellow Virginians and climate activists to follow their lead in pledging to commit non-violent civil disobedience if necessary to stop the construction of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline. By launching this pledge, these brave activists hope to show solidarity with the protectors in North Dakota, letting them know that we are willing to take the same risks right here in our region when and if the time comes.

1. The quote is from a landowner speaking out against the Mountain Valley Pipeline at a recent FERC hearing in Rocky Mount, Virginia.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

“Feds Give OK for Exports That Include Ohio Valley Gas”

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling News-Register, May 8, 2015

Wheeling, WV — Dominion Resources received final federal approval Thursday to export 770 million cubic feet of liquefied natural gas daily from its $3.8 billion Cove Point site in Maryland, pending a last-minute legal appeal from environmental groups.

While citing Energy Information Administration statistics that forecast U.S. natural gas production to reach an average rate of 72.4 billion cubic feet per day this year, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced approval of Dominion’s plans Thursday, much to the delight of industry leaders.

“This is a major milestone for a multi-billion-dollar project that has waited years for federal approval,” said Erik Milito, director of Upstream and Industry Operations for the Washington, D.C.-based American Petroleum Institute.

Photo: Dominion Resources’ Cove Point facility in eastern Maryland has received federal approval to export liquefied natural gas from a network that includes the Ohio Valley.
“This facility, and others like it, will allow America to be a net natural gas exporter by 2017, according to EIA. U.S. exports will help to bring energy security to our allies, while supporting jobs and economic growth in American manufacturing, construction, energy development, engineering, and other areas,” he said.

Dominion operates the Blue Racer Natrium complex in Marshall County, as well as other natural gas processing infrastructure in both Ohio and West Virginia, which will now be part of the network used to send material to Cove Point for export so the gas can be shipped throughout the world.

Energy department officials said Thursday they extensively and carefully reviewed Dominion’s project before signing off on it. They said exporting 770 million cubic feet per day from Cove Point for a period of 20 years is “not inconsistent with the public interest.”

“The Cove Point facility has been on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay as an LNG import terminal for nearly 40 years,” Dominion Energy President Diane Leopold said. “While we are making a substantial investment to add export capabilities, we intend to keep unchanged our commitment to being a good neighbor and responsible steward of the environment.”

“The Cove Point Liquefaction project is well under way with nearly 80 percent of engineering complete and construction at the site is on time and on budget,” Dominion Chairman, President and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II, added.

However, officials with the San Francisco-based Earthjustice environmental group continue fighting the Cove Point plan. The group filed a last-minute appeal against the project in the Washington, D.C., federal appellate court Thursday, while blaming the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for not properly evaluating how the plan will affect Calvert County, Md.

“Time and again, FERC has shown a blatant disregard for the health and safety of people and the climate and, we believe, the law. Tragically, FERC’s foot-dragging has allowed Dominion bulldozers to start construction before Calvert County residents had legal recourse to challenge the agency’s decision,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net