Category Archives: energy

Councilperson Agelasto’s Meeting/Sierra Club Tour Of VCU On Wednesday

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There are two events on Wednesday evening that may be of interest.

From City Council press release:

The Honorable Parker C. Agelasto, Councilman, Richmond City Council, Richmond Central 5th Voter District will hold a district-wide meeting in the Richmond Central 5th Voter District. This is part of regular meetings Councilman Agelasto holds, which include information on his Richmond Central 5th Voter District goals and accomplishments; a thematic agenda of current interest; and, special guests. This meeting is free and open to the public and all Richmond Central 5th Voter District residents are invited and encouraged to attend. The planned agenda/discussion topics for the upcoming meeting include:

· “Richmond Grows Gardens Program” Presentation
Ms. Victoria Campbell, Community Garden Coordinator
Richmond Department of Parks Recreation and Community Facilities

· Richmond Government Procurement Presentation
Ms. Tillie Jackson, Deputy Director
Richmond Department of Procurement Services

· “Richmond Alley Blitz Program” Presentation
Mr. Bobby Vincent, Deputy Director of Operations
Richmond Department of Public Works

· New Richmond Public Utilities Bill Design and Water
Drainage/Standing Water Presentation
Mr. Robert Steidel, Director
Richmond Department of Public Utilities

· Updates from The Honorable Parker C. Agelasto, Councilman,
Richmond City Council Richmond Central 5th Voter District

WHEN Wednesday, June 11, 2014
6:30-8:00 p.m.

WHERE Maymont Park – Maymont Stone Barn
1700 Hampton Street; Richmond, Virginia

WHO The Honorable Parker C. Agelasto, Councilman
Richmond City Council, Richmond Central 5th Voter District

CONTACT For more information, please contact The Honorable Parker C. Agelasto, Councilman, Richmond City Council, Richmond Central 5th Voter District, at 804.646.6050 (tel), or parker.agelasto@richmondgov.com (email)

Councilman Agelasto’s Upcoming Richmond Central 5th Voter District Meetings ___

Wednesday, August 13, 2014; 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Randolph Community Center; 1425 Grayland Avenue; Richmond, VA

Wednesday, October 8, 2014; 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Richmond Public Schools – Swansboro Elementary School
3160 Midlothian Turnpike; Richmond, Virginia

Wednesday, December 10, 2014; 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Virginia War Memorial; 621 South Belvidere Street; Richmond, Virginia

And then from the Sierra Club Falls of the James:

Walking Tour of VCU’s Green Initiatives (click here for link)

Wednesday, June 11, 2014
7:00 PM

Shafer Court Dining Hall (VCU)
810 Cathedral Place, Richmond, VA

Steve Heinitz, with VCU’s Office of Sustainability, will lead us on a tour of several of VCU’s greening initiatives on campus: a green roof, a roof-mounted wind turbine, solar collectors integrated into the design of a parking deck, and more! Wear comfortable shoes and bring your water bottle. Parking on street or the Laurel St. parking deck at the corner of Laurel and W. Grace Streets.

WTVR News: Officials discuss rerouting trains around Richmond that transport volatile oil

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WTVR CBS 6 recently had a new report on talks with the railroad company and government officials about possibly rerouting the trains that carry the volatile oil around Richmond. This follows the recent disaster in Lynchburg.

Excerpt:

Fire officials define the “worst case scenario” for this situation would involve 33 train cars derailing in Shockoe Bottom.

If that were to happen during peak business hours, the impact could stretch to a half mile radius encompassing hundreds of thousands of people.

Lynchburg Derailment Raises Richmond Concerns

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A train derailment yesterday in Lynchburg train destroyed three oil tanker cars and spilled an estimated 50,000 gallons of crude oil into the James River.

Thankfully no one was hurt in the upriver incident, but it has raised local concerns. The Times Dispatch reports:

The spill also prompted Richmond utility officials to prepare to possibly switch to an alternative source for the city’s drinking water supply, which depends primarily on the James. With the river at flood stage, that isn’t likely, said city officials, who plan to use booms to capture any oil nearing the treatment plant.
The incident also cast a bright light on the rapidly expanding rail transport of crude oil from the Upper Plains through Virginia — and downtown Richmond — to terminals and refineries in the Northeast, raising safety and environmental concerns all along the way.
“It’s difficult to get Virginia to pay attention to this because they don’t think of their being part of the oil patch, but now they are,” said Fred Millar, an Arlington County-based consultant on hazardous materials safety who has warned Virginia officials of potential dangers from the transport of crude oil across the state.

Personally, while I am not panicking, I do know of a few neighbors who have filled water containers despite safety assurances. This may cause more scrutiny of trains going by the neighborhood along the Kanawha Canal.

Who Wears The Kerosene Hat?

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Some neighbors were discussing emergency heating measures and someone mentioned kerosene which reminded me of the band Cracker-

From Wikipedia:

Kerosene Hat is Cracker’s second album, released on August 24, 1993. It reached #1 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekerschart, and #59 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The well-known hit single from this album, “Low”, helped Cracker gain widespread notice.
According to frontman David Lowery, the album’s title comes from the band’s early days in Richmond, Virginia. Lowery lived with Cracker guitarist Johnny Hickman in an old dilapidated house whose only source of heat came from two kerosene heaters. To buy more kerosene meant a cold walk to a nearby gas station, so before he left the house, Lowery would bundle up and put on an old wool hunting cap – hence the “kerosene hat”. “To this day,” says Lowery, “the smell of kerosene reminds me of the poverty and the wistful hope we had for our music.”[2]

As I have mentioned before, David Lowery lived at 239 S. Laurel Street.

As for heating without electric heat pumps, many Hill houses still rely on City natural gas for heating. Many have old fashioned and new fashioned wood stoves. There are also wood pellet stoves.

I keep hoping we will eventually see affordable, efficient, residential hydrogen fuel cells that can easily create electricity with natural gas and store it and solar power for emergency situations.

Parts of Neighborhood Lose Power Due to Cumberland Incident

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From City’s Traffic Accidents and Hazards report page:

S LAUREL ST/CUMBERLAND ST ASSIST FIRE DEPARTMENT, TRAFFIC AND/OR CROWD CONTROL On Scene 10:37 AM COMPL ADVISES THE WIRE IS STILL ATTACHED…BUT IS SMOKING…E5 OS WIRE ON FIRE

From Laurel Street neighbor:

FYI
Power just went out for us and neighbors all around. We called the Dominion and they said it’s due to an equipment fire. Power is supposed to be restored between 2-4pm today.

Sierra Club Does Electric Slide Protest On Sunday

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In case you are wondering why there are people dancing at Kanawha Plaza on a Sunday afternoon,

From the Virginia Sierra Club website:

WHEN: Sun., April 14 at 1 – 3 PM

WHERE: Kanawha Plaza, 7th & Canal Streets

Join us in sending a message to Dominion and the State Corporation Commission saying “No more dirty gas plants; it’s time to electric slide toward clean energy in VA!”

Dominion has proposed building another dirty fossil fuel plant, a fracked-fueled gas power plant in Brunswick County, while Virginia continues to slide behind in clean energy and climate protection.

In April the VA State Corporation Commission, our state’s energy regulators, will decide if Dominion can build this unnecessary gas plant, or instead require them to invest in safer, more reliable clean energy sources like wind, solar and energy efficiency first.

Dominion and Renewable Energy In The General Assembly Update

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Following up on some earlier news and editorials about our neighbor, Dominion Power….

McDonnell signs Va utility regulation bill.

Activist Ivy Main has written an overview of the 2013 General Assembly session on the Power for the People VA blog:

The Virginia General Assembly will soon wrap up its work on the 2013 legislative session. Renewable energy advocates began the session with high hopes for a series of bills that promised to reform our renewable energy law, expand net-metering, and open up new opportunities for financing solar systems and small wind turbines.
So how did we do? Well, this is Virginia. Progress is slow, the utilities are powerful, and half the legislature doesn’t believe in climate change. On the other hand, they do believe in business. Under the circumstances, we did okay.

Click here for more.

Nuclear Senator

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Oregon Hill’s state senator, John Watkins, withdrew his bill for uranium mining, but he is still pushing nuclear power.

Please call or email his office to let him know you oppose SB1138.
“We don’t need a nuclear think tank, we need to move away from dangerous nuclear energy and towards safe renewables!”

John Watkins (804) 698-7510

Emails ~
district10 at senate.virginia.gov

Home Economics

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Excerpts from article/viewpoint Home Economics from American City:

A campaign to retrofit the country’s aging housing stock and commercial buildings could make a major dent in reducing emissions nationwide. But despite all the talk of energy independence during the 2012 presidential campaign, retrofitting buildings received only passing mentions from President Obama. Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s energy platform did not mention it at all.

Yet Democrats, Republicans, environmentalists and financial institutions alike agree that the country must become more energy efficient — not just for the environment, but for the bottom line.
….

“Let’s address communities as communities,” Cochrane said. “We have this perfect alignment of the owners’ immediate needs, the utility’s long-term investment interests and actually delivering these deep savings.”

CDFIs could play an important role here, too. The energy efficiency market is full of uncertainty. From unreliable contracting costs to fluctuating energy prices and shifting weather patterns, there are many unpredictable variables. More standardized data coming from an organized network of local or regional CDFIs could attract more private investment, industry players said.

This is one of the best articles I have seen on this subject. Think about sharing it with your neighbors.

Week Long Protest Against Dominion Starts Monday

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From CCAN’s public sign-up page:

Even though Dominion Power hasn’t invested in a single wind or solar power facility in Virginia, the company is receiving $76 million in extra profit for its supposed renewable energy investments.

Monday, October 1, through Friday, October 5, join us for a sustained week of action outside of Dominion’s Richmond office to protest this huge rip-off and call for wind and solar power in Virginia. We’ll also send in a representative each day, asking for a personal response from Dominion’s CEO, Tom Farrell.

And every day we’ll highlight a specific way that Dominion’s actions are harming Virginians, from increased extreme weather from climate change, to mountaintop removal coal mining and fracking for natural gas, to health impacts of the company’s pollution. Then we’ll cap off the week with a rally on Saturday, October 6.