Corruption at the intersection of money and politics in Virginia

What do Virginia Republican and Democratic officeholders have in common? They love gifts! Nice gifts! Expensive gifts! Ah, the perks of political office in the Commonwealth. But, is it really a "commonwealth" when some birds, already feeding at the public trough, feel entitled to some extra luxury grist?

Between 2002 and 2012 Bob McDonnell gladly received gifts worth $303,550, including a $25,000 flight to Puerto Rico and a $19,000 luxury suite at a Redskins game. During the same period, his predecessor in the Executive Mansion, Tim Kaine, received $201,595 worth of gifts.

Politicians don't have to be a big dog Governor for Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy to visit his or her office with nice things: Current Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has accepted gifts valued at $69,363 (is he running for Governor hoping for a big shower of freebies?). Speaker of the House William Howell  topped the Cooch with $73,171. Even lesser known legislators like Senator Frank Wagner ($45,182) and Delegate Ken Plum ($40,679) get some damn nice stuff.

And just who are these Santas and Tooth Fairies lavishing gifts on politicians? Among the top 10 between 2002-12 are some familiar lobbying big dogs including: Dominion ($175,149), Virginia Uranium ($148,274) Virginia Trial Lawyers Association ($87,776), and American Legislative Exchange Council ($77,048).

As long as the gifts are reported on the annual financial filings it is perfectly legal under current Virginia law.

But, there are reports that Governor McDonnell was given a $6,500 Rolex by Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the CEO of a dietary supplement manufacturer who has been lobbying government officials. It is also alleged that Williams paid for a $15,000 Bergdorf Goodman shopping spree for McDonnell's wife and ponied up $15,000 for catering at McDonnell's daughter's wedding. If true, the Governor is covered in broken eggs and the yoke is on him.

While we should all be hopping mad if the allegations about Governor McDonnell's failure to report the watch and other gifts are true, we should totally outraged that with simple disclosure, all the gifts are perfectly fine by Virginia's ethics rules. The corrupting influence at the intersection of money and politics threatens the foundations of our democracy. It apparently isn't enough for donors to make huge contributions to campaigns, they also "buy" influence with nice personal perks for the people's representatives.

One branch of Virginia government, the courts, is taking ethics seriously (maybe too seriously) and has promulgated a rule that clerks offices can't accept any gifts without the approval of the judge. So a clerks office accepting a Christmas fruitcake or box of candy from a law firm gets far more scrutiny than the Governor pocketing a top tickets to a Redskins game or a $4,000 night-vision monocular from defense firm.

In the henhouse we affectionately call the "Commonwealth of Virginia" all birds are equal, but big birds are definitely more equal than little chicks employed by the state. I cry fowl... err... foul. It is past time for a constitutional amendment or legislation to end the wholesale buying of the people's government that takes place under both corrupt political parties.

What's wrong with coal? What's wrong with Virginia?

The good news: The United States is a global leader in reducing carbon pollution as we retire dirty coal plants and replace them with clean, renewable energy. Several states, including South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota are getting a significant amount of their electricity from renewable sources.

The bad news: Far from being a leader, Virginia lags behind much of the rest of the country in getting rid of coal and moving to a clean energy future. Dominion Resources continues to stymie efforts to move the commonwealth (Richmond is not only the state capitol, it is also the asthma capitol) to greater use of wind and solar energy. Placing profits above people, the powerful company is aided and abetted by failed leadership in the Executive Mansion and General Assembly.

Get involved: Contact your state legislators and tell them it is time, indeed past time, to move Virginia towards clean and renewable energy. Join the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign

Stand up for off-shore wind power!

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is taking public comment on leasing an area off the Virginia coast with huge wind energy potential. In addition to bringing good jobs to the Commonwealth, it is estimated that wind in this prime area could generate enough electricity for half a million homes.

Dominion Virginia Power, which has a long history of dragging its feet on renewable energy, could use its deep pockets to outbid competitors on these new offshore areas and then do nothing by sitting on the leases for years. That would mean no new job creation and dirtier air and water as Dominion continues to burn dirty coal to generate electricity.

Tell BOEM to require companies bidding on offshore wind leases that they must begin construction of turbines and infrastructure in a timely manner. Tell BOEM that delaying development of wind energy will hurt the state's economy and environment. Tell BOEM that now is the time to move to a 21st century clean energy economy.

Good day sunshine!

On September 19 the State Corporation Commission will hold a public hearing on Dominion Resource's Community Solar Power Program. According to Dominion it includes "company-owned solar PV DG systems; both on leased roof space or ground-mounted installations, as well as the purchase of output from customer-owned solar PV DG systems." When fully completed Dominion would generate 30 MW of solar generated electricity - enough to power about 6,000 homes.

Solar generated electricity has made great strides in other states where laws and company policies encourage building for a cleaner and more secure tomorrow. For example, New Jersey, a state with less solar potential than Virginia, already has built 850 MW of solar and has another 600 MW in the works. Dominion's tiny step towards generating clean energy in the commonwealth would, by 2027, produce just 0.006% of the company's expected output.

Nevertheless, the Community Solar Power Program is a move in the right direction for improving the quality of our air and water and the health of our citizens. Construction of these facilities will create Virginia jobs and encourage more clean energy by Dominion and other electric utilities. Tell the SCC and Dominion that you support the Community Solar Power Program and you expect Dominion Resources to do even more to bring clean energy - solar and wind - to Virginia.

In other Dominion Resources news, the company is seeking permission to convert the 227 MW Bremo Power Station in Fluvanna County from coal to natural gas. It would be the ninth Dominion coal-fired plant to be converted to other fuels or closed in recent years. Although not nearly as clean nor renewable as solar and wind, in the short term these conversions signal progress in eliminating dirty coal from polluting our skies and threatening the well-being of our families and the climate.

Support the New Carbon Pollution Standard

The EPA has proposed the first national standard to limit carbon pollution - that's the nasty stuff causing the climate crisis. That weird, dirty weather you’ve been having – blame carbon pollution. Where does this pollution come from? The shocking answer: 40% of all carbon pollution in the United States comes from power plants.

If this rule goes into effect, no new dirty, climate-change-causing power plants will be built.

Will you tell the EPA you support the first-ever limit on carbon pollution? It’s easy. Just sign the petition at The Climate Reality Project to show your support.

Dominion: Time to Move Virginia Forward

Dominion emits more industrial carbon and mercury pollution than any other utility in Virginia. Dominion has developed clean energy in neighboring states, yet in Virginia it relies on dirty fuels that produce mercury, smog, and soot pollution which contribute to developmental disabilities in children as well as asthma, heart attacks, and cancer.

Tell Dominion to lead the way toward a cleaner and better tomorrow with clean, renewable energy by creating 3,000 megawatts - enough to power 700,000 homes - of new Virginia-made wind and solar energy and energy efficiency by 2020.

Sign the Virginia Chapter Sierra Club petition today. And after you sign, pass the link on to friends and family.

Dominion Power’s wind and solar facade

By Ivy Main. Originally published in The Washington Post, December 30, 2011. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Perhaps you remember the Dominion Power print ads that ran last year. Big, glossy spreads showing seagrass bending in the breeze, with a picture of a wind turbine and the words, “Natural. Abundant. Renewable. Wind. That’s why we’re harnessing it to help power Virginia’s energy future.”

Only, it turns out, it isn’t. It never was. Forced to reveal the energy sources the company uses to meet Virginia’s voluntary renewable portfolio standards, Dominion admitted that its customers in Virginia are getting precisely zero wind power.

How about solar energy? Nope. Nada. Zilch.

And yet Dominion will be collecting millions of extra dollars from its ratepayers as a reward for meeting the goals of the state’s renewable portfolio standard, or RPS.

Mind you, Dominion isn’t required to include renewable energy among the generation sources it uses. It can choose to forgo the extra “basis points” (cash) awarded for meeting benchmarks. But if it meets the goals, by statute it is allowed to collect millions of ratepayers’ dollars for doing so.

So if Virginia has a goal for renewable energy and Dominion is pocketing money for meeting it, what is it selling us?

In addition to some hydropower projects that long predate the RPS law, Dominion uses some Virginia biomass (i.e., wood); to make up the rest, it buys “renewable energy certificates” from other companies that give it credit for energy produced elsewhere. The list of these certificates, released this fall in litigation before the Virginia State Corporation Commission, shows they relate to hydropower, biomass or landfill gas-to-energy, with the majority of them pre-World War II projects, and none of them placed in service in the past 10 years. Most states won’t accept these renewable energy certificates for their RPS laws, so they are very cheap.

Yes, the Dominion family owns some wind farms, one just across the state line in West Virginia. But we aren’t getting a single electron of that energy, because Dominion sells it to other states that have much tougher standards for what counts as renewable energy. For us in Virginia, Dominion buys cheap certificates that no one else wants.

That’s a great deal for Dominion. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, $1.7 million could buy enough of these certificates to satisfy Dominion’s 2010 RPS targets, qualifying the company to collect an extra $76 million over two years from its ratepayers.

If Dominion actually builds the solar projects in Virginia that it says it plans to, it has said that it will sell certificates for the energy they produce into another state with a serious RPS, so it can maximize profit. Under the rules of the game, though, the buyer elsewhere will then be recognized as the owner of the renewable energy. Dominion could not also claim to be supplying its Virginia customers with wind or solar.

That explains why Dominion’s interest in Virginia wind and solar seems limited to its desire for great ad copy. But it doesn’t explain the company’s hostility to anyone else investing in Virginia renewables. The State Corporation Commission recently granted Dominion’s request to impose a “standby” charge of up to $60 per month on customers who install solar projects in the 10- to 20-kilowatt range (about twice the size of an average home’s usage). It’s enough to make these projects uneconomic and destroy the market for them. At a time when Dominion claims we need to build more power to meet demand, it is doing its best to keep small businesses from doing precisely that.

Even worse is its treatment of a Staunton-based solar company called Secure Futures, which has stepped up to the plate to put solar installations on university campuses, using a third-party power purchase agreement to ease financing. This summer, Dominion hit Secure Futures with “cease and desist” letters, claiming it can’t legally sell solar power to Washington and Lee University within Dominion’s exclusive service territory under Virginia law. Dominion, you understand, will not sell solar power to Washington and Lee, but it seems determined to make sure no one else does, either.

So watch for Dominion’s next renewable energy ad campaign, which will probably feature sunshine and promises of solar for Virginia. Just don’t make the mistake of believing it.

The writer is vice chair of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Virginia Gets a F in State Integrity Grades

According to a just released study of integrity in state governments, State Integrity Investigation, the Commonwealth of Virginia gets a big fat F and ranks 47th in the nation. The study is a first-of-its-kind, data-driven assessment of transparency, accountability and anti-corruption mechanisms in all 50 states. No state got an A and only five states scored as high as a B.

Surprisingly New Jersey received the highest score, in part because political scandals in recent years have resulted in some of the toughest laws in the nation being passed. Other states in the top five are Connecticut, Washington, California, and Nebraska. Nineteen states got Cs and 18 received Ds. Eight states earned failing grades.

So while our elected officials tell us they are "citizen legislators" who represent our views and that processes in the General Assembly are transparent and open, the truth is a good bit murkier. The back room deals on legislation and selection of judges, the influence of political money especially by big players like Dominion Resources, gerrymandering, toothless ethics laws, mismanagement of VRS, and lack of access to (what should be) public information give rise to the suspicion that Virginia government isn't really a "commonwealth" but is more of a government of, by, and for those in the power elite.

The fox is running the hen house. 

Virtual Corn

A bag of mixed maize today:

Scratch and Sniff   A Richmond judge has ruled that Scott Hoover, a W&L professor, is a "virtual representative" for all Virginians who purchased scratch-off lottery tickets. Hoover applied lessons from his course in business statistics to determine that prizes were seemingly being awarded at a slower pace than the laws of statistics would dictate. He then discovered that the Virginia Lottery was promoting and selling tickets although some of the top prizes had already been awarded. His suit alleges that over a five year period the lottery sold over 26 million tickets for which the big prizes were no longer available. That netted the Virginia Lottery $85 million.

Egg All Over His Face   Cobalt6 has smacked down Rick Howell for his back stabbing commentary in the Roanoke Times. Cliff adroitly rebutted every point the self-appointed howler and wannabe pundit made... or didn't make.

Follow the Corn   Do you know which legislators received donations from beverage distributors? How much did the payday lending parasites donate to your delegate to keep the regulators off their backs? Did your senator go to a Redskins game, big hunt, or theme park on the tab of Dominion Resources or Appalachian Power?

The Virginia Public Access Project has added information about lobbyists' donations and activities designed to win the hearts and minds... err votes... of those who represent us in the General Assembly and executive branch. VPAP's website is easy to navigate and, for the first time, includes lobbyists' spending for a 12 month period ending with April 30.

David Poole, VPAP's executive director said, "VPAP's mission is to take public information that's impenetrable and make it understandable, or at least publicly accessible. It became a natural next step to put these disclosure reports on the site."

Payday lenders? Well, they spent more than any other group, $4 million. Must be nice profits in those $500 loans! The folks at Dominion Resources love their sports so it probably isn't too shocking that they spent thousands on NASCAR and Redskins tickets.

There's more at the Roanoke Times.