In a recent column, “The Kaine Mutiny,” Peter Galuszka argued that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is losing friends in the environmental movement. And that was before the latest news regarding amendments Kaine tried to tack on to important energy legislation. As The Winchester Star tells the story, the governor comes across as a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion Virginia Power:
The state Senate has quashed Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s legislative amendments that would have virtually assured the approval of a proposed 500-kilovolt power line through Frederick County and into Loudoun County.
The 39-0 vote in Richmond on Wednesday stymies an effort essentially to force Virginia’s State Corporation Commission to approve the power line, a joint project from Allegheny Energy’s Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Co. and Dominion Virginia Power. [Kaine later requested to pull the amendments when it became clear they would not pass.]
The proposed amendments would have changed a bill submitted by Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-Williamsburg. Among the proposed changes was the removal of a line noting that Virginia would have a state goal of reducing retail customers’ consumption of electrical energy through the implementation of cost-efficiency programs by an amount equal to 10 percent of the amount of electricity used by retail customers in 2006.
Update: There’s more to this story, and it puts Gov. Kaine in a better light as a defender of the environment. This comes from the Virginia League of Conservation Voters:
While the Governor’s effort to incorporate goals for reducing the growth rate of energy demand by 40% consistent with the State Energy Plan may have been his primary objective, other language in the amendment to SB 596 could have interfered with the Northern Virginia Transmission Line case currently pending before the State Corporation Commission (SCC). The SCC would have been limited to reviewing only conservation or energy efficiency evidence provided by the utility company, regardless of the other efficiency programs implemented in the Commonwealth. This change could have prejudiced pending and future applications in favor of the utilities. After sharing our concerns with legislators and the Administration, the Governor removed support for the amendment and it was defeated in the Senate.