Virginia House Bill #69 is long, and on the technical side. It's designed to encourage electric power companies to use more "renewable energy," as distinct from fossil fuel. Read the full text here:
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB69
In theory, this bill would encourage things that anyone who wants to be Green or even clean has to love. How well would it work in practice? I don't know; ask an engineer. However, the general idea of moving our utility supplies from burning coal toward burning compost is beautiful. All parts of Virginia can participate equally in supplying compost, with minimal pollution and no damage to any property or scenery. Even raw sewage could, in theory, be used as a renewable energy source. These ideas, like the all-electric Chevy Volt, need some further refinement and development...but kudos to Delegate Englin for a move in that direction.
"If you think coal is ugly, look at poverty," is a slogan currently popular in this part of Virginia. Scott County doesn't have coal, and county residents used to have little to do with the coal industry. We are more mobile now; residents of Scott County are commuting to Wise and Lee Counties to participate in strip mining...which is costing our corner of Virginia as much in current and future tourism as it's gaining in jobs, and which can't last for very many years. Nobody wants to interfere with a man's right to provide for his children, but coal has never provided very much for anybody. Renewable energy has the potential for keeping Virginians, including former coal miners and former opponents of coal mining, productively employed for a good long time.
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