Subject: clarifications and corrections re: SJR No. 334
From: "Jonathan J. Miles" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: VWEC <[email-masked]>, "Urmil \"Bunty\" Dharamsi" <[email-masked]>, George Hagerman <[email-masked]>, Alden Hathaway <[email-masked]>, Debra Jacobson <[email-masked]>, Ken Jurman <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], Mark Lotts <[email-masked]>, Mitch King <[email-masked]>, Geraldine Nicholson <[email-masked]>, [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 07:34:22 -0500 (EST)

Greetings Mr. Sweet -

In the spirit of honest brokering of information, I am offering to you a
clarification pertaining to a recent posting on your web site
(http://www.johnrsweet.com/personal/wind/) that was brought to my
attention.  Assuming that you would choose to present truthful, complete,
and accurate information rather than hearsay or speculation, then please
feel free to accept this opportunity to make the appropriate revisions.

Your web site reads: "The other Hanger bill, Senate Joint Resolution #334,
would set up a joint subcommittee to study wind energy development. This
proposes a budget of only $4,800 to conduct the study, limits the
subcommittee to meeting four times between now and 30 November 2005. The
subcommittee chairman is to submit an executive summary of its findings
and recommendations no later than the first day of the 2006 Regular
Session of the General Assembly. [This is neither enough money nor enough
meetings to conduct a study of this magnitude, in my opinion.] This bill
was tabled [effectively killed] by the Senate Rules Committee on Friday 4
February.  Apparently the Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative, a
wind-advocacy group headquartered at James Madison University,
tried to set itself up to do the study and when that failed they worked to
scuttle the bill."

Ironically, one reason VWEC became involved in Richmond is precisely
because of the concern you raise, that we felt there were not sufficient
resources allocated to support thorough study as proposed.

Incidentally, you refer to VWEC as a wind advocacy group when, in fact,
VWEC is primarily an education- and outreach-focused collaborative, as
explained in our mission, and as reflected by all our activities, funded
and pro bono.

You also write that "[VWEC] tried to set itself up to do the study and
when that failed they worked to scuttle the bill."  Quite frankly, you
appear to be attempting to speak for me, yet I was the ONLY individual
representing VWEC at the Rules Committee meeting on Friday and I know
precisely what I said and did.  Had you been at the meeting, and had you
read my brief, you would know that VWEC took NO POSITION pro OR con on
this bill at any point.  Further, you also would know that VWEC offered
only its assistance in crafting a comprehensive PLAN for a study (not to
conduct the study), identifying the relevant expertise, and finding the
necessary funds to complete the study in a thorough manner, should the
bill have been passed along.  Your quote strikes of a third-hand account
of the deliberations of the meeting.

It is correct to say that Senator Hanger's resolution to form a new
legislative study commission to study wind energy development was tabled,
and therefore effectively killed, but the reason it died was purely
technical: It called for study of a topic that was already under
consideration by another joint legislative body, the Commission on
Electric Utility Restructuring (CEUR).  Since 1996, the CEUR and its two
predecessor study groups (the SJR 91 Subcommittee and the Legislative
Transition Task Force on Electric Utility Restructuring) have been meeting
approximately four times per year as a complete body, and have convened
additional subcommittees, stakeholder groups, and a Consumer Advisory
Board, and have commissioned special studies to be conducted by various
state agencies, as necessary, to study many aspects of Virginia's
electricity industry as it transitions from one of generation monopolies
to open competition for electricity generation.  During the 2004 Interim
(the period between the 2004 General Assembly session and the 2005 one),
the CEUR Chairman (Senator Thomas K. Norment, Jr., also chairman of the
Senate Rules Committee) told parties interested in various renewable
energy topics (including parties interested in wind energy topics) that
the CEUR would be willing to consider no more than two renewable
energy-related legislative initiatives immediately prior to the 2005
legislative session.  Interested stakeholders were encouraged to contact
Mr. Augie Wallmeyer, who had agreed to facilitate renewable energy
stakeholder discussions.  Mr. Wallmeyer is a respected lobbyist for a
company called Multitrade that built and, until recently, owned and
operated an electric generating facility in Hurt, VA that used forestry
waste (biomass) as its primary energy source.  (The Hurt facility is now
owned and operated by Dominion Resources).

Renewable energy stakeholders who participated in these meetings all into
three general categories: 1) renewable energy producers and marketers; 2)
environmentalists, including representatives from, among other groups, the
Sierra Club (which supported SJR 334 in subcommittee); and 3) utilities
and electric co-ops.  This renewable energy stakeholder group met four
times during the 2004 Interim, and Mr. Wallmeyer submitted a report to the
CEUR in December stating that it was the consensus of the group that the
CEUR study all forms of renewable energy (including wind energy) to
determine whether there was a positive net benefit to Virginians that
would result from increasing the production and use of such energy forms
by Virginians, and if so, to determine what the legislature should do, if
anything, to maximize those benefits while minimizing any related costs.
At the December meeting, the CEUR Chairman issued instructions to the
CEUR's staff attorney to seek cost estimates for the renewable energy
study from the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research, which is
based at Virginia Tech.  The list of renewable energy-related tasks that
might be studied and their estimated costs are to be discussed (and
presumably voted on) by the CEUR at its February 10 meeting (09:00 in the
General Assembly Building).

Although the Senate Rules Committee tabled SJR 334, it did so quite
reluctantly, and only after Senator Norment (the Chair of both the Senate
Rules Committee and the CEUR) had agreed to have the CEUR study the issues
of concern to SJR 334's patron (Senator Hanger) and its proponents (the
Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society and Ms. Lucile
Miller), and only after it was determined that there was no legal way to
officially refer the resolution to the CEUR.

The CEUR consists of four senators and six delegates.  (SJR 334 sought a
joint legislative study group consisting of three senators and five
delegates).  The CEUR's web site is at
http://dls.state.va.us/elecutil.htm.

If the goal of SJR 334's proponents was to have wind energy development in
Virginia studied by legislators with the best energy-related credentials
in the Commonwealth, they were quite successful on February 4, and should
count the Senate Rules Committee's decision to table SJR 334 while the
Commission on Electric Utility Restructuring studies their concerns as
significant progress toward that goal.  It would have been a waste of
taxpayer money to form a new legislative commission, with what would
almost certainly have been lesser credentials, to study this subject.

You now have accurate and reliable information straight from the source. I
for one will be interested to see how and whether you revise your posting
to reflect this information and my actions on Friday in an accurate and
honest fashion.

Sincerely,

- Jonathan Miles

---
Jonathan J. Miles, Ph.D.
  Associate Professor
  Department of Integrated Science and Technology
  MSC 4102, 701 Carrier Dr.
  James Madison University
  Harrisonburg, VA  22807  USA
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  e-mail: [email-masked]
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---