Kaine Appoints Climate Panel / Group of 32 to Draft Plan to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions By 30 Percent

By ANDREW CAIN

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday announced the formation of a 32- member, bipartisan panel on climate change.

The panel’s members range from the Virginia head of The Nature Conservancy to the president of Dominion Virginia Power.

The commission chiefly is charged with preparing a plan to fully implement a goal of reducing Virginia’s greenhouse-gas emissions 30 percent by 2025. That was one of four goals in the Virginia Energy Plan that Kaine announced in September.

“The Virginia Energy Plan recognized that climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing us with regard to our use of energy,” Kaine said in a statement.

Virginia, which ranked 11th among coal-producing states in 2006, has not been a leader in combating global warming. But Kaine’s move yesterday follows a recent push by Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., on the federal level to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

“By laying out specific goals, the governor is telling the citizens of the commonwealth that Virginia is committed to action,” said Rob Jones, director of the Virginia Climate Initiative.

Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant Jr., a Republican and former delegate from Lynchburg, will head the panel.

Steve Cochran, national climate campaign director at Environmental Defense, said Kaine “is showing real leadership by making Virginia a leader in the fight against climate change. Now we need Congress to show the same kind of leadership and pass Senator Warner’s Climate Security Act.”

Not everyone is happy with the makeup of Kaine’s commission.

“I would be happier if the commission had at least one climate scientist on it because that scientist would inform the commission of the effect that the Virginia plan would have on temperature,” said Patrick J. Michaels, a former state climatologist.

Michaels, who contends that there is no statistically significant warming trend in the Virginia record dating back to 1895, is on leave from a research position at the University of Virginia. He is a senior fellow in environmental studies at the libertarian- conservative Cato Institute in Washington.

“If every nation of the world that has obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change adopted and met the Virginia target, the amount of warming that would be prevented would be approximately six-hundredths of a degree Celsius per half century,” Michaels said.

“That’s not a lot of bang for your buck.”

Members of the Commission on Climate Change

— L. Preston Bryant Jr., Secretary of Natural Resources, chairman

— LuAnn Bennett of Arlington County, president, Bennett Group

— Donald S. Beyer Jr. of Alexandria, CEO, Don Beyer Motors, former lieutenant governor

— Joe Bouchard, D-Virginia Beach, delegate-elect

— David L. Bulova, D-Fairfax County, delegate

— R. Daniel Carson Jr. of Roanoke, vice president, Appalachian Power

— Christine Chmura of Glen Allen, president and chief economist, Chmura Economics and Analytics

— Richard Cizik of Fredericksburg, vice president of government affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

— John Daniel of Richmond, partner with Troutman Sanders LLP

— Paul Ferguson, chairman of the Arlington County Board

— Bob Fledderman of Midlothian, manager of Emerging Issues for Safety Health and Environment, MeadWestvaco

— Stuart Freudberg of Fairfax County, Department of Environmental Programs director, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

— Felix Garcia of Richmond, president, Gatekeepers LLC

— Dale Gardner of Rockingham County, executive secretary and treasurer, Virginia State Dairymen’s Association

— Jack Gibbons of Fauquier County, former assistant to President Bill Clinton for science and technology

— Jodi Gidley of Virginia Beach, president, Virginia Natural Gas

— Bill Greenleaf of Richmond, COO, William McDonough and Partners

— David Heacock of Richmond, president of Dominion Virginia Power

— Ann F. Jennings of King and Queen County, Virginia executive director of The Chesapeake Bay Foundation

— Michael Lipford of Richmond, Virginia executive director of The Nature Conservancy

— Roger Mann of Mathews County, director of research and advisory services, Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences

— Robert E. Martinez of Norfolk, vice president of business development, Norfolk Southern Corp.

— Joe T. May, R-Loudoun County, delegate

— Ty Murray of Midlothian, director of environmental compliance and engineering, Philip Morris USA

— Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, senator-elect

— R. Paul Orentas of Loudoun County, principal, research and analysis, Think Box Group, LLC.

— Trip Pollard of Sewanne, Tenn., director of land and community programs, Southern Environmental Law Center

— Ron Rordam, mayor of Blacksburg

— Harrison Rue of Charlottesville, executive director, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission

— Bruce Smart of Loudoun County, former Commerce Department undersecretary for President Ronald Reagan

— William A. Stiles of Norfolk, executive director, Wetlands Watch

— Michael Townes of Hampton, president and CEO, Hampton Roads Transit

— Frank W. Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, state senator

— Contact Andrew Cain at (804) 649-6645 or acain@timesdispatch.com.

Originally published by Times-Dispatch Politics Editor.

(c) 2007 Richmond Times – Dispatch. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.