Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 3 · column 4 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
sold,” he said. “There are a lot of trends pointing in this direction. Virginia would really do itself a disservice to ignore it.”
Norvelle said Dominion had “a very strong marketing effort for conservation programs” in the early- to mid-1990s, but there was little response from consumers. The program was closed as the state’s utilities became deregulated in the late1990s.
The General Assembly and Dominion worked to “re-regulate” the state’s utility industry after an eight-year experiment with deregulation failed to foster the competition that was expected to lower rates.
Gov. Tim Kaine made a few amendments to the legislation that are designed to encourage Dominion to explore renewable power sources, like solar, wind and hydro.
Norvelle said consumers can expect to see Dominion ramp up its conservation programs in the new regulatory atmosphere.
“Now with re-regulation and higher prices in natural gas, they are restarting their energy conservation department, beginning to staff it up and look at programs,” Norvelle said.
On Monday, Kaine issued an executive order that sets a goal of a 20 percent reduction by 2010 in state agencies’ energy expenditures on non-renewable fuel sources.
“We’re happy the governor’s showing good leadership on this,” Lazaro said.
“It’s not just one thing, it’s a series of things that need to be done,” he continued. “The state is leading by example. But when it comes down to it, Dominion, which is the major provider of electricity in the state, needs to step up, too.”
E-mail the reporter at kallen@timespapers.com
88.2%