THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009

THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2009

Dominion

over us all

We don’t live in a dictatorship, Virginia Senator

and gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds

noted during his visit last week with our editorial board.

We were asking Deeds about what power, if any, he might have as governor to stop Dominion Virginia Power’s electric transmission line across the Piedmont — a project that he claims to oppose — providing that the Virginia Supreme Court doesn’t put a stop to the powder company’s nonsense.

Unfortunately, he opined, the governor is likely powerless at this stage of the game, as much as he’d like it otherwise.

No one knows how the court will rule on the suit brought by the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and others, but assuming the worst, and Dominion gets the green light, the utility company may yet face a hurdle that company officials had presumed was already cleared, and another that is new to the scene.

When the power line was first broached a few years ago, PEC tried to rally Dominion stockholders around the idea that construction of the line could turn out to be a financial boondoggle. If, as PEChas insisted all along, greater energy efficiencies make the line unnecessary, Dominion’s billion-dollar investment could shock the bottom lines of those holding its stock.

Energy efficiency is gaining traction, as outlined in a Time magazine cover story last week.

Energy efficiency “turns out to be much less expensive, destructive and time-intensive...than to increase supply through new drilling or new power plants,” Time noted. “A nationwide push to save ‘megawatts’ instead of building more megawatts could help reverse our unsustainable increases in energy-hogging and carbon-spewing while creating a slew of jobs and saving a load'of cash.”

At the moment, there is no more front-burner issue than jobs — unless it is global warming or saving loads of cash.

If environmental groups can’t stop Dominion, if affected county governments can’t put the kibosh on the project, if the SCC lacks the wisdom to pull the plug, if the Supreme Court puts on blinders, if the governor can’t always have his or her way, maybe money will talk.

Time reporters are pretty sure of two things. One, the federal government is going to get tough on energy-efficiency standards, and, two, both Washington and State capitals are getting creative in finding ways to reward utility companies and their investors for saving energy.

That’s a win-win for Dominion...if it decided to mothball the power line proposal.

Wishful thinking, no doubt, but Dominion’s plans as they now stand fly in the face of current reality - as a business model, that doesn’t work very well. Just ask Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.

All the talk is that the Big 3 are going to be put under the thumb of a car czar. That’s as it should be, given the amount of taxpayer bailout they are getting.

If Dominion shareholders can’t or won’t rein in the utility company in the face of a changing reality, perhaps former EPA administrator Carol Browner will. Browner was recently appointed President-elect Obama’s energy coordinator — his energy czar.

We may not live under dictatorship, but we are increasingly comfortable with letting our various czars call the shots. Killing the power line is one that Browner should make.