Nov 14 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rex Springston Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

Virginia should conserve energy better, rely more on nuclear power and increase protections for wild lands, according to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's panel on global warming.

The state Commission on Climate Change settled on more than 100 recommendations yesterday during a meeting at the General Assembly Building in Richmond.

The panel will meet one more time, on Dec. 4, to approve the measures formally and pass its report to Kaine. The governor might enact some of the recommendations on his own through executive orders. He will take others to the General Assembly for action.

Kaine says the environment will be a key focus of his final year as governor. But some of the recommendations could run into economic and political realities.

"It's a long list," said panel member Skip Stiles, who runs a Norfolk-based conservation group. "To make it a plan takes political will and money."

The panel recommended numerous conservation measures, including a requirement, to be phased in over time, that new commercial buildings be constructed to energy-saving standards.

The group also said the General Assembly should create financial incentives for power companies to work with customers to conserve energy.

Nuclear power got a nod because it doesn't release heat-trapping gases, and the construction of nuclear-power plants could result in the closing of older coal-burning plants.

The panel suggested greater incentives for protecting places such as forests and wetlands, which consume carbon dioxide.

Experts say Earth is warming unnaturally because of a continuing buildup of gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels such as coal.

The climate panel suggested Virginia encourage the federal government to adopt a so-called cap-and-trade program for reducing greenhouse gases.

In the program, companies that reduce emissions more than required could sell credits to companies having trouble meeting their goals.

Last month, the group found, among other things, that global warming could spread disease in Virginia, threaten coastal areas and imperil native animals such as crabs.

Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, said the long-awaited recommendations were not tough enough.

"I don't think the actions of the commission are equal to the risk global-warming poses to Virginia," he said.

But panel member David A. Heacock, president of Dominion Virginia Power, said the list would begin addressing problems without driving businesses out of Virginia. "I think it's a great starting point."

Heacock and other panel members said they were disappointed the state staff had not determined the economic costs and benefits of the various recommendations. Staffers said they didn't have the resources to investigate every measure.

Panel member Ron Rordam, the mayor of Blacksburg, said, "There's a cost we cannot measure -- that's the cost of doing nothing."

Kaine wants Virginia to cut emissions of greenhouse gases 30 percent from projected 2025 levels. The panel's recommendations are designed to do that.

But by 17-5 vote, the commission backed a tougher goal -- supported by many scientists and environmentalists -- of reducing emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

In an 18-8 vote, the panel suggested requiring power companies to reduce Virginia's electricity consumption nearly 20 percent from projected levels by 2025.

Yesterday's meeting was the panel's ninth, and its last for debating measures.

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or rspringston@timesdispatch.com.

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