The Energy Collective reports that “efforts by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe to diversify the state’s energy mix are off to a curious start. He created an “Energy Council” to advise him and set six dates for “listening sessions” throughout the Commonwealth to field recommendations from the public.”  

“Now if you wanted to give the public ample opportunity to chime in, one would think such an announcement would be heavily promoted throughout the state with the dates and locations of the listening sessions well in advance. While this effort fell short on both fronts, the Governor should be commended for engaging the public and appointing subject matter experts to make recommendations. There is also a web page dedicated to field comments from the public, which you can find here.”  

“For clean energy advocates and members of the public who aspire to see markets for solar energy, energy efficiency and cleaner transportation enabled in Virginia, it remains to be see how thorough this effort by the McAuliffe Administration will be. After all, Virginia preserves geographic monopolies for electric power providers which are heavily dependent on fossil fuels and nuclear energy to generate electricity.”