Scribe: Rob Fortier Convener: Cathy Strickler Location: Old Dominion Coffee Co. Time: 1:30pm
Attendees: Jan Trettner, Bruce Ritchie, Bishop Dansby
SVEC shareholders meeting is coming up on June 11th. This is a call to action. Please attend if you are a shareholder! You can attend and ask the CEO and Chair of the Board to not support the construction of the proposed Surry County Coal Fired Power Plant.
Consortium as a whole has to vote up or down on the coal plant. Each co-op sends 2 electors to Virginia Electric Co-Op Consortium Board of Directors meeting.
What C-CAN is asking is for shareholders to go to the shareholder meeting on June 11th
To attend, you have to tell Co-op you are going by June 9th by 4:30. You have to bring an electricity bill to prove you are a customer. Pre-bbq at 5pm. Guests pay $4.
CEO and Board President are on the ODEC board.
If you can’t go, you can try to email them by going to www.svec.coop
Bruce: I’ve learned how expensive our electricity really is. Most people will focus on the money and the cost reduction solutions will matter to most people.
Plant will cost $6million
$20,000 cost for each member
People can write letters to the editor.
“This thing has got to be stopped.”
There are 2 issues – 1) they bought some real estate, and they have to make changes to their by-laws. But there hasn’t been a mention of this.
Myron Rummel mrummel@svec.coop is one of the voter’s at the consortium meeting. Fred Garber is the other voter.
What goes into their supposed need for this new plant? Is it consumption, or new customers? We have to know how they rationalized the need.
We don’t know, but Chelsea Harnish can provide more info. Chelsea@chesapeakeclimate.org
What is the solution? Efficiency is a big part. But is it enough? Seems like wind power and other solutions could play a part in this area.
Jan Trettner, previously worked on energy & environment public policy issues in Washington DC, for National Conference of State Legislatures. She’s a good community resource.
After this gets passed by the co-ops, I believe the proposal goes to the state corporation commission.
They’re saying efficiency comes first, then wind and solar solutions.
This all comes down to govt incentives, doesn’t have anything to do with the Co-op itself.
In this case, the Co-Op wants to build their own power plant, not buy from others.
A lot of states have avoided new coal plants by increasing efficiency.
Read the book “Big Coal”, by Jeff Goodell. It’s a great history and expose.
