Earth Day is here and so is the Chesapeake Climate Action Network's eagerly anticipated new website: domtruth.org. After months of hard work, we're excited to release this interactive website as an educational platform to expose the dirty truth about Virginia's largest utility company and most powerful corporation: Dominion Power.
Every year around Earth Day, Dominion funds slick ads, community projects like tree-plantings, outdoor festivals and more to paint itself as a "green" and "sustainable" company.Domtruth.org is our way of setting the record straight.
As you scroll through the site, you'll see that Dominion is the state's #1 emitter of the heat-trapping pollution wrecking our climate. Dominion is also the #1 corporate donor to state politicians. For far too long, Dominion has used its power to rig the system against local, clean energy solutions and for costly fossil fuel projects, and Virginians are paying a high price as a result.
We call Dominion's deliberate misleading of the public "greenwashing." This year in particular, we expect Dominion to churn out more greenwashing than ever before - because the company is facing more public scrutiny and protests over its dirty energy projects than we've seen before.
You know there's a serious image problem when sixth graders and senior citizens alike are standing up at county meetings to decry Dominion's 550-mile pipeline for fracked gas; when riverkeepers are joining with history buffs to challenge Dominion's massive proposed transmission lines over Jamestown; and when editorial writers across the state are hammering the company's anti-consumer "power politics."
With so much opposition brewing, particularly in response to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, we're seeing cracks open up in Dominion's tightly controlled corporate image. We're also seeing Dominion's tight grasp over our democracy get renewed exposure and criticism in the media.
When Dominion put forward legislation in the 2015 General Assembly to partially halt state oversight of its electric rates, news stories zeroed in on Dominion's "unrivaled political power" over the General Assembly. Following fierce public backlash, legislators ended up amending the bill to lay the groundwork for 400 megawatts of new utility-scale solar in Virginia and to create new energy efficiency pilot programs.
We know by exposing the truth, and bringing more people across Virginia into our movement, we begin to take the power back from Dominion. And nothing worries Dominion more than losing its power - over our energy system and over our democracy.
Help pull back the curtain on Dominion's greenwashing, and build the movement for solutions, by checking out domtruth.org and then passing it on - especially to your friends and family in Virginia!
P.S. You can find this original blog post on CCAN's website, written by CCAN's Virginia Statewide Organizer Charlie Spatz
