Every year around Earth Day, a new crop of corporate greenwashing tends to spring up with the flowers. In the Mid-Atlantic region and Virginia, in particular, one of the biggest culprits is Richmond-based Dominion Power. Hopefully you already know about BXE and We Are Cove Point’s work exposing Dominion through the Beyond Dominion Sentinel. Now there’s a new web resource we hope you’ll check out.
Dominion is the largest electric utility in Virginia, the state’s #1 emitter of the heat-trapping pollution wrecking our climate, and the #1 corporate donor to state politicians. It’s also a well-documented member of the climate-denying American Legislative Exchange Council. Yet, 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.
This year, our friends at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network have launched an interactive new website that sets the record straight: domtruth.org. Click here to start the “tour” and then pass it on!
As you scroll through domtruth.org, you’ll find that Dominion is a poster child of sorts for the type of business model that is both wrecking our planet and corrupting our politics. The company has a monopoly on over 60 percent of Virginia’s electric market — a monopoly ostensibly regulated by the same lawmakers raking in Dominion’s campaign cash. Instead of embracing the future of an electric grid powered by rooftop solar panels on customers’ homes and wind turbines spinning off Virginia’s coast, Dominion is currently investing in a massive build-out of pipelines and power plants to carry and burn fracked natural gas. Dominion uses its political power to set the agenda in Richmond and rig the system against the solutions we need to solve the climate crisis.
Here’s the good news: Domtruth.org comes at a time when the cracks in Dominion’s corporate image are already starting to spread. Just like BP in the Gulf and colleges like Harvard and the University of Mary Washington, this Earth Day Dominion is facing an increasing public backlash over its fossil fuel investments.
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.”
You can 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!
Beyond Extreme Energy 