The one thing that is obvious is that energy efficiency has to be at the top of the list, both where the energy is made and where the energy is used. We can not afford to waste any energy. Dominion Resources significantly reduced the carbon footprint/KWhr by increasing efficiency at existing plants. They created their ‘conservation power plant’ at the power plants by getting more electricity from the same amount of fuel. AE does not have a similar fleet size, so this would not be possible, but for less money than is being spent for the solar plant, they could have created the same power for no more fuel (emissions) at the existing plants.

The cost of renewables is not as low as projected, the ROWs for the power lines ($1million/mile) and significant new technology – and costs – for power storage have to be factored in. Without a doubt, renewable energy will have to be the energy of the future, but right now it is not the most economical time to jump.

Yes, we need to eventually shut down fossil plants, but we the tax and bill payers cannot afford to strand the capital costs- so we need to spend the money wisely. AE can and should be on the cutting edge, but we are now on the bleeding edge, wasting cash on unproven biomass technology, jumping into unreliable 24/7 power sources when we haven’t figured out how to store energy, not getting maximum efficiencies out of our existing fleet of plants and dirty fossil fuels.

Let us not stumble and fall over the present in our rush to get to the future.