By Caleb Simon

Virginia is at a critical juncture in setting its new building code that would dramatically boost energy efficiency in the state. Saving energy saves money and offers a variety of benefits to our communities. Sadly, an organization is attempting to prevent this adoption that could cause Virginia to miss out on this opportunity to modernize and improve our infrastructure statewide.

The Home Builders Association of Virginia has spent a great deal of time and money to prevent the adoption of the latest energy efficiency code. It is disguising its attempt as concern for the consumer; however, when we look at the facts, they reveal that the only concern they are really protecting is their own profit margin.

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Simon lives in Christiansburg and is a licensed contractor and energy auditor.

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By Seth Heald

On May 3, I took a day off from work to travel to Richmond for Dominion Resources Inc.’s annual shareholders meeting. Dominion Resources owns Dominion Virginia Power, the commonwealth’s largest utility.

I went to speak in favor of a shareholder resolution asking Dominion’s management and board to set a timetable for ending the company’s purchases of coal obtained through mountaintop-removal mining.

The board recommended voting against the resolution, and so it went down to defeat, as most shareholder resolutions do. But I thought I’d share my comments at the meeting with Roanoke Times readers, who might be particularly interested in the Dominion board’s cavalier response to the resolution. The board didn’t even try to defend mountaintop removal. Instead it just passed the buck and absolved itself and the company from any responsibility for the devastation its coal purchases are causing.

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Heald, of Rixeyville in Culpeper County, is a lawyer and a Dominion Resources shareholder.

By David Banks

To hear environmental leaders tell it, the way forward on energy policy is clear. The United States should be more aggressive in moving to phase out fossil fuels and nuclear power in electricity generation and use renewable sources instead.

To do this, environmentalists say, we must challenge old ways of thinking rooted in the notion that coal, natural gas and nuclear power are needed to meet increased demand for electricity, and we must embrace new clean energy sources like solar and wind power.

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Banks, of Timberville, is a retired communicator (and now a gentleman farmer) with more than 20 years experience in the coal, natural gas and oil industries.

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By L. David Roper

In the May 4 issue of The Roanoke Times, an Associated Press energy story claimed, “Technology has found so much oil and natural gas that worries about running out are no more” (“Oil technology leaps, clean energy lags”). Some simple mathematics shows that that statement is patently and dangerously wrong. The mathematical analyses use only the well-established principle of conservation of energy/matter.

The article stated that there are crude-oil reserves of perhaps up to a few billion barrels in the United States, implying that means there is nothing to worry about. The maximum yearly discoveries of crude oil for the world were nearly 60 billion barrels around 1960, according to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas; the amount of expected discoveries for the declining discoveries curve currently is below 10 billion barrels per year.

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Roper is professor emeritus of physics at Virginia Tech. He lives in Blacksburg.

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By Brian Lindholm

In an April 24 commentary, “The fuel standard is working,” Adam Monroe of Novozymes North America argued that the federal Renewable Fuel Standard is working well. In doing so, Monroe falsely credited “the mix of renewable fuel in our gasoline with lowering the average price of a gallon by 79 cents” or even “by $1.09.” On April 19, letter writer Bill Boshong (“Goodlatte’s wrong on renewable fuel”) claimed that the RFS is helping “lower consumer gasoline costs by an average of 89 cents a gallon.”

A trivial analysis shows these claims to be absurd.

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Lindholm is a mechanical engineer who lives in Roanoke.

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by Adam Monroe

Re: “Overhaul the fuel standard,” April 18 editorial:

The editors suggest that “by the measures most Americans care about, [the Renewable Fuel Standard] is failing.” But by those measures, we believe the RFS is working.

Renewable fuel, which makes up nearly 10 percent of our current gasoline supply, is already saving consumers a big chunk of their take-home pay.

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Monroe is president of Novozymes North America Inc., headquartered in Washington, D.C.

By Karen B. Maute

Jane Van Ryan’s April 2 commentary, “A troubling result on uranium,” neglects some pertinent facts.

Van Ryan claims Virginia Uranium has made a compelling case for lifting the ban on uranium mining. Not so. In actuality, a compelling case to keep the ban has resulted from the various reports that have been issued on the subject.

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Maute is a resident of Pittsylvania County.

by Jane Van Ryan

The stars could hardly have shown brighter on the prospects of allowing uranium mining in Virginia than in 2007.

Virginia Uranium Inc., the company hoping to develop the nation’s largest known uranium deposit on a cattle farm in southern Virginia, made a compelling case for lifting a decades-old state ban on uranium mining. The change would save consumers billions of dollars over the life of the mine, create jobs and revenue and, perhaps most importantly, provide a much-needed boost for the faltering economy in southern Virginia, especially in Pittsylvania County.

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Van Ryan is an energy writer and retired communications professional who resides in Rockingham County, Va.

By Alwyn Moss

If the 95 percent or so of respected American scientists are even close to right, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry would be wise to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline project.
The lame justifications being used to suggest that approving the pipeline would not cause harm to the planetary climate and would be a boon to the U.S. economy can be easily countered.

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Moss lives in Blacksburg.

by Larry Hincker

Christina Nuckols’ column on Virginia Tech’s scientific research and evaluation of the Southside uranium deposit, “Tech’s ties to uranium cash raise questions,” March 10, itself raises questions. I am concerned the innuendo of the headline and other aspects of the column imply a bias on the part of the university or its scientists.

It is ironic that this column appeared during Sunshine Week, an effort by statewide media to focus attention on government transparency. This is based on the belief that effective government follows open access to information.

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Hincker is associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech.