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UTILITY RATES
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., is seeking the state's help to avoid record electricity costs for Virginians this summer.
Webb wrote the Virginia State Corporation Commission Wednesday criticizing Dominion Virginia Power's request to raise its rates 18.3 percent to cover increased fuel costs.
"While I appreciate that the soaring costs of energy have impacted all sectors of the economy, including the utility sector, many families across Virginia already have difficulties meeting their basic needs," Webb said in the letter. He asked the commission consider the impact higher rates would have on lower-income Virginians.
The rate hike could increase the average consumer's utility bill $16.61 per month and would be the largest one-time rate increase in 38 years.
Dominion has said it is taking steps to help customers cope with rate increases, including spending more to help low-income customers pay their bills, and simplifying its budget billing plans.
CLEANING COAL
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, is leading a bipartisan effort to advance the development and use of carbon capturing technologies to limit pollution form coal-fired electric plants.
He introduced a bill to raise $1 billion a year from fees on the generation of electricity from coal, oil and natural gas. The money would be awarded as grants to large-scale projects that increase the use of carbon capturing technology.
Boucher, who chairs the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the technology is needed before energy producers face mandatory caps on their emissions - an issue Congress is likely to revisit next year.
"This legislation is by no means in lieu of a cap and trade measure, which I believe to be urgently needed," Boucher said in a statement. "It simply begins the necessary work to accelerate the deployment of ... technologies in order to ensure that they are commercially available at the earliest possible time."
MARRIAGE RIGHTS
Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, marked Thursday the 41st anniversary of a Supreme Court ruling that protected interracial married couples from discrimination with a speech on the House floor.
In the 1947 case of Loving v. Virginia, the court ruled in favor of Mildred and Richard Loving. The court held that race-based marriage restrictions that Virginia and 15 others states imposed on interracial couples violated the constitution's equal protection clause.
"I would like to celebrate the lives and audacity of both Mr. and Mrs. Loving, whose vision paved the way for a freer and more colorblind society in America," Scott said on the House floor.
Mildred Loving died of pneumonia in May. Richard Loving died in a car accident in 1975.
--Neil Simon
Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., is seeking the state's help to avoid record electricity costs for Virginians this summer.
Webb wrote the Virginia State Corporation Commission Wednesday criticizing Dominion Virginia Power's request to raise its rates 18.3 percent to cover increased fuel costs.
"While I appreciate that the soaring costs of energy have impacted all sectors of the economy, including the utility sector, many families across Virginia already have difficulties meeting their basic needs," Webb said in the letter. He asked the commission consider the impact higher rates would have on lower-income Virginians.
The rate hike could increase the average consumer's utility bill $16.61 per month and would be the largest one-time rate increase in 38 years.
Dominion has said it is taking steps to help customers cope with rate increases, including spending more to help low-income customers pay their bills, and simplifying its budget billing plans.
CLEANING COAL
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, is leading a bipartisan effort to advance the development and use of carbon capturing technologies to limit pollution form coal-fired electric plants.
He introduced a bill to raise $1 billion a year from fees on the generation of electricity from coal, oil and natural gas. The money would be awarded as grants to large-scale projects that increase the use of carbon capturing technology.
Boucher, who chairs the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the technology is needed before energy producers face mandatory caps on their emissions - an issue Congress is likely to revisit next year.
"This legislation is by no means in lieu of a cap and trade measure, which I believe to be urgently needed," Boucher said in a statement. "It simply begins the necessary work to accelerate the deployment of ... technologies in order to ensure that they are commercially available at the earliest possible time."
MARRIAGE RIGHTS
Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd, marked Thursday the 41st anniversary of a Supreme Court ruling that protected interracial married couples from discrimination with a speech on the House floor.
In the 1947 case of Loving v. Virginia, the court ruled in favor of Mildred and Richard Loving. The court held that race-based marriage restrictions that Virginia and 15 others states imposed on interracial couples violated the constitution's equal protection clause.
"I would like to celebrate the lives and audacity of both Mr. and Mrs. Loving, whose vision paved the way for a freer and more colorblind society in America," Scott said on the House floor.
Mildred Loving died of pneumonia in May. Richard Loving died in a car accident in 1975.
--Neil Simon