Welcome

Public Policy Virginia is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation focused on changing the energy culture of the Commonwealth through grass-roots communication and the promotion of policy changes. PPV recognizes climate change as the single most important issue we face today, and to address that issue, we research, analyze, and communicate the facts about energy issues to policymakers and their constituents to influence the institution of progressive, beneficial ordinances, laws, and standards which will help us to make the changes necessary to deal with this issue.

We are ready to provide speakers for your group on any of our issues and related matters. Please e-mail info@ppvir.org further information and scheduling. If you are not sure whether we have an expert in your area of interest, you can reach us using our form or the information on our contact page and we will be happy to talk with you about it.

New at PPV

SAVE THE DATE: VBEG Next Quarterly Meeting: Oct. 15, 2010!

The Virginia Biomass Energy Group will host it's next quarterly at the WHEN Recycling Expo in Fishersville, VA on Oct. 15, 2010. Agenda and other details to be announced on the VBEG website at www.virginiabiomass.org.

And Another Date! VBEG Steering Committee to meet Monday, August 16, 2010

Steering Comm members will convene from 1-4 pm at the Dept. of Forestry HQ in Charlottesville to plan for the next year's fundraising and major activities. This meeting is open to all VBEG members. Second Annual Meeting: June 21, 2010!

The Second Annual Biomass Conference, June 21, 2010

The Virginia Biomass Energy Group held its 2nd Annual at the Virginia Farm Bureau Center in Richmond, VA on Monday, June 21, 2010. The conference featured 3 moderators, 13 panelists, and 73 attendees. Touching on twin themes of sustainability and job creation, the keynote address was given by Michael J. Schewel of McGuire Woods. The agenda, the keynote speech, and several of the presentations are now available at www.virginiabiomass.org.

PPV Sponsors Choose Clean Water Conference

Chairman Al Weed and Operations Director Diana Abbott attended the 1st Annual Choose Clean Water conference in DC on January 10 and 11th. The coalition has been formed to support and enable the new initiatives to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. We tabled for the over three hundred attendees and explained to them how our Community Power Initiative would help clean up the Bay.

Planting thousands of acres of warm season grasses to supply fuels to biomass power plants would change the nature of farming in the Bay watershed – and dramatically reduce nutrient and sediment pressure on the Bay. As Virginia develops its plan to reduce harmful run-off we at PPV will be working to ensure that the contribution that a biomass renewable energy economy will make to the health of the Bay can only happen if we manage to get a mandatory renewable energy standard (MRES) enacted.

The Municipal Biomass Business Plan

In April, 2010 PPV was awarded a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission to complete the Municipal Biomass Action Plan. We will be contracting with experts to provide a financial profile, technology analysis, and feedstock assessment for a medium scaled biomass power facility in Southside, and we will be partnering with the New River Highlands RC&D council in reaching out to localities in Southwest Virginia on the logistics for small scale wood-to-energy projects. We will also likely be partnering with the Insitute for Advanced Learning and Research and the new Sustainable Energy Technology Center. Click here to download the Municipal Biomass Business Plan project description!

COMMUNITY POWER INITIATIVE (CPI)

The Community Power Initiative ties together our interest in rural development, biomass energy and climate change by focusing on how our power is generated. Our First Campaign Stop was at ODEC last June. In the year since we have begun to reach out to municipalities and local decision makers across Virginia. For more info on the CPI, click here!

PPV unveils new Virginia Biomass website at VBEG Annual Meeting! The Virginia Biomass Energy Group's 1st Annual Conference on Feb. 11 was a first in many ways: Our first look at torrefaction, our first presentations from a foreign dignitary and a U.S. ambassador, our first major collaborative project to be born from one of the sessions. For an overview of the agenda and to download the presentations from Biomass Energy in the Home: The Future is Now, visit VBEG's new website at www.virginiabiomass.org!

Put a Price on Carbon, Al Weed's January 15, 2009, editorial for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is available for reading on the RTD website by clicking here, or as an MS Word document by clicking here.

Biomass Research Associate, Kimberly Lewis, reviewed the current state of the food versus fuel debate in her latest green paper. (This article is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.)

What are the differences between carbon taxes and cap and trade? If you would like to learn more about these two important policy tools for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, read Chairman Al Weed's Carbon Tax Green Paper, available in MS Word format.

PPV will be guiding three UVA engineering students, Brian Leary, Ann Deakyne and Katherine Brown, who have chosen to investigate the viability of using waste biomass to power types of agricultural equipment as their thesis project.

The challenge is to create an economically viable solution for the use of biomass as a fuel source to replace the present diesel fueled equipment. The research will delve into the areas of energy demands, engines and prime movers, transportation and logistical systems, and economic analysis. From this analysis they intend to evaluate a new system focused on the utilization of alternative energy sources and the social impacts it may entail. They plan on starting with a model system and analyze every component of the selected environment.

Through this project we hope to spur research in this field and open up many new possibilities to help with the current economic and energy crisis.

Please bear with us as we improve and update our website. Some areas are still under construction.