Cooperative Living Northern Virginia Electric • June 2016 • Mailbag

Virginia’s Community Colleges are placing a priority on helping more people in rural Virginia pursue and complete a college education. After all, the good jobs and the promising opportunities of the 21st century increasingly demand a postsecondary credential.

Thanks to our partners in the Virginia General Assembly and Governor Terry McAuliffe’s office, our colleges gained some tremendous tools in this work. The first is a public investment in our Rural Virginia Horseshoe Initiative, which aims to reduce the number of high school dropouts and increase the number of college graduates throughout the rural regions that make up three-fourths of the Commonwealth.

The second is a historic investment in our short-term training programs that lead to industry-recognized credentials. Such credentials represent to individuals the fastest way out of poverty. For businesses, they represent the educated and trained talent they aggressively seek.

The new Power Line Worker Training School at Southside Virginia Community College represents what can happen when these types of efforts and focus come together. We are proud to stand with some tremendous partners, like Virginia’s electric cooperatives, to transform a great idea into a graduate-producing program in about a year.

Virginia’s Community Colleges were created 50 years ago to address Virginia’s unmet needs in higher education and workforce training — a noblesounding mission that creates real-life success. Don’t take my word for it. Ask Virginia’s newest power-line workers about the nearly one-dozen credentials they each earned over 11 weeks. Even better, ask the businesses that can’t wait to hire them.

I just received my Cooperative Living magazine and almost fainted when I saw the cover photo.

I took a picture of a monarch butterfly last year and it looks almost exactly like this one. I really enjoyed the butterfly issue. People need to be educated on monarchs and their decline in recent years. I always tell people about them and what they can do to help the population such as planting milkweed, their main source of nutrition. I found some milkweed pods last year and planted the seeds in my yard this spring. I’ve already seen a lot of swallowtails.

I’ve had a love of photography all my life but just recently got more serious about it. Nature photography is definitely my favorite.

The beautiful butterfly on the May issue’s cover reminds us of its miraculous metamorphosis.

We will need a metamorphosis even more miraculous than the butterfly to transform our energy economy from high-carbon to low-carbon.

Start the fee low, so we don’t shock the economy. Increase it every year until we have solved the problem. Informed by the fee, investors begin to bet big on low-carbon energy. American entrepreneurs and inventors compete for those investments, bringing American ingenuity to the table. Businesses, localities, energy co-ops, state governments, school systems, and the agriculture sector investigate low-carbon options for their sectors, create transition plans, and implement those plans. We will have several decades to adjust.

Everyone gets the same amount in a monthly dividend check. This keeps government small and off our backs. It also shields the majority of households from rising energy costs.

With a border adjustment, U.S. businesses stay competitive on the global market. Goods coming from countries not pricing carbon get tariffed at the border. U.S. goods going to countries where they don’t price carbon get reimbursed. Our farmers, in particular, need this border adjustment. After all, they are price takers, not price makers.

With integrity thus restored to our energy market, the private sector can finally lead on the green power change.

I agree with Executive Editor Richard Johnstone that Edwin Way Teale’s set of four books about the seasons is outstanding.

I treasure my set and have learned so much from them. I have read them many times over.

I wish they could be required reading for students and certainly brought to the attention of anyone interested in nature and the outdoors.

In the Mailbag letter “More on the Science of Global Warming” (page 7, May issue), a member gives several reasons why we should not worry so much about global warming. In conclusion he seems to imply that climate change is not a security issue by stating, probably correctly, that “National Security was originally and still should be our first priority.”

I would like to point out, for members who may not be aware of it, that the Department of Defense has sent to Congress and released to the public a report on the security implications of climate change. The report states that “DoD recognizes the reality of climate change and the significant risk it poses to U.S. interests globally. The Department of Defense sees climate change as a present security threat, not strictly a long-term risk.”

Spotsylvania County Sheriff Roger Harris is encouraging Cooperative Living readers to buckle up when they drive, because the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office along with law enforcement officers around Virginia and the nation are on the roads enforcing all traffic laws, particularly the seat belt one.

Officers will be out there 24-7 in an effort to cut down on the number of people who are killed or seriously injured because they aren’t buckled up. And we want to offer a special thankyou to the 80 percent of Virginians who already got the message and buckle up.

For the other 20 percent of drivers, please remember and make a conscious effort to buckle up … we want everyone to arrive alive. Buckle up, Virginia!

Each spring, high school seniors from co-op-served communities across the Commonwealth may apply for $1,000 educational scholarships.

Offered by the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives’ (VMDAEC) Education Scholarship Foundation, these one-time grants may be applied to technical education such as the Power Line Worker Training School at Southside Virginia Community College, as well as two- and four-year colleges.

VMDAEC’s Education Scholarship Foundation welcomes tax-deductible donations from individuals as well as VMDAEC member co-ops. All administrative costs are borne by VMDAEC, so 100 percent of the monies donated will be used to fund scholarships.

A simple way to contribute to the Education Scholarship Foundation is by enrolling in Amazon Smile (www.smile.amazon.com), in which 0.5 percent of eligible online purchases benefit our program. Co-op members are also invited to consider remembering the Foundation in their estate planning. More information about making a donation or bequest is posted online at www.vmdaec.com/content/vmdaec-education-scholarship-foundation.

We want to hear from you — comments, opinions, suggestions. Your letter must be signed and legible. We reserve the right to edit for grammar, style and length, with a 250-word maximum for acceptance. Write: MAILBAG, P.O. Box 2340, Glen Allen, VA 23058-2340; or email mailbag@co-opliving.com. Please include your name and city/town of residence, with Mailbag as the subject.