33. Should Virginia restructuring legislation in any way address air quality, directly or indirectly? If so, in what way?

We believe that the General Assembly should not address air quality issues in its restructuring legislation. Electricity restructuring is essentially a business regulatory issue; it is not the appropriate place to address the environmental concerns that the General Assembly may have as a result of restructuring. Instead, they should address air quality issues separately in environmental legislation. This will help prevent the General Assembly from creating duplicate or conflicting environmental regulations.

At the point when the legislature decides to address air quality issues, it should consider electricity-producing technologies individually and focus on those technologies that are not yet subject to MACT under the Clean Air Act.

34. Should Virginia restructuring legislation require electric service providers or aggregators to disclose generation fuels? If so, how should this requirement be implemented and administered?

The General Assembly should consider following the Green-e Program, a voluntary program set up to help consumers identify green, clean electricity products. (See attached information for more details.) As part of the Green-e Program, participating energy marketers need to disclose what percentage of their electricity comes from coal, large hydroelectric, natural gas, nuclear, and eligible renewable energy. (See sample on page 10 of attachment.) This information must accompany all marketing materials sent to prospective customers.

If Virginia does require energy providers to disclose their fuel mix, the General Assembly should be careful to use the same definition of eligible renewable energy as other states. This will help reduce fraudulent "green" marketing claims and provide for a simplified, consistent comparison of energy products by consumers.