McDonnell, Deeds, trade charges on ‘cap and trade’

Virginia's candidates for governor continued to pound each other today with new negative TV ads over proposed climate-change legislation.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also entered the fray with an ad in Virginia attacking Democrat R. Creigh Deeds for being pro-union.

Meantime, former Vice President Al Gore began a parade of big-name campaign visits to Virginia, attending a McLean fundraiser with Deeds. Former GOP presidential candidate John McCain campaigns in Hampton Roads Saturday with Republican Bob McDonnell.

Former President Bill Clinton will appear with Deeds on Tuesday either in Arlington County or Alexandria, according to the Deeds campaign.

McDonnell used Gore's visit to call Deeds a supporter of cap-and-trade legislation meant to limit carbon emissions. Gore says such legislation is needed to combat global warming.

Deeds countered with an ad calling the McDonnell allegation dishonest. Deeds says he will not support any legislation that would increase energy prices during an economic downturn.

In a new McDonnell ad running in the Roanoke and Tri-Cities markets, Mark George, mill manager for the MeadWestvaco paper plant in Covington, says cap-and-trade policies could kill 1,400 jobs at the paper plant.

"If the mill were to close, this would virtually be a ghost town," George says.

The city is in Deeds' state Senate district, the 25th district.

Federal cap-and-trade legislation would cap the quantity of greenhouse gases that a region can emit each year and allow companies to sell among themselves the permits to emit greenhouse gases. Opponents say this permitting process would drive up energy prices, particularly at coal-fired power plants. Southwest Virginia mines large quantities of coal.

In addition to the ad, the Republican Party of Virginia held a conference call with three Southwest Virginia legislative candidates to denounce cap-and-trade as a job-killer.

The Deeds ad is running in markets in Southwest Virginia and Harrisonburg.

It quotes an editorial in The Roanoke Times newspaper as calling McDonnell's attacks on Deeds "pure fabrication." The ad says the attacks exaggerate the impact of cap and trade and that "Deeds opposes any new energy taxes from Washington."

The McDonnell campaign says Deeds served on a Virginia Climate Change Commission, appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, that recommended cap and trade.

Deeds has said "I have endorsed the many measures undertaken through our work," but he never directly said he supported either the state or federal proposal.

In the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad, the pro-business organization says unions have invested $1.4 million in the Deeds campaign. It shows Deeds at a union rally saying: "You won't just have a friend in Richmond, you'll have a partner."

It says Deeds' union "partners" want "card check," federal legislation that would make it easier to unionize employees, and that they "want to unionize state government workers."

Deeds has said he is opposed to card check and to unionizing government employees.