Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday issued an executive order implementing a broad range of eco-friendly, energy-efficiency measures in Virginia government designed to reduce energy consumption and the carbon footprint of state operations. Executive Order 82 requires that state-owned or leased buildings meet “green” certification standards and mandates increases in the use of recycled office supplies and renewable fuels. It also calls for cutbacks in the costs to heat, cool, light and irrigate state-owned facilities.

Lois Marshall’s exceedingly modest 1940s-era ranch home needed a new roof, furnace, chimney liner and insulation to keep her warm and dry in the winter. Yesterday, the little yellow house off Parham Road in Henrico County was nearing the end of a $14,000 energy-efficiency makeover. It’s just one example of how Virginia plans to spend more than $94 million in federal stimulus cash from the Department of Energy that has been allocated for the weatherization of homes in the state.

Virginia will receive more than $164 million in federal grants for weatherization and energy efficiency programs, the White House announced today.

The Virginia economy is in full-on crisis. Businesses statewide are hurting, state employees are being laid off by the thousands, and the state is cutting core services in the face of a $3 billion budget shortfall. In this context, it’s especially difficult to accept Dominion Virginia Power’s recent decision to begin building a massive new coal-fired power plant in Wise County. The controversial plant has spawned public protests statewide. The cost alone—a whopping $1.8 billion—will actually cause the Virginia economy to shrink by another 1,500 jobs, according to official state estimates. This, while triggering more mountaintop removal mining, more global warming, and the potential for more coal-ash spills like the one that struck disastrously in East Tennessee before Christmas.