Chester-based Southside Oil LLC has bought 172 Exxon retail gasoline stations, mainly in Maryland, more than doubling the company’s retail operations. The privately held company did not disclose the terms of the sale. Southside Oil is a wholesale gasoline distribution company owned by Steven and Linda Uphoff. The Uphoffs also operate 42 Uppy’s Convenience Stores Inc. locations in Virginia. They own the property where 67 other BP and ExxonMobil gas stations are, but they don’t operate those stations.

Agroup of businessmen launched a coalition yesterday to urge the federal government to make a major investment in electric transportation, pointing to electric cars as the best way to confront the nation’s dependence on imported oil. Top executives with more than a dozen companies, including Nissan Motor Co., FedEx Corp., electric utility PG&E Corp. and battery developers A123 Systems Inc. and Johnson Controls-Saft, announced the formation of the Electrification Coalition to lay the groundwork for millions of electric cars to reach U.S. highways.

Moseley Architects’ reserved parking spaces aren’t for mothers with young children. They’re for people who drive fuel-efficient cars. The Richmond firm is all about energy efficiency. It used green building techniques to renovate a contaminated garage as long as a football field into its headquarters. The soot was so thick in the barrel-vaulted structure that wood ceilings, 28 feet high at the apex, had to be blasted, but not with sand. Sand would have damaged the wood, so peanut and walnut shells were used.

Although the health care debate has sucked nearly every ounce of air out of other policy debates, it’s important for Americans to remember another piece of legislation being pushed by the Obama administration: cap and trade. The House narrowly passed a bloated, 1,000-plus-page behemoth loaded with corporate welfare, pork, and perverse incentives (making it more than a little like the stimulus bill, in that respect). The Senate has yet to act on the bill, and there are doubts it can make it through, even with the Democrats holding a filibuster-proof majority in the upper chamber.

Virginians are being fed a hefty dose of PR lately by those who would open our coast for the first time ever to offshore oil and gas drilling. They claim that offshore drilling will bring thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to Virginia, and that anyone who says otherwise is “anti-job, antienergy, and antinational security.“

Court records show Massey Energy paid more than $5.1 million for the 23 million tons of coal reserves and other assets acquired from a bankrupt rival.

Last September, the United States Congress chose to support American jobs and American energy by allowing the ban on offshore drilling to expire. For the first time in more than 25 years, drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) became legal, offering America the opportunity for more energy, more security, and more jobs.

Jack Reasor gave up the life of a politician to head Old Dominion Electric Cooperative. He’s gotten back time with his family and earned high marks for helping steer ODEC in a challenging environment.

Education: bachelor of arts, Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn., 1975; law degree, University of Richmond T.C. Williams School of Law, 1978
  Career: associate, Bolling and Senser law firm in Grundy, 1978; vice president and general counsel, then president and CEO of Miners & Merchants Bank and Trust Co. in Grundy, 1979-83; trust administrative officer, Flat Top National Bank in Bluefield, 1983-91; partner, Galumbeck, Simmons and Reasor law firm in Tazewell, 1991-94; president, Premier Trust Co. in Bluefield, 1994-95; vice president, First Virginia Bank in Bluefield, 1997-98; president and CEO, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, 1998-present

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine wants Virginia to become the home to major offshore wind-energy projects. Kaine’s office yesterday released a letter, dated Sept. 15, to S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the federal Minerals Management Service, requesting the formation of a federal-state-local task force to help guide the development of wind energy.

Opponents of a multistate power line that would run through northern Virginia are asking the Virginia Supreme Court to send the project back to state regulators for further deliberations.

The Times-Dispatch recently convened a panel of experts to hear their ideas on dealing with Virginia’s top environmental challenges. Here are excerpts.

As you plot your future, consider Richmond a partner. Our city and region are perfect locations for pilot programs experimenting with alternative transportation solutions that pollute less. A special tip of the innovator’s hat to Ford and General Motors. Ford, we think your electric vehicle and Urban Mobility Network would find a nice home in Richmond. We know that you have visited here—thanks to your manager of sustainable business development, David Berdish, who graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University—and we are excited that Richmond could be a part of the company’s return to glory.

Location: Hopewell
  Opening: 2010
  Cost: $160 million
  Majority owner: First Reserve Corp.
  Source grain: barley
  Bushels used: 30 million a year
  Ethanol yield: 65 million gallons a year
  Tax revenue: about $2 million
  Employees: about 45 to 55

The Henrico County-based company that is building an ethanol plant in Hopewell has turned to Perdue AgriBusiness as a source of grain for the refinery. Perdue is creating a contracting program for local farmers to grow barley for the Appomattox Bio Energy plant, Osage Bio Energy President and CEO Craig Shealy said yesterday. The plant will be the first of its kind in Virginia and the first barley-based biofuels plant on the East Coast.