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.

Dominion Virginia Power is seeking approval to roll out an energyconservation plan that the utility says would save customers about $1.2 billion over 15 years. The company filed requests with the State Corporation Commission yesterday to implement the plan, which would include offering customers incentives to participate in 11 conservation programs such as installing energyefficient lighting and upgrading to more efficient heating systems.

Alpha Natural Resources is confirming its commitment to buy rival mine operator Foundation Coal.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds yesterday unveiled a plan to jump-start Virginia’s stalled economy that includes a payroll tax refund for every additional employee hired by businesses in the state. Speaking in Roanoke and accompanied by Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., Deeds also proposed increased funding for job training and options for unemployed workers to purchase emergency health insurance.

The U.S. secretaries of agriculture and energy are planning to visit Southside Virginia tomorrow to attend a community forum on energy, green jobs and efforts to help rural communities improve their economies. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Steven Chu are expected to visit an experimental biofuels operation in Pittsylvania County, then attend a public forum. At the forum, the officials will take comments from residents on how the federal departments can better support revitalization efforts in rural communities.

The U.S. Department of Energy is setting aside nearly $7.5 million for rebates to consumers who purchase energy-efficient appliances in Virginia. The funding is part of $300 million allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund rebate programs in the states and U.S. territories. Virginia must apply to participate in the program by Aug. 15, and intends to do so, said Gordon Hickey, press secretary for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

President Obama reminded us earlier this year that the nation needs a transition to renewable energy in the short term. “We need to find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste.“ But, while Obama has paid lip service to expanding nuclear power and not much else, other countries are busy building nuclear power plants. The United States has not built a plant since the 1979 accident at the nuclear facility at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

Some people think the “green revolution” is going to be the next wave of innovation similar to what has happened with the Web. Prior waves of innovation before the popularity of the Web - from integrated computer circuits to the Internet - created opportunities and drove economic prosperity. One could argue that we are moving along a similar path with waves of innovation in green industries.

The simple, nostalgic act of hanging clothes outside to dry, regaining popularity as an eco-friendly act, has become a full-blown political flap. On one side of the line, proponents of the right-to-dry movement say clotheslines are a green alternative to dryers, which are second only to refrigerators and air conditioners as the top energy consumers in most homes.

Virginians need electricity. We need a lot of it. In recent years the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s demand, for example, has increased more than twice the national average. Conservation and en ergy efficiency efforts continue to slow this trend, but are unlikely to be the entire solution. This is not just a problem, it is also an opportunity. We can use this need for electricity as a way to create jobs and investment in Virginia, and revitalize our rural communities.

Ever since gas hit $4 a gallon on June 8 of last year, energy policy has been an all-consuming passion of America’s political class. Thus, both candidates for governor of Virginia propose major new energy initiatives for the commonwealth. Unfortunately for voters, they’re not offering much of a choice. Republican Bob McDonnell’s “More Energy, More Jobs” is bad. Democrat Creigh Deeds’ “Smarter Energy, Better Jobs, Greener Virginia” is worse.

Ever since gas hit $4 a gallon on June 8 of last year, energy policy has been an all-consuming passion of America’s political class. Thus, both candidates for governor of Virginia propose major new energy initiatives for the commonwealth. Unfortunately for voters, they’re not offering much of a choice. Republican Bob McDonnell’s “More Energy, More Jobs” is bad. Democrat Creigh Deeds’ “Smarter Energy, Better Jobs, Greener Virginia” is worse.

America’s supply of natural gas is considerably greater than commonly thought, thanks to advances in recovery technology that now allow for drilling in shale rock. The nation’s recoverable reserves stand at more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet. At current rates of consumption, that means the U.S. will not run out until roughly 2100—all other things being equal.

The energy proposal released by congressional Republicans the other day doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of passage. But that very fact has liberated the GOP from having to muddy the waters with compromise and horse-trading. Unlike the ridiculously complex and regulation-heavy Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, or the pie-in-the-sky fantasies of the Obama administration, the GOP proposal contains realistic, practical ideas for improving the nation’s production of energy. It would increase oil and gas production offshore, where vast reserves may lie. It would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling that would do no more harm than drilling has done in Prudhoe Bay. And—most important—it would spur the construction of a hundred new nuclear power plants over the next two decades.

Energy prices are starting to soar again. Oil prices, for starters, have broken free of the fundamentals that usually rule the market and are rising despite a glut in surplus crude oil. Benchmark crude climbed to its highest level in eight months yesterday, touching $73.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas prices at the pump have been surging, too, reaching a national average of $2.63 a gallon, with Richmond-area prices nearly 20 cents cheaper.