Energy Talk Part 4

In this, the fourth of five segments from a much longer interview, we hear first-hand accounts of how rising regulations are driving up electricity rates in rural Virginia. This is forcing families to make cuts and even move. A local factory owner even threatened to move production overseas over the rate increases.

One couple from Bishop Harry Jackson's church relates how the wife lost her job, twice, due to rising energy bills, how the rising cost of gasoline finally forced them to move, and the hardships that higher energy prices cause their parents.

Governor George Allen draws them out and helps connect the dots: Higher energy prices hurt businesses, cost jobs, and impact even middle-income families. And government mandates, even when well-intentioned, have often had an effect of increasing pollution by shifting industries over-seas, where regulations are relaxed.