News & Events

Ambassador Bell, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the warm welcome. It is a pleasure to be here tonight and a real honor to join the ranks of the distinguished guests who have preceded me at this lectern.

I want to begin by congratulating Ambassador Bell and the World Affairs Council for 10 years of outstanding service to central Virginia.

Dominion has been a corporate sponsor of this Council since 1999. We value and support your efforts to promote global literacy and a deeper understanding of international affairs.

Energy literacy is—or should be—an important aspect of that understanding and a top priority in today’s complex world. The U.S. is, after all, the world’s largest energy consumer and one of its leading producers.

Unfortunately, too many Americans remain in the dark about energy. Much of what they know—or think they know—comes from the media, typically in 30-second sound bites or video clips sandwiched between TV commercials.

Average citizens are not the only ones who are uninformed. The gap between what is real knowledge and imagined knowledge of energy issues is sizeable. We see it most clearly in the often disjointed, confused and polarized congressional debate about energy policy.

This low level of literacy stems in part from some longstanding myths and misperceptions. The media perpetuates them, some politicians reinforce them, the public frequently buys them and the energy industry has not done an adequate job of refuting them—largely because of poor credibility with the public.