Act now to protect Virginia’s climate progress
Virginians have made considerable progress in the fight against climate change. Starting in 2019, the Virginia Clean Economy
Act set us on a path to a cleaner, healthier future for all in the commonwealth.
In 2020, funding from our state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) started flowing to vulnerable communities for flood protection and energy efficiency. Last year, the General Assembly passed legislation to clean up pollution from Virginia’s most significant source of carbon emissions: cars and trucks.
Virginians can be proud of this progress. It’s meaningful, measurable progress that will help real people in their everyday lives. Climate justice groups such as ours worked diligently to ensure that the fees collected from RGGI would benefit low-income Virginians, grow the economy through job creation, and support floodprone communities as they plan for future flood events.
And that’s why it is disheartening to watch Gov. Glenn Youngkin push Virginia backward since he was elected. It is also frustrating to witness bill after bill drafted and introduced, ignoring the crisis we face from climate change, during this General Assembly session. Knowing the good that our climate progress is doing — improving health, protecting Virginia’s vulnerable, boosting our economy, creating jobs — how can those who’ve been elected to make critical decisions for Virginia’s future continue to shrug off their responsibility to swiftly pass laws and develop policies to reduce the environmental crisis we all face?
Virginia joined RGGI as part of the Clean Economy Act. For just a few cents each month, Virginia reaps the rewards far beyond the
dollar amounts flowing in. We do more for the climate by participating in RGGI than the individual acts many have adopted. We have reduced emissions from power plants in Virginia by 16.8% since joining.
So far, the program has resulted in more than half a million dollars being invested directly in communities for flood protection and energy efficiency measures. The programs and projects RGGI dollars fund help avoid future recovery and rebuilding costs, making the return on our investment sizable.
Youngkin has proposed his energy plans, but it doesn’t come close to making up for what Virginia would lose if he succeeds
in removing our state from RGGI. And his plans don’t have provisions to make up for the portion — roughly half — that goes to fund energy efficiency measures in low-income communities.
If you want to talk about a program that puts real money into real projects that help real people, that’s RGGI. The dollars from RGGI that go to energy efficiency allow weatherization providers and housing developers to provide safe, affordable and energy-efficient homes to low-income families in a way we’ve never seen before. Without those funds, we’ll have people without the means to make basic but critically important efficiency improvements that will help
drive down their monthly power bills. The attacks on RGGI are an assault on low-income families across Virginia.
The Youngkin administration is trying to do an end run around the legislature by directing the state Air Pollution Control Board to discontinue participation. We believe this action subverts the law passed in 2020. The comment period for this administrative move through the air board began Jan. 31 on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website.
As people of faith, we are called upon to care for our neighbors and the planet. And the best way to do both of those things — and more — is to leave our progress intact and push forward with
initiatives that further protect Virginians now and for future generations.
The VCEA and RGGI protect all forms of life in Virginia. Protect Virginians, protect our economy, protect our environment — protect the Clean Economy Act, keep Virginia in RGGI, and stay the course on cleaning up vehicle pollution. It’s our best hope.