NORTHAM UNVEILS A GREEN BUDGET
The $733 million plan is heavily focused on environmental issues
VIRGINIA BEACH — Gov. Ralph Northam is pushing hard for clean energy, clean water, a clean Chesapeake Bay and environmental justice with $733 million in new spending contained in his proposed budget package.
The governor announced the partial plan Wednesday at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Brock Environmental Center ahead of unveiling his full spending package next week.
It includes not only big investments in bay cleanup, clean energy infrastructure, offshore wind energy, land conservation and community outreach, but also paves the way for Virginia to join a regional partnership to reduce carbon emissions — a move that Republicans in Richmond blocked earlier this year.
Northam said in a statement
that his plan proves that “a clean environment and a strong economy go hand-in-hand.”
“These significant investments in environmental protection, environmental justice, clean energy and clean water will combat climate change and ensure we maintain our high quality of life here in Virginia,” Northam said.
CBF President William C. Baker called the plan “great news for everyone who cares about clean water.”
It also earned plaudits from the James River Association, The Nature Conservancy and the Chesapeake Conservancy.
The budget proposal includes: $400 million for bay cleanup by helping localities reduce stormwater pollution and upgrade wastewater treatment plants, increased oyster reef restoration and more aid to farmers to curb nutrient runoff. These investments are expected to put Virginia on track to meet its 2025 deadline for bay restoration.
Zack Greenberg of The Pew Charitable Trusts said in a statement that the $10 million Northam earmarked for reef work would keep Virginia a “national leader in large-scale oyster restoration.”
$40 million to upgrade the Portsmouth Marine Terminal to lure new investments in the offshore wind energy supply chain. The plan would also create the state’s first Office of Offshore Wind, tasked with coordinating with local, state and federal agencies to secure supply chain and industry jobs.
Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball said in a statement that the proposed investments “will create new business opportunities, expand customer access to renewable energy and spark high-demand jobs of the 21st century.”
$171 million to conserve natural lands and improve state parks.
$25 million to the state Department of Environmental Quality for efficiencies in permitting, greater public engagement and environmental protections. Some $2.7 million is earmarked for environmental justice and community outreach.
$10 million for a new Clean Energy Revolving Loan Fund to help governments, small businesses and lowincome residents pay for clean energy infrastructure.
Finally, Northam struck a budget provision that the Republican-led General Assembly had inserted earlier this year that prevented the state from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI is a cap-and-trade market run by nine states to limit carbon emissions by major industrial polluters.
Republicans had argued that membership would hike electric bills for Virginians by about $12 a month, although the DEQ had said bills could go down.
Then last month’s election flipped the General Assembly to majority Democrat, and now the Democratic governor says he plans to propose legislation to join RGGI.
On Wednesday, House majority leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, and House Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman Terry Kilgore,
R-Gate City, issued statements insisting that RGGI membership will cost Virginians, particularly lower-income residents.
“Radical environmentalists spent big during the 2019 campaign to get Democrats elected, and they expect a return on their investment,” Gilbert said. “Now we know what that return looks like: a carbon tax that will cost Virginia jobs and stick hard-working families with higher energy bills — nearly $6 billion over 10 years.”
“Southwest Virginia has seen this before,” Kilgore said. “Richmond tries a new scheme and our power bills go up.”
Northam has shown a strong commitment to mitigate the impacts of climate change, including announcing flood-protection building standards last month for new stateowned property. The new standards are considered the strongest in the country. A global hot spot for sea level rise, Virginia suffers the tidal flooding and more intense storms associated with climate change.
In August, Northam released the state’s third and final Watershed Implementation Plan, a road map to clean up the Chesapeake. The plans are devised by bay states to fulfill their mutual commitment to have anti-pollution measures in place by 2025 to restore the nation’s largest estuary. Studies have shown that Virginia is largely on track to meet that deadline, but only with more investment.
Northam is scheduled to present his full spending package to the Joint Money Committees on Tuesday.