Weekly Column: General Assembly’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Air Quality

The following is my column that will appear in this week's Mt. Vernon Gazette in the week of July 20, 2024.  

General Assembly’s Ongoing Efforts to Protect Air Quality

By Senator Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon)

Protecting Virginia’s air quality by reducing greenhouse gases has been a priority of mine since I was first elected to the General Assembly in 2009. This year, both the House and the Senate took steps to address this issue.

However, Governor Youngkin exercised his power to veto some of our actions. Does that mean that Virginia will be stymied in reducing greenhouse gases for the next two years?

No. The General Assembly has considerable power to continue to move policy initiatives. Here’s a description of how that played out in the back-and-forth of the 2024 legislative session.

The Governor’s efforts to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) probably captured the most attention. RGGI is a regional compact created by states in the Northeast to combat the air pollution that has been linked to climate change. Under RGGI, participating states first set a limit on the CO2 emissions allowed in their state.   Power plants must buy allowances for every ton of carbon they emit.  Those funds are then returned to the state for a variety of green energy projects. 

Virginia joined RGGI in 2020, under a law that was passed by both houses of the General Assembly that required funds to be allocated towards flooding resiliency projects and energy efficiency.  The law has never been repealed and Virginia received over $700 million for flood prevention projects and energy efficiency such as insulating and weatherizing homes.

In addition, according to an analysis of the public health impact of RGGI, carbond dioxide emissions in the region have declined by more than 50% while the regional economy has continued to grow.

However, Governor Youngkin announced from the start of his term that he wanted Virginia out of the interstate compact and he attempted to pull Virginia out in 2023.  He was immediately sued and the legality of his action is currently pending in court.  In the end-of-session budget negotiations, funding to force the Governor to follow the law and follow RGGI removed as part of the compromise with the Governor that eventually led to passage of our biennial budget.

At the same time, the Governor vetoed my bill SB279, which would have created a Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank that would allow Virginia access over $350 billion of low interest federal loans to finance public and private clean energy projects, investments in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and similar efforts.  The bill had passed both houses with bipartisan majorities.

The Governor also vetoed my SB329, another measure designed to reduce greenhouse gases by promoting composting as a way to reduce methane consistent with Governor Youngkin’s composting executive order.  That bill passed the Senate 21-19 and the House 84-13.

Virginia still has the ability to move forward on reducing greenhouse gases. The General Assembly is taking action in other ways.

The budget we passed includes $100 million to take on the kinds of projects that were previously funded by RGGI such as $231 million to promote environmental management on farms and $400 million for bonds to upgrade local sewer treatment facilities.

In addition, several of my bills promoting alternative energy were passed into law and signed by the Governor. SB508 will make it easier for Virginia consumers to receive payments from Virginia utilities when they install and use geothermal heating and cooling systems.  For energy consumers who want to take advantage of solar power but cannot install a rooftop solar panel, my SB 253 and 255 will make it easier to participate in a “shared solar” program—receiving a credit on their electric bill for an off-site solar generation facility.

The members of the General Assembly will continue to work to bring Virginia back into RGGI.  That may take another legislative session or another Governor, but we are not walking away from our efforts to address this critical priority for all Virginians.  Please email me at scott@scottsurovell.org if you have any feedback.