Virginia's recent environmental and climate laws have been heralded as among the nation's most progressive. In recent years, Virginia passed landmark laws supporting renewable energy and environmental justice and joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, priming it to address the challenges posed by growing flood risks, climate-related disasters, and industry-related public health crises.
However, Gov. Glenn Youngkin's election has shrouded Virginia's green future in gray.
Youngkin's campaign rhetoric on climate change ranged from hostile to ambitious. Despite some positive appraisals of renewable energy projects, his statements and early Cabinet nominations make clear that he opposes regulatory and legislative landmarks that support the state's climate resilience.
To start, Youngkin has repeatedly promised to repeal the bipartisan Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which mandates a 100 percent decarbonized power grid by 2045. To achieve this ambitious goal, energy producers are required to meet emission reduction benchmarks and increase their investments in renewable energy. Producers who fail to do so must make "deficiency payments," which will be collected by Virginia's Department of Energy (DEQ) and distributed to overburdened, climate-threatened communities.
GOP Del. Todd Gilbert, the new Speaker of Virginia's state house, supports Youngkin's promise to repeal the VCEA. The Democratic majority in the state Senate will make that difficult, though that could change if Republicans take back the upper chamber in next year's elections. Additionally, Youngkin's nomination of pro-business Caren Merrick as the commonwealth's commerce secretary makes strict implementation of the law uncertain. If the VCEA is only loosely enforced, the renewable energy industry will remain underutilized despite immense need, and pollution will continue to produce ecological and public health disasters.
Undermining Emission Reduction Programs
Youngkin has also expressed interest in removing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the regional cap-and-trade program that reduces emissions and energy costs for low-income households. Virginia joined the RGGI to meet its VCEA goals, and funds generated through RGGI are directed toward critical low-income energy efficiency programs and flood prevention.
While some suggest Youngkin is unable to overturn the legislation himself, the risk remains that his appointments over the next several years will undercut its preventative and restorative potential. Over the next three years, for example, Youngkin will appoint five of the seven members of DEQ's Air Pollution Control Board, offering him a powerful regulatory majority. Additionally, if the board's rulemaking authority is diminished through pending legislation, Youngkin can easily stave off rigorous emissions standards.
What's more, Youngkin recently nominated Andrew Wheeler to head up Virginia's Department of Natural and Historic Resources. As former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Wheeler advanced the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda, sidelined scientists, and packed the federal Air Pollution Control Board with industry sympathizers.
If confirmed, Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, will be able to deregulate coal emissions standards as he did at EPA — even as Virginia's coal production is on the rise. He would also oversee the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation, where he will shape the distribution of RGGI-generated flood prevention funds. Based on his track record, it's safe to assume Wheeler will favor the interests of big business and big polluters over communities.
Scaling Back Environmental Justice Protections
Wheeler would also have authority over massive preservation projects, including protection of 1 million acres of Virginia wetlands. That means Virginia wetlands may lose many protections, and surrounding communities will be at greater risk of weather-related disasters and flooding. Wheeler would also be in charge of massive coastal resiliency projects, which many fear he won't take seriously.
Another major concern: groundwater pollution caused by coal ash dump sites. After Wheeler undermined coal ash regulations at the federal level in 2018, Virginia passed a bipartisan bill mandating Dominion Energy to clean up of millions of cubic yards of coal ash. However, this cleanup is scheduled to occur over the next 15 years, giving Youngkin's administration the chance to delay or undercut more aggressive cleanup efforts.
Additionally, Virginia's Department of Energy has discussed recycling coal ash for critical mineral production, which many environmental groups see as simply replacing one problem with another. With Youngkin's pro-industry agenda and Cabinet, projects dedicated to removing contaminants and protecting the surrounding communities are at stake.
In short, Virginia's climate progress is at risk of being undercut and undone. Youngkin has signaled his desire to undermine regulatory protections and underutilize the financial supports for the communities most impacted by climate change and ecological degradation. While his tenure is still in its infancy, his early actions are alarming. Youngkin's pursuit of a "diverse energy portfolio" and his interest in protecting taxpayers and consumers seems to overlook many of the commonwealth's most pressing concerns. Some political and legislative hurdles may offer insulation from Youngkin's agenda, but these are only temporary.
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Jake Moore | February 1, 2022
Virginia's recent environmental and climate laws have been heralded as among the nation's most progressive. In recent years, Virginia passed landmark laws supporting renewable energy and environmental justice and joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, priming it to address the challenges posed by growing flood risks, climate-related disasters, and industry-related public health crises. However, Gov. Glenn Youngkin's election has shrouded Virginia's green future in gray.
Darya Minovi | February 1, 2022
Climate change is quickly evolving into climate catastrophe, and there’s a narrow window of time to do something about it. While the world works on solutions, there’s surprisingly little focus on the chemical industry, which accounts for roughly 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions -- as well as other environmental harms.
David Driesen | January 31, 2022
The idea that unelected judges rather than an elected U.S. President should resolve "major questions" that arise in the course of executing law makes no sense. And the idea that major questions should be resolved to defeat policies that the two Houses of the U.S. Congress and the President have agreed to makes even less sense. Yet, the so-called "major questions doctrine" endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court's current majority suggests that the rule of law only governs minor cases, not matters of "vast economic and political significance." In important cases, the Court has abandoned the role that the Administrative Procedure Act assigns it—checking the executive branch when it contravenes the policies that Congress and the President have approved. Instead, it has assumed the role of constraining the faithful execution of the law based on unpredictable judicial fiats.
Daniel Farber | January 31, 2022
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) oversees government regulation across the federal government. Some portray it as a guardian of rationality, others as biased in favor of industry. Public information about OIRA is so limited that it's impossible to know one way or the other, due to the veil of secrecy that surrounds the place.
David Driesen | January 27, 2022
On the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued decisions governing requests for emergency stays of two rules protecting Americans from COVID-19. Both rules relied on very similar statutory language, which clearly authorized protection from threats to health. Both of them presented strikingly bad cases for emergency stays. Yet, the Court granted an emergency stay in one of these cases and denied it in the other. These decisions suggest that the Court applies judicial discretion unguided by law or traditional equitable considerations governing treatment of politically controversial regulatory cases.
Karen Sokol | January 26, 2022
On Feb. 28, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the first of an expected wave of cases challenging governmental action to address the climate crisis. The court’s grant of four petitions seeking review in this case -- two by coal companies and two by states -- portends that the six conservative justices will erect significant barriers to meaningful climate policy and will continue to interfere with democratic governance in disregard of the rule of law.
Alejandro Camacho | January 21, 2022
Following the announcement that the Bureau of Land Management will cap abandoned oil and gas wells on public lands, CPR is taking a look at the other top issues BLM and its new director, Tracy Stone-Manning, must address.
Sandra Zellmer | January 13, 2022
A global movement is underway to protect 30 percent of the Earth's lands and waters by 2030. More than seventy countries support this goal to combat climate change and slow the pace of species extinction, both of which are accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The two threats are closely intertwined. The greatest drivers of species extinction are climate change and habitat loss; by the same token, the loss of intact, functioning habitat and biodiversity diminishes the capacity for climate resilience. In the United States, one of President Biden's earliest executive orders, issued in his first week in office, established a goal to conserve at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and water and 30 percent of U.S. ocean areas by 2030. The order proclaims an "all of government" approach to strengthening climate resilience and biodiversity while promoting environmental justice and economic growth.
Johnathan Clark | January 12, 2022
On the morning of January 9, 2014, residents of Charleston, West Virginia, noticed an unusual licorice-like odor in their tap water. Within hours, a federal state of emergency was declared as 300,000 West Virginia residents were advised to avoid contact with their tap water, forcing those affected to rely on bottled water until the water supply was restored over one week later. As detailed in our recent report, Tanks for Nothing: The Decades-long Failure to Protect the Public from Hazardous Chemical Spills, the West Virginia Legislature moved quickly to address demands for increased regulatory oversight of aboveground chemical storage tanks (ASTs). With the memory of the spill still fresh in the minds of legislators and constituents, West Virginia enacted the Aboveground Storage Tank Act in 2014. The program primarily serves two major functions: to enact and enforce standards to reduce the risk of a future spill, and to make information about regulated tanks available to state regulators and the public.