Updated Bill Tracker

Throughout the General Assembly session, VCN maintains an updated conservation bill tracker online. This bill tracker is updated every Friday after VCN’s Board of Directors votes on positions recommended by VCN’s Legislative Committee.

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Top Three

#1: Conservation Lobby Day — On Monday, nearly 200 conservation advocates will travel to Richmond to encourage their state legislators to support environmental policy advancements. To prepare attendees for their meetings, VCN held a webinar this morning running through priority environmental bills. To view the webinar recording, please click here. A full schedule of the webinar is below so you can fast forward to the sections you’re most interested in listening to. For those of you who are registered for Conservation Lobby Day, we look forward to seeing you bright and early on Monday!

#2: Repealing Dominion’s Rate Freeze — In 2015, under the false narrative of protecting ratepayers from the costs of the Clean Power Plan, Dominion passed SB1349. Also known as the “rate freeze,” this legislation has allowed utilities to circumvent oversight and review from the State Corporation Commission (SCC) and avoid issuing ratepayer refunds. By SCC estimates, Dominion has unjustly collected hundreds of millions of dollars in over-earnings. HB96, carried by Delegate Sam Rasoul, would repeal the 2015 legislation, return SCC oversight of Dominion’s earnings, and allow for refunds or credits of historic over-earnings. Similar legislation carried by Senator Chap Petersen was defeated in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on Monday. Delegate Rasoul delivered a powerful floor speech on this topic that you can watch here. The Richmond Times-Dispatch also wrote a great article on the subject which can be accessed here.

VCN’s Legislative Committee and Board of Directors have voted to publicly support HB96, which has been referred to the House Commerce and Labor Committee. This bill and issue is ultimately about Dominion’s relationship with the SCC. It’s critical that we contact members of the House Commerce and Labor Committee and encourage them to support HB96.

#3: Coal Ash Bills Have Dropped — Coal ash, the waste product generated when coal is burned for energy, contains a mix of harmful chemicals including arsenic mercury and lead. Coal ash is stored along in storage facilities along many of Virginia’s waterways — many of which are out of date, posing serious risks for pollution. Following a moratorium placed on solid waste permits for coal ash last year, lawmakers with some of the largest coal ash sites in their districts are now working to ensure these storage facilities are properly cleaned up to protect our waterways and public health. A package of bills have dropped addressing proper cleanup of coal ash sitting along our waterways. It’s important that we contact members of the committees listed below to encourage them to support these bills:

Week Two Legislative Update

We’ll begin this week’s update again with pipelines. The package of legislation aimed at protecting water quality and landowner rights from the construction of fracked gas pipelines (HB1141, HB1294, HB1187, and HB1188) have been sent to the House Rules Committee. This is not a good thing, because there is much less transparency within this committee than any of the others. The House Rules Committee meets at the pleasure of the committee chair who is also the speaker — this means that there could be very little notice as to when these bills appear on the docket, making it very difficult for affected landowners to make it to Richmond in time to attend. This is also the only committee that does not record its votes, so there’s much less accountability.

For years, the process surrounding fracked gas pipelines has been carried out behind closed doors. People whose land is being impacted by this process have been and are continuing to be left out of the conversation. Sending this package of bills aimed at protecting water quality and landowner rights from the construction of fracked gas pipelines to the House Rules Committee is yet another example of that happening. We do not know when these bills will appear on the docket, but we will be sure to let you know as soon as they do. In the meantime, please encourage your representatives to support this package of bills and ask that they make sure there’s plenty of notice as to when these bills will be heard.

Budget amendments are now live! Advocates are currently reviewing the amendments to see what they could mean for important conservation programs. While VCN’s Legislative Committee and Board of Directors have not taken official positions on any amendments yet, there are some funding asks that we’ve pushed in the past and will continue to push this year. Since Governor McAuliffe’s proposed budget was announced, organizations have been kicking up the opinion media push to fully fund the programs we care about, including the Agricultural Cost-Share Program and the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund. Two examples of strong opinion media hits on this topic are listed below — we encourage you to share them with your supporters and colleagues:

As you may already know, the Northam Administration listed Virginia joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) as a top priority this year. This has been a top priority of the environmental community for a long time, so we’re very excited to work with the Administration on getting SB696 and HB1273 — which would allow Virginia to join RGGI — across the finish line. The proposal to join RGGI goes beyond the Governor’s Climate Action Plan currently being drafted by the Department of Environmental Quality by allowing the Commonwealth — rather than utilities — to receive the profits.

Finally, there have been a suite of bills introduced this year that would increase tree canopy in Virginia. Importantly, the canopy of mature trees intercepts rainwater, reducing the amount of stormwater pollution that reaches waterways. HB494, carried by Delegate Hodges, is one of the bills a part of this suite and would allow all localities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to require planting or replacing trees during development. We’re happy to report that this particular bill made it out of committee. Unfortunately, two other bills a part of this suite died in subcommittee yesterday. Delegate Hope and Delegate Lopez also have two tree canopy bills that have yet to be taken up — their bill numbers are HB447 and HJ93. Chesapeake Bay Foundation is closely following all three of the remaining tree canopy bills. Click here for their fact sheet with messaging points and contact information.