Updates on VCN Priorities
Budget conferees selected. The House and Senate money committees conferees have been selected and they have some significantly different budgets to work with. Governor Northam also just released a letter to the budget conferees with a nod to conservation; check out No. 6.
ACTION: Contact budget conferees and ask for strong funding for our natural resources.
RGGI passes House and Senate – amendment free (HB981/SB1027)! After more than six years, the Commonwealth is finally poised to join RGGI. The bad LS Power amendment was removed from HB981 in Senate Finance. An additional bill seeking a carveout (SB992) was also defeated, meaning that all attempts to give special carve-outs from RGGI were defeated. RGGI now heads to the Governor’s desk. Congratulations to every organization that has worked tirelessly on getting this legislation passed, including CCAN, Sierra Club, SELC, VaLCV, and many more!
ACTION: Send a note to the patrons Herring, Locke, and Lewis as well as the Governor for their leadership getting RGGI across the finish line.
Updates on plastic bags and styrofoam (HB534 and HB533). The current vehicle for a statewide plastic bag fee is moving to conference to reach consensus. Conferees are Sens. Ebbin, McClellan, Vogel; and Dels. Carr, Lopez, and Ware. Del. Carr’s HB533 polystyrene ban is also heading to conference. There is currently a problematic amendment from the Senate to delay the ban that needs to be removed from the final bill. Conferees are House: Carr, Krizek and Ware in the House, and, Marsden, Hashmi, and Ruff in the Senate.
ACTION: Reach out to the conferees and let them know that we need plastics and polystyrene out of our waters. Specifically for HB533, remove the amendment to needlessly delay action.
Hampton Roads finally in line for dedicated transportation funding (HB1726/SB1038). Hampton Roads currently has an extremely unreliable and inefficient transit bus service (there were a record 18,653 missed trips last year). The region needs to provide cleaner transportation alternatives and it needs meaningful regional transit services to reduce traffic congestion. These plans cannot be implemented without dedicated, regionally-derived funding for transit. Dedicated funding bills are currently heading to conference.
Strengthening the SCC’s power in rate cases(HB1132). The Fair Energy Bills Act (FEBA) will be docketed in Senate Commerce and Labor on Monday. HB1132 restores the historic regulatory authority of the State Corporation Commission (SCC) for Dominion Energy’s 2021 rate case. The bill empowers the SCC to examine Dominion Energy’s earnings, set its allowed profit level, and direct the monopoly to lower rates and issue refunds if it overcharges customers. New Virginia Majority wrote a great blog post about FEBA that you can read here.
ACTION: Reach out to the Senate Committee on Commerce and Labor committee and ask them to protect ratepayers.
Bill Positions
Virginia Conservation Network publishes bill positions every week. These positions have been voted on by our Legislative Committee, comprised of leading environmental organizations in the state, and our board of directors. They are intended to reflect the positions of the broader conservation community and are updated every Friday.
To view this table online with talking points, visit vcnva.org/bill-tracker.