Virginia
Policy priorities
In Virginia, we’re working to defend progress the state has made on tackling climate change while ensuring that energy bills are affordable for all. Most notably, we’re defending the Virginia Clean Economy Act and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, two initiatives that combined, would help transition the state’s electric grid to 100% renewable energy by 2050, reduce carbon emissions and fund programs to help communities impacted by climate change.
We’re also pushing to reform utility shutoff policies so that people who can least afford their bills aren’t left without power during dangerous weather conditions or crises. And we’re doing our best to ensure that Virginia’s state agencies consider environmental justice when making decisions or carrying out state operations, as directed by the passage of the Environmental Justice Act in 2020.
Movement spotlight: Union Hill victory against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Plans by Dominion Energy, a monopoly electric utility provider, to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through Virginia were thwarted after years of organizing by community members, advocates and activists who stood with the community of Union Hill, a historically Black community that was facing an environmental catastrophe for being in the pipeline’s path. The community would have been burdened not only with the pipeline, but also with a compressor station that would have threatened neighbors’ health with air and noise pollution and driven down property values.
Virginia Electric Cooperative Scorecards:
Electric cooperatives (co-ops) serve hundreds of thousands of Virginians & cover nearly one-third of the commonwealth’s geography. The scorecards highlight democratic participation challenges faced by electric cooperative member-owners in Virginia.
RESOURCES
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
A grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
Clean Virginia
An organization that works to advance clean government and clean energy by fighting utility monopoly corruption in Virginia politics.
RE Power REC
A grassroots coalition of concerned rural electric cooperative (REC) member-owners in Virginia.
Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative
An organization working to build the health and wealth of communities of color, low income communities, and communities overburdened by pollution.
Virginia Interfaith Power and Light
An organization that collaborates among people of faith and conscience to grow healthy communities by advancing climate and environmental justice.
Virginia Organizing Project
A statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives.
Virginia Solar United Neighbors
A community of people building a new energy system with rooftop solar at the cornerstone.