Senate Invoice 1001 from Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Westmoreland, was voted down on a party-line vote within the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Pure Assets Committee on Tuesday. (Getty Pictures)
The lone Republican try of the 2023 Normal Meeting session to repeal a legislation permitting Virginia’s participation in a regional carbon cap and make investments program was killed in a Senate committee Tuesday.
Senate Invoice 1001 from Sen. Richard Stuart, R-Westmoreland, was voted down on a party-line vote within the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Pure Assets Committee.
The laws would have repealed the 2020 Clear Vitality and Group Flood Preparedness Act, which enabled Virginia to take part within the Regional Greenhouse Fuel Initiative, a multistate program that requires electrical energy producers to purchase allowances for the carbon they emit.
The proceeds from auctions of the allowances are returned to collaborating states. In Virginia, that has led to over $500 million being funneled to a fund devoted to flood resilience efforts and applications dedicated to low-income vitality effectivity tasks.
In a quick listening to on the invoice, Stuart argued that the price ratepayers foot for Virginia’s participation in RGGI is not truthful. In Virginia, investor-owned utilities like Dominion are allowed to move RGGI participation prices on to prospects.
“I believe it’s totally unfair for the ratepayers to pay a tax that’s merely an arbitrary inflation of their electrical invoice, value of electrical energy, when there is not any conservation profit,” Stuart stated. He additionally voiced concern on the potential of utilities to buy carbon allowances past set caps.
However Sen. Lynwood Lewis, D-Accomack, who patronized the 2020 laws within the Senate, stated this system is “clearly working right here,” pointing to a discount in carbon emissions over a two-year interval.
“I believe most individuals are prepared to soak up that value on a month-to-month foundation if it is doing a societal good,” Lewis stated.
Previous to discontinuing the cost, Dominion added a rider to buyer payments for RGGI prices that was roughly $2.39 per thirty days for the common residential buyer.
Nate Benforado, a senior legal professional for the Southern Environmental Legislation Heart, stated RGGI’s diminishing cap on allowances accessible to energy producers affords a pathway for utilities to transition away from fossil fuels, whose costs have soared over the previous yr due to world market pressures.
Chelsea Harnish, government director of the Virginia Vitality Effectivity Council, stated RGGI funding is permitting weatherization and vitality effectivity upgrades in houses throughout the state from Wytheville to Virginia Seashore.
Quite a few different environmental teams together with the Local weather Cupboard Motion Fund, Superior Vitality Economic system, Appalachian Voices, Interfaith Energy and Mild, Chesapeake Bay Basis, Virginia Grassroots Coalition, Virginia chapter of the Sierra Membership, Wetlands Watch, Associates of the Rappahannock and the Virginia State Convention of the NAACP opposed the invoice.
Just one particular person, Chesapeake resident Vic Nicholls, testified in favor of Stuart’s invoice Tuesday, saying ratepayers do not wish to take part in RGGI.
Environmental teams praised the invoice’s rejection following the vote Tuesday.
“We’re grateful to our champions within the Senate for doing the best factor for Virginians and local weather motion by rejecting this misguided repeal effort,” stated Michael City, government director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. “But in addition know our work is not over – we’ve to proceed to defend this program from the Youngkin administration’s ongoing assaults as they search to override the legislative course of and put polluters forward of what is greatest for our state.”
The Youngkin administration is shifting ahead with plans to tug Virginia out of RGGI by way of the regulatory course of, an effort state Democrats say requires laws.
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