NOTE: This piece was originally released for publication in January, 2016. You can read it here as well.
RICHMOND, Va. — Two lawmakers have reached across the aisle to sponsor legislation that aims to lower utility bills for consumers as well as reduce carbon outputs in order to protect Virginia’s vulnerable coastline.
Del. Ron Villanueva, R-Virginia Beach, has teamed up with Sen. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, to address the issue. Their bills would use emissions fees from power plants to invest in renewable energy projects in the coal regions of Southwest Virginia and annually pump about $125 million into flood protections and more than $80 million into energy efficiency programs for homeowners.
“First of all, I know what you’re thinking — it’s a weird partnership,” Villanueva joked as he took the podium Wednesday at press conference. “We’re going to call ourselves team Thunder and Lightning.”
Villanueva is sponsoring House Bill 351, called the Virginia Alternative Energy and Coastal Protection Act. McEachin has a similar proposal — Senate Bill 571.
McEachin noted that Virginia is not on pace to meet its goal of a 10 percent energy savings by 2020. He said joining a market-based system that caps carbon emissions, like the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, could put Virginia back on track.
According to RGGI’s website, “The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is the first market-based regulatory program in the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (and a) cooperative effort among the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont to cap and reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector.”
“In the nine ReGGIe states, electricity prices have actually dropped about 2 percent, as compared to an increase in the rest of the nation, because of reduced energy demand and reinvestments,” said Dawone Robinson, Virginia policy director at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Most of the press conference focused on how the bills would cut costs for homeowners in Virginia — particularly in Richmond, where houses are older.
“This bill is putting forth solutions where there are none,” Villanueva said.
Similar proposals have died in recent years, but Villanueva said he has faith this year because the General Assembly will have options: It can join the RGGI or put together a new multi-state energy compact.
Joining RGGI has proven to be an unpopular proposition with Virginia lawmakers in the past, because of differences between Virginia and the existing RGGI states.
Villanueva and McEachin said they have not yet heard from Dominion Virginia Power, the state’s dominant utility, regarding their legislation.
“I guess we’ll see them at the committee hearings,” Villanueva said. “(Last year) they were against it, but what we’re seeing more is that industry wants to come up with solutions — this bill, our bill, our solution, is trying to help spur that along.”
In an email, Dominion Virginia Power spokesman David Botkins stated, “We are reviewing the legislation and monitoring it closely. We do have some concerns, because it would raise electric rates considerably in Virginia. That would come at a time when Dominion’s residential rates are currently 32 percent below the average of states under the RGGI structure. RGGI states have a very different energy situation.”
