A Senate committee threw its support Wednesday behind a bill that would exempt proprietary information in carbon sequestration agreements with a public body from Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. Senate Bill 1343, sponsored by Jill Vogel, R-Fauquier, aims to incentivize owners of forestland in Virginia to keep those lands forested...
In 2020, lawmakers seeking to speed the development of renewables and wean Virginia off fossil fuels made a host of changes to state law that aimed to smooth local approvals of large-scale solar farms. This year, they’re wielding the same tools to encourage the growth of energy storage. “This is...
As the 2021 General Assembly session begins, lawmakers are set to consider a slate of bills that aim to reform Virginia’s system of electric utility regulation with the goal of bringing down customer bills. “This work is an extension of the work we did last session to commit Virginia to...
While Virginia Democrats' big environmental push of 2020 was the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a sweeping omnibus measure designed to eliminate carbon emissions from the state’s power grid by 2050, during the 2021 session they're setting their sights on a tougher and more diffuse source of carbon: transportation. According to...
A bill to allow Sunday hunting on public lands was dealt a swift death on the first day of the 2021 session by the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee. The proposal, which was carried by Del. James Edmunds, R-Halifax, failed 16-6, with both Democratic and Republican committee members...
With plans for the House of Delegates to meet virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic and still-fresh Democratic majorities, little about the 2021 General Assembly session may look familiar. Even the normal bickering over menhaden has been silenced after last year’s legislature brought the long-running fishery fight to a close. But...
Four Virginia organizations have joined a coalition of Southern Appalachian environmental groups that are suing the U.S. Forest Service over changes to federal environmental rules that determine how much scrutiny regulators must give activities like logging and utility projects in national forests. The rule, which was finalized by President Donald...
More than half a million municipal utility customers in Virginia were at least 30 days behind on their bills as of Dec. 15, with arrearages totaling more than $88 million statewide, a Commission on Local Government report presented Tuesday found. Most of those accounts were even further behind, with more...
Two years after its last assessment of the Chesapeake Bay’s health, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has found little overall improvement in the nation’s largest estuary, despite reductions in nitrogen and phosphorus pollution and the shrinking of the bay’s dead zone, an oxygen-deprived area where species are unable to survive. “The...
Former Virginia Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade Angela Navarro, who worked in Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, was sworn in to the State Corporation Commission Tuesday. Navarro’s selection was previously announced by Northam in early December, two days after the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment of long-time SCC Judge...
