Update from the 2012 General Assembly Session

• Stumble This
• Digg This
• Share on Delicious
• Share on Facebook
• Tweet This

Our legislative committee has been hard at work for the past month tracking legislation and lobbying our state legislators to protect our access to clean air and water.  I wanted to take a few minutes to give you a mid-session update on Sierra Club’s priorities.

Uranium Ban to Remain in 2012
Thanks to groundswell of public support for the current ban on uranium mining and a series of reports highlighting major public health and environmental concerns, the industry did not have the votes to introduce a bill to lift the ban in 2012.  Unfortunately, Gov. McDonnell is still moving forward behind closed doors by side stepping the legislative process and directing Virginia’s health, mining and environmental agencies to draft “conceptual regulations”  for the General Assembly to consider in 2013.  Our legislators need to answer the fundamental public policy question: does Virginia want to take on the long-term economic and public health burden of mining uranium and storing millions of tons of toxic waste in our state?  The ban will stay in place for 2012.  Now we need our legislators to keep it permanent.

Virginia’s Clean Energy Standard Weakened
In 2007 Virginia passed a voluntary renewable portfolio (RPS) to incentivize utilities to bringing more wind and solar to Virginia.  Unfortunately the utilities have taken advantage of loopholes in the bill over the past five years and have yet to bring any wind or solar to the Commonwealth – instead they have purchased out of state renewable energy credits many from hydro-electric dams built before WWII.  This year Sierra Club tried to strengthen this bill to clean our air and spur the local clean energy economy. Unfortunately attempts to strengthen the standard were blocked and instead we’ve seen a series of attempts to further weaken the RPS.  We need our legislators to vote against any attempts to weaken the Renewable Portfolio Standard.

Coal Tax Credits Likely to Be Extended
Every year over $30 million of our tax dollars subsidize coal mining including mountaintop removal mining.  A study issued by a legislative agency last year found that these coal tax credits have not worked to support employment in the coalfields.  This did not stop the General Assembly to defeat bills eliminating the credit and directing a portion to renewable energy. Instead, the General Assembly seems poised to extend the credit an additional five years beyond the current sunset date of January 1, 2015.   We need our legislators to vote against any extensions of the coal tax credits and instead invest in clean, renewable energy development here in Virginia.

Transportation Bills Push for More Roads No Public Transportation
As introduced, the Governor’s transportation bills would take at least $110 million away from core programs such as education, health care, and public safety to build new roads and highways without any investments in public transportation.  His bills would also weaken local land-use and transportation decision-making authority so local governments have less say over whether and where road projects are built.  The senate Commerce and Labor committee was successful in stripping the bill of these destructive policies an now we are looking to their colleagues in the house to do the same.  We also need our legislators to vote against any  attempts to incentive the unnecessary Route 460 Private Public Partnership project.

Virginia Continues Membership to Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin
An attempt to withdraw Virginia from the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River (ICPRB) Basin was stopped last week when language to remove the commission was stripped from the bill.  However, the Governor’s proposed 2012-2013 budget still cuts funding for Virginia’s annual membership fees to the (ICPRB).  The ICPRB strives to protect the water and associated land resources of the Potomac River and its tributaries through regional and interstate cooperation.  Membership in the ICPRB is a good investment for Virginia.  Last year alone, Virginia received $529,000 in benefits as a result of its membership in the ICPRB, while the annual fee Virginia pays to the ICPRB is only $151,500.  We need our legislators to support budget amendments to refund our membership in the ICPRB.

New Hurdles to Voting
Voter suppression bills presently being debated in the Virginia General Assembly threaten to turn back time.  Bill patrons claim that these measures are designed to combat voter fraud, but there is no evidence of wide-spread voter fraud in the Commonwealth. Instead they will make it harder for many to vote, disproportionately affecting some of our most vulnerable citizens: seniors, minorities, young adults, and low-income Virginians.  Sierra Club – Virginia Chapter believes an open and accessible democracy is key to protecting clean air and water for all Virginians.  We need our legislators to vote against any attempts to suppress voters rights.