Crossover: Virginia General Assembly session reaches an important milestone

The Virginia General Assembly session has reached the halfway mark — and amid the highs and lows of committee decisions, hundreds of Virginians have helped advocate for critical environmental protections. Thank you for your calls and emails to legislators!

This year, Appalachian Voices has supported priority legislation to defend progress on climate change, protect water quality from metal mining, strengthen pipeline review, expand solar energy and protect against utility shutoffs. The General Assembly session has brought multiple successes, and some disappointing outcomes. Through all this, our team has been lobbying in the newly renovated General Assembly building, meeting with legislators and staff, and helping Virginians from across the Commonwealth connect with their legislators.

In our online webinar kicking off the session, we shared our 2024 priorities. Since then, we’ve been energetically highlighting select legislation by spreading the word on social media and to our email list (sign up here!) and supporting lobbying efforts at the General Assembly. All the while, Virginia Director of State Energy Policy Peter Anderson has been testifying in committee hearings and articulating Appalachian Voices’ positions on energy and environmental protection bills.

At the end of January, members of our Southwest Virginia team traveled to Richmond to lobby, joining community advocates from the Southwest region to discuss expanding shared solar and to meet directly with legislators from their area. That same week, Appalachian Voices participated as a co-host for the January 31 Virginia Conservation Network Lobby Day, helping with constituent meetings and tabling at the crowded event. The empowering day drew over 200 participants, from first-time lobbyists to seasoned pros. The day featured impassioned speeches from multiple legislators and passionate advocates lobbying on clean water protections, tree canopy preservation, wildlife corridors and renewable energy.

What’s the latest on our legislative priorities?

This year, our legislative priorities included some defensive positions and lots of legislation for which we’ve been excited to advocate.

Many bills we supported have passed the one side of the General Assembly to be heard after crossover in the House or Senate! Some of the bills which made it to crossover include:

• HB 84: to create public notification requirements for exploratory drilling for mineral mining
• HB 85: to prohibit the use of cyanide in mineral mining
• HB 106 and SB 253: which expand the shared solar program in Dominion territory
• HB 108 and SB 255: which require Appalachian Power to offer a shared solar program
• HB 906 and SB 480: which would prevent electric, gas, water and wastewater utilities from disconnecting services to residents during a state of emergency or during extreme weather
• SB 25 and HB 199: which remove a restriction on allocation of state funds to the Virginia Brownfield and Coal Mine Renewable Energy Grant Fund and Program

Unfortunately, some of our priorities did not pass, including HB 524, which would have required the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to expand the scope of its review of large interstate gas pipelines.

We’ve also been actively opposing SB 454, which would allow Dominion and Appalachian Power to start charging customers for licensing and early-stage development of speculative nuclear projects called small modular reactors, or SMRs, before either company even applies for permission to build one. If the General Assembly passes this bill, Virginia utility customers could get stuck paying for billions in costs with no guarantee that a SMR will actually ever be built. Unfortunately, SB 454 advanced on a 20-16 vote from the full Senate on Feb. 13 and will now crossover to the House of Delegates.

The full list of bills and their status can be found on our 2024 Virginia General Assembly landing page.

What’s next?

Session continues until March 9, so stay tuned for more updates as legislation fails or passes, and be on the lookout for more calls to action from Appalachian Voices to contact your legislators!

Thank you for your advocacy to support our priority bills and to defend against environmental rollbacks. It’s a whirlwind of advocacy, committee testimony, disappointment and celebration, and Appalachian Voices appreciates your participation in this process!