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This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law

 

Virginia gets a third of its power from nuclear and almost 40% from natural gas. Coal is still a significant factor, at 20%, and the remaining 6% is from hydro and biomass. Use of coal has dropped 50% since 2007. The state has set a voluntary renewable portfolio standard of 15% by 2025.

Former Governor Terry McAuliffe ordered the state’s environmental agency in 2017 to come up with a plan to limit power plant emissions that “includes provisions to ensure that Virginia’s regulation is ‘trading-ready’ to allow for the use of market-based mechanisms and the trading of carbon dioxide allowances through a multi-state trading program.”[1] Previous orders by governors have set renewables targets for state government, promoting energy efficiency, and establishing a grant program for funding clean energy. Roughly half a billion dollars have been invested in the state’s clean energy industry by the private sector.

Virginia has been actively engaging in climate adaptation planning since 2007, when then-Governor Tim Kaine appointed a commission to investigate adaptation needs. That commission reported back in 2008. Things came to a standstill under the next governor, but his successor appointed a follow-up commission in 2014, which issued a report the following year.[2]

Under newly elected Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, this increasingly blue state may be poised to become an energy and climate leader among the Southeastern states.

  1. “Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Electric Power Facilities and Growing Virginia’s Clean Energy Economy,” Virginia Executive Department (May 16, 2017), https://governor.virginia.gov/media/9155/ed-11-reducing-carbon-dioxide-emissions-from-electric-power-facilities-and-growing-virginias-clean-energy-economy.pdf.
  2. John Watkins and Jim Redick, “Recommendations to the Secure Commonwealth Panel on the Issue of Sea Level Rise and Recurrent Flooding in Coastal Virginia,” Recurrent Flooding Sub-Panel (September. 5, 2014), http://ccrm.vims.edu/SCPRecommendationsReport_Sept2014.pdf.