The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is one of the signature pieces of legislation Democrats passed during their control of Virginia’s General Assembly and the governor’s mansion. It set deadlines for utilities to be 100-percent carbon, set energy efficiency standards for utilities, declared that solar and wind are “in the public interest,” created a Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund, and brought Virginia into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI,) a program where utilities have to bid for carbon dioxide emissions allowances.
The day after the act passed out of the House in February 2020, House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) called Democrats’ actions including the VCEA historic, but warned that those bills would have far-reaching impacts, including higher energy prices for citizens and businesses.
“Democrats are enacting higher taxes and creating new and stifling energy policies that will dip further into the pockets of those same citizens at every turn,” he said. “Democrats apparently want to run Virginia’s thriving economy, not on the abundant energy resources that we already have at our disposal here in this country and this commonwealth, but merely on rays of sunlight and gusts of wind.”
Gilbert is about to be the Speaker of the House, and he said in November that rolling back the VCEA will be one of his priorities, according to Energy News Network. Efforts to repeal the VCEA may pass out of the House, but Democrats still control the Senate and will likely resist repeal legislation.
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin said this week that he will use executive action to pull Virginia from RGGI. But the extent of future Republican led changes to the VCEA is still unclear. In a September debate before the election, Youngkin said the VCEA’s goals are unrealistic and expensive. He emphasized his support for an all-of-the above approach including wind and solar, but opposed eliminating the use of natural gas.
“I believe that, in fact, we can tackle bringing down emissions in Virginia without putting forth a plan that not even executives at the utilities believe is doable,” he said, according to a WTVR transcript.
A group led by Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) insiders wants to go even farther. At the RPV Advance last weekend, the Suburban Virginia Republican Coalition (SVRC) hosted a breakout session aimed at VCEA repeal titled, “When Wokeism Meets the Kitchen Table.”
The session featured Terry Johnson, a former Bush appointee who told session attendees that solar projects will require the destruction of farmland and forest across Virginia.
Johnson said, “The total number of panels that will be installed if all of these are approved is about 160 million solar panels. Toxic solar panels manufactured in China. And most of them involving clear-cutting of forest and ruining of farmland. And the question becomes, why would you possibly do that unless you absolutely had to?”
He said decommissioning plans for solar farms are inadequate, and called the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project risky.
“Offshore wind is by far the most expensive of every other type of energy — of geothermal, of biomass, of petroleum, natural gas, nuclear, you name it,” he said. “Not only is it the most expensive, but you take all the solar, all the wind, things that might be built, […] they will have absolutely no impact on climate temperature, even John Kerry has admitted that. So Virginia is being asked to bear the burden of paying higher prices for unreliable, expensive energy while China and India and the other developing nations go right ahead with their own programs.”
Johnson said industry players would resist efforts to recall VCEA.
“The solar and wind industry are very well funded and very powerful,” he said. “They’ve got this wonderful woke gravy train going.”
“You also have to beware of false flags. There’s a group that calls itself Conservatives for Clean Energy, out of North Carolina. They’re bought and paid for by the solar industry,” Johnson warned.
The Conservatives for Clean Energy (CCE) have called for an all-of-the-above approach and celebrated Youngkin’s statements to that effect.
CCE Virginia Director Ron Butler told The Virginia Star that’s not new policy.
“Youngkin is not the first Republican to embrace renewable energy. For more than a decade Virginia conservatives have advocated an all-of-the-above strategy for energy generation,” Butler said in a statement. “When Bob McDonnell ran for governor more than a decade ago, he advocated for clean energy being central to his goal of making Virginia the energy capital of the east coast. Governor McDonnell created the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority and supported grants and other resources to develop offshore wind power in the Commonwealth.”
Butler also highlighted VCCE’s ongoing involvement in Virginia conservative policy, highlighting the organization’s links to incoming Majority Leader Terry Kilgore (R-Wise), Youngkin’s administration, and RPV officials.
“Regarding the ridiculous assertion that we are a ‘false flag,’ Conservatives for Clean Energy has been active in Virginia since 2017 and has engaged some of the most prominent conservatives in Virginia in our education activities including incoming House Majority Leader Terry Kilgore,” Butler said.
Butler highlighted the benefits to the U.S. workforce and businesses with manufacturing for wind and solar.
He said, “We have been making progress in reducing emissions, and as more clean energy comes online that progress will continue. The governor-elect has also stated his support for Virginia’s offshore wind project which will not only reduce emissions, but it will create thousands of good paying jobs in Hampton Roads and across the Commonwealth. The cost of solar energy has come down roughly 90 percent in the last 10 years and is now cheaper than many other forms of energy, as is wind. So there are ways to craft policies that reduce emissions and save money at the same time — a fact that Governor-elect Youngkin has said himself.”
– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Glenn Youngkin” by Glenn Youngkin. Photo “Ralph Northam” by Ralph Northam.Â
