Calls to Action for this week:
Climate and Clean Energy
OPPOSE Charging Customers for Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) before they are even built, with no cost-overrun protections. This is a truly awful bill. Urge legislators in the House Labor and Commerce Committee to vote NO to SB454 (Senator Marsden), a bill that would permit Dominion to charge customers for the project costs to develop unproven modular nuclear reactors – a power source exponentially more expensive than solar or wind. This bill would allow utilities to also charge for their profit (rate of return) for years without any guarantee that the project would ever be completed or generate electricity to serve ratepayers. Egregiously, it would shift ALL risks to the ratepayers. In November 2023, the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, terminated what was to be the first NuScale Power SMR to begin operation in the United States after costs rose from 3 billion to a whopping 9.3 billion.
CTA – Vote NO on SB454 House Labor & Commerce Committee
SUPPORT Solar-Ready Gov’t Roofs. Urge a key House committee to pass the Senate-passed SB79 to ensure that making roofs solar-ready becomes part of the planning process for new public buildings and those undergoing major renovation, including K-12 schools. Roofs designed to be solar-ready provide municipalities with the option to install solar, ultimately saving taxpayers’ money.
CTA – Vote YES on SB79 House GenRules Committee
SUPPORT Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Budget Amendments. SB30 (Item 4-5.12 #1s Surovell) and HB30 (Item 366 #1h Herring) that require Virginia to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the effective 11-state carbon trading program that reduces harmful emissions and generates funding for local flood prevention and energy efficiency programs. The legislature passed a bill in 2020 directing Virginia to join RGGI. Last year, Governor Youngkin pulled Virginia out of RGGI under a questionable administrative process that is now being challenged in Va. courts.
CTA – Vote YES RGGI Budget Amendment
SUPPORT Energy Efficiency Across the Commonwealth. Urge lawmakers to support the Savings Achieved Via Efficiency Act (SAVE) bills HB746 (Webert) and SB565 (Deeds) to increase the energy efficiency requirements that must be met by electric utilities and ties their profits to meeting targets.
CTA – Vote YES on HB756/SB565 Savings Via Efficiency Act
SUPPORT Reducing Home Energy Costs. SB737 (Surovell/Sullivan). Wide scale adoption of heat pumps is a key climate solution and an energy-saving, money-saving and health-saving upgrade for homeowners who heat their homes with oil, propane or kerosene. An astonishing 1 in 10 homes in Virginia burn these fuels for home heating. But utility incentive programs are currently written in terms of saving electricity, not energy-saving, so this simple fix is needed to the law to get the incentives right and more homeowners’ home heating electrified.
CTA – Vote YES on SB737
Good Governance
- HB 265: End misuse of the Removal Process – Please send email by noon Tues Feb 20 so that Senate P&E Committee members hear from you before they meet that afternoon! CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hb265-senate-p-and-e
Gun Violence Prevention
- SB100 Ghost Guns FULL House CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb100-full-house/
- SB47 Firearms transfer FULL House CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb47-full-house/
- SB273 Waiting Period to purchase firearms Full House of Delegates CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb273-full-house/
- HB362 Save lives, Close the Boyfriend Loophole Full Senate CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hb362-full-senate/
Education
- SB105. Establish At-Risk Program Full House CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb105-full-house/
- HB624 Improve the funding formula Full Senate CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hb624-full-senate/
- HB187 Raise Teacher Salaries Full Senate CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hb187-full-senate/
- HB398 Encourage Evidence Based discipline Full Senate CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hb398-full-senate/
- SB104 Raise Teacher Salaries Full House CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb104-full-house/
- SB272 Help English Language Learners Full House CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb272-full-house/
- HB625 Develop Community Schools office Full Senate CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/hb625-full-senate/
- SB14. Give localities greater flexibility to improve school funding House Finance Committee CTA – https://actionnetwork.org/letters/sb14-house-finance/
Be a BADASS and share this information with a friend who can subscribe here.
Compliments of Network NOVA & the Virginia Grassroots – When We Vote We Win