C3’s 2022 Business Letter to Virginia’s General Assembly
To: All members of the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates
RE: Climate and Energy Policy
As Virginia-based businesses and nonprofit organizations, we are proud of the progress our Commonwealth has made toward climate sustainability. We share a common goal to protect the health and vitality of our Commonwealth. The Virginia-based business sector is concerned about climate for the following reasons:
Stewardship: We are all in this together. The health and well-being of the Commonwealth are of the utmost importance, and we want to be proud of the place we call home and make sure it is leading the way on a central issue of our time.
Innovation: Climate leadership is vital to innovation and job creation. Innovation is powering our local economies, and we must be on the leading edge of key issues to attract and retain entrepreneurs and the high-growth job creation engines that they build.
Resilience: Clean energy and energy efficiency are stimulating an energy revolution driven by economics. These technologies reduce cost, mitigate cost variability risk, and increase energy independence. The strategies of climate leadership strengthen our businesses.
Competition: Our employees and customers care. There is a competitive advantage to be gained by embracing climate leadership.
In the 2022 General Assembly session, we urge you to maintain the following major initiatives:
Keep Virginia in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and maintain the current funding allocations of the program. The 2020 funding of residential energy efficiency programs and local resilience projects to protect residents from the effects of climate change are good for both our employees and the communities where we operate. The Community Flood Preparedness Fund (CFPF) and High Innovation Energy Efficiency (HIEE) fund are deploying this revenue statewide.
Keep Virginia on the path to a 100% zero-carbon electricity grid by maintaining the policy commitments of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). The VCEA is already spurring investments in solar, wind, battery storage, and energy efficiency. Continuing the path toward a zero-carbon electricity grid allows our businesses to meet our own commitments to reduce our carbon footprint.
Keep Virginia’s Clean Car standards in place and fund the electric vehicle rebate program. Transportation is the leading source of carbon pollution in Virginia. The Clean Car standards and electric vehicle rebates will help Virginians access cleaner, more efficient vehicles and supports fleet transitions in the business sector.
Preserve funding for Battery Electric Buses and supporting infrastructure by maintaining Virginia’s Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) most recent Capital Assistance Rule. Accessible, clean transit is a priority for many communities where we operate and state funds must match clean bus investments with the same rule as they fund fossil-fuel-powered buses in order to level the market and enable cities and counties to develop modern and efficient transit systems, which are critical for reliable workforce transport.
Thank you again for your past commitment to this important issue. We encourage you to continue making progress on climate and protect the policies above which allow businesses to flourish in Virginia. We are excited to work with our leaders to move our whole Commonwealth forward to a cleaner future.