Under the Virginia Clean Economy Act, Virginia now has its first renewable energy portfolio standard and energy targets to transition
Virginia to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
Virginia has elevated environmental justice inside the Department for Environmental Quality, as well as by establishing a Council on Environmental Justice and the Interagency Environmental Justice Working Group.
Governor Northam signed legislation for Virginia to became the first southern state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
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RGGI is a collaborative effort among Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector, while driving economic growth.
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Governor Northam signed the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act to cap climate change emissions from power plants, initiate a 30 percent reduction in the next 10 years, and generate more than $1 billion for energy efficiency and flood protection projects through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Virginia crafted a plan to save the Commonwealth’s largest migratory seabird colony during expansion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.
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The plan implements techniques never before used in the U.S. and puts in place some of the strongest migratory bird protections in the country.
Governor Northam led Virginia’s effort to implement science-based management of Atlantic menhaden — a small fish that’s an important part of the food web in the Chesapeake Bay.
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Virginia also led the Atlantic Coast states in reducing harvest levels to protect striped bass populations from overfishing.
Virginia established the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act to help Virginia families — especially minority and low-income families —protect and keep inherited land, maintain generational wealth, and conserve working landscapes.
Governor Northam opened Machicomoco, Virginia’s 40th State Park—and the first dedicated to telling the history and stories of Virginia Indians.
Virginia now has 74,000 acres of state forestland and 26 state forests, after establishing First Mountain State Forest in Rockingham and Charlotte State Forest.
Governor Northam signed historic legislation to clean up more than 27 million cubic yards
of coal ash.
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Virginia created a Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan to reduce the impacts of tidal and storm surge flooding and sea level rise.