{"id":3279,"date":"2020-03-29T16:38:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T16:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh-2020\/?p=3279"},"modified":"2020-03-29T16:38:46","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T16:38:46","slug":"virginia-becomes-the-first-state-in-the-south-to-target-100-clean-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/virginia-becomes-the-first-state-in-the-south-to-target-100-clean-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia becomes the first state in the South to target 100% clean power"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Roberts<\/span><\/a>david@vox.com<\/a> <\/span>

The state\u2019s Democratic majority is doing what Democratic majorities do.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the last decade or so, Virginia has gradually transitioned from a purple to blue state. Now it will embark on another transition, from fossil fuels to clean, carbon-free electricity.<\/p>\n

After voting for Republican presidents going back to Richard Nixon in 1972, Virginians began consistently voting for Democrats for president in 2008. And they have a long tradition of Democratic governors, the latest being pediatric neurologist and Army veteran Ralph Northam, elected in 2017.<\/p>\n

In September of 2019, Northam tried to do what Democrats generally do when elected: support clean energy. He issued Executive Order 43<\/a>, which laid out a plan for the state to reach 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050 (in keeping with the consensus goal of national Democrats<\/a>) and to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI<\/a>, a nine-state carbon trading network).<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Sure enough, last week, the General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act<\/a> (VCEA), which puts Northam\u2019s vision into law. The House voted 51-45 and the Senate voted 22-17; in each chamber, the bill received precisely one Republican vote.<\/p>\n

Virginia has now become the first state in the South to embark on a clean-energy transition and one of the leading states in the nation on clean-energy policy. Let\u2019s take a quick look at what the bill does.<\/p>\n

1. Enter RGGI and develop a cap-and-trade system<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Target 100 percent clean energy by 2050<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Hold costs down and protect low-income and vulnerable communities<\/strong><\/p>\n

4. Boost storage, offshore wind, and rooftop solar<\/strong><\/p>\n

Full Article Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Roberts@drvoxdavid@vox.com Mar 12, 2020, Vox. The state\u2019s Democratic majority is doing what Democratic majorities do. Over the last…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cleanpower"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.350.org\/pittsburgh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}