I am outraged and appalled that Gov. Youngkin would even consider circumventing the state's binding decision to join RGGI, and attempt to rob communities of the important benefits this popular program has established for us. I live in Henrico County, and I have been encouraging my county to make sure that we are applying for and accessing the weatherization funds that RGGI provided--but now, because of Youngkin's actions, I understand that these funds (targeted toward low-income households, those most in need) aren't being distributed. Governor Youngkin's machinations to stop any state climate policy are directly and immediately harming low-income Henricoans who cannot access earmarked grant funding for weatherization and flood protection.

Climate change is a critical threat to the safety and prosperity of all Virginians, and our legislature set RGGI up as a mechanism to both mitigate our climate impact, but equally importantly, to ensure that we have resources available to support households impacted by a warming climate. The flood resilience money is so necessary--but Youngkin's effort to end RGGI would ensure that big utilities (Dominion, App Power) would just continue to pollute our atmosphere and keep all the profits from that. RGGI was a necessary first step toward lowering carbon pollution--and this effort to use back channels to circumvent a legislatively agreed upon state policy would hurt our working class communities, it would hurt Virginia's efforts to lower GHG emissions, and it would undermine our legislative process. I deeply oppose any effort to remove Virginia from RGGI. Any effort to pull us out of RGGI Is an appalling overreach and an abuse of power of the Air Board.