I’m a decorated and disabled US Army combat veteran. I was deployed with my unit in September of 1999 for a humanitarian disaster relief mission. That deployment was to Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Hurricane Floyd hit North Carolina on September 16, 1999. With heavy rains brought to an area already saturated by Hurricane Dennis just a few weeks before, it was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane to hit North Carolina in the 20th century. There were 51 deaths in the Tarheel State; 7000 homes destroyed; 17,000 homes uninhabitable, and 56,000 homes damaged. My home state of Virginia was also devastated by Floyd, which resulted in 4 deaths; more than 280,000 customers without power at some point; 9-12 feet of water in downtown Franklin; and 5000 homes being damaged. This memorable event motivates my concern for coastal residents, businesses, and military installations in Virginia. 22 years after Floyd, they face not only a growing threat of hurricanes with higher intensity from climate change, but also a creeping threat of sea level rise that allows storm surges to start from a higher base. 

Virginia's current Governor has said he plans to pull out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a move which will likely slow down the state's response to climate change and sea level rise. In 2020, the Insurance Information Institute ranked the Commonwealth 6th out of 19 coastal states at storm surge risk, with 410,277 Virginia homes along the coastal plain threatened.

Former Governor Northam and the General Assembly established the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund in 2020 to help communities prepare for climate change impacts, including floods, with targeted funding going to underserved communities. The fund is financed through the sale of carbon emission allowances through the RGGI, which Virginia joined in January 2021. Over $142 million in cumulative proceeds have been received by Virginia since its first auction in March 2021. Fund provisions are aligned with the long-term goals of the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan. The plan allows the state to prioritize and finance climate adaptation programs equitably across all communities in the coastal plain.

“As a stakeholder in the creation of the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Plan, the Navy remains committed to continue being an engaged partner with the Commonwealth to continue the important work of addressing climate resiliency and to ensure strategy alignment as we move forward on these efforts,” Rear Admiral Charles W. Rock, Commander, Navy Region, Mid-Atlantic is quoted as saying. “We have long recognized the interconnected relationship of community and military and have proactively engaged with surrounding communities through multiple forums to help address climate resiliency efforts.”

In response to Hurricane Floyd along the eastern coast of the United States, and in every natural disaster since, the Department of Defense has participated in the interagency emergency response team along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Department of Defense provides personnel, equipment, and supplies to help FEMA save lives and protect public health, safety, and property. The DoD, the Pentagon, and 17 related intelligence agencies recognize climate change as a national security threat. My respect for the Admiral's participation in the creation of the Plan and for my former chain of command led me to type this essay. As a climate activist, I concede the challenge of crafting legislation that threads the needle of political partisanship while both reducing carbon emissions and providing some funding for coastal resilience improvements through measures that are in the family we call “carbon pricing.” RGGI may not be perfect, and it is not the national legislation that we desperately need to lead the world to climate solutions. But it is far better than ignoring climate change, which the Pentagon labels a “threat multiplier” on battlefields around the world that threatens our deployed troops. 

Governor Youngkin's agenda is clear if he is cavalier about putting nearly half a million Virginians at risk to look good in front of a Chamber of Commerce audience. In the Coastal Resilience Plan, funded by our membership in RGGI, we recognize that flooding affects many Virginians, but not equally. Youngkin is creating an unfortunate misperception that his voters were based in western Virginia and do not care about eastern Virginia. It would be best for him to backtrack on his comments and keep the Commonwealth in RGGI.