Members of the Air Quality Pollution Control Board,

I urge you to drop efforts to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.  Since Virginia joined, it has received over $370 million in proceeds which, by statute, must be used for Community Flood Preparedness and low-income energy efficiency programs.  Simultaneously, our participation in RGGI is reducing greenhouse gas emissions which have fueled the need for flood resiliency/preparedness efforts in the first place.  I am originally from the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area where climate induced flooding is an enormous problem.  Aside from the fact that an adminstrative move to withdraw Virginia from RGGI is illegal, its simply a bad idea.  RGGI is a win-win for the Commonwealth.

If the Administration is truly concerned about high energy bills paid by Virginians, it will work to remove loopholes from our energy code that have allowed Dominion Energy to retain a whopping $1.2 billion in overcharges since 2015.  Such excess by a so-called regulated monopoly is impermissible in almost every other state in the nation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Sharon Shutler, retired attorney, U.S. Department of Justice and lifelong resident of Virginia