2023 Virginia General Assembly Legislative Priorities

Note: A big thank you to Nature Forward volunteers Anne DeNovo and Christine Powell who worked with me to select and then track these bills each week starting when session started in January 2023!

2023 General Assembly overview

Starting with the 2021 election, both the Virginia’s Governor and the House majority are Republican, while the Senate remained a Democratic majority.

Governor Youngkin has continued his attacks on Virginia’s environmental sustainability progress, seeking to undo the progress seen under Governor Northam’s administration such as joining Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and enacting the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Thankfully, some of those attacks have already been stopped early in this new General Assembly session: in an early victory, all seven bills seeking to roll back Virginia’s clean car standards have been defeated!

2023 Virginia General Assembly
Legislative Priorities

(Updated as of 3/1/23 @ 8:21pm)

It took just a quick 45 days – this year’s session is over. But now we await next steps from the Governor – he’ll have to take action on bills before March 27! Nature Forward, with help from several partners (such as VCN’s bill tracker), continues to track several key environmental bills this session. We’ve listed our top bills below, and are updating this page as we learn more about each bill. 

If you need help getting up to speed on all of the terms used during legislative sessions, check out this helpful page from UVA of frequently used state-government terms.

CLIMATE

In good news, this bill has passed the legislature and will progress to the Governor’s desk!

• SB1187 is headed to the Governor’s desk!
  We supported companion bills HB1634 and SB1187 which “Support Strategic planning and Climate resilience; requires local governments to develop a plan” (View talking points)

These bills below are no longer being considered:

• LAID ON TABLE as of 2/10 (bad; we would’ve rather had them pass this bill): 
  We supported SB1322 which would’ve been enabling legislation to encourage localities to consider community health outcomes by identifying siting of air, water and other pollution sources, encourage feedback from impacted communities, and improve planning processes. (View talking points)
• PASSED BY INDEFINITELY as of 2/13 (good):
  We had opposed HB1783  which would’ve prevented Virginia from moving away from fossil fuels as it means public entities would not be able to prohibit natural gas. (View talking points)
  • Thank the SENATORS on the Commerce and Labor Committee who voted on 2/13 to  “pass by indefinitely” HB1783 – that means the bill is dead for now.

HABITATS / GREEN SPACE

In good news, this bill failed to be passed by the Senate!

• HB2282 WAS DEFEATED IN THE SENATE!
  We opposed HB2282 which would have been a giveaway to developers by stripping environmental protections and paving the way for massive tree loss (View talking points). Virginia DEQ leadership had horrifyingly supported this bill as “economic development”. We are thrilled that this is a victory, as it failed in the Senate in a vote of 16-24. 

In good news, these bills have passed the legislature and will progress to the Governor’s desk!

• HB1998 is headed to the Governor’s desk!
  We supported HB1998 which asks state agencies (not VDOT though) to prioritize the use of native plant species on state properties. (View talking points)
  
• HB2096 is headed to the Governor’s desk!
  We supported HB2096 which helps to further define and educate the public on noxious weeds and invasive plant species. (View talking points)
• HB1510 is headed to the Governor’s desk!
  We supported HB1510 which would provide local incentives to support urban green space. (View talking points)

In bad news, unfortunately, the following bills have been defeated or are no longer progressing: 

• SJ240 LAID ON TABLE (House 2/13) 
  We had supported SJ240 which would’ve studied the data center issues (View talking points).  While the Senate passed this bill, on 2/13/23, the House Committee on Rules Subcommittee Studies recommended “laying on the table” (3-Y 2-N). The House had also previously defeated companion bill HJR522 before crossover.
• SB1078 FAILED TO REPORT (Senate 2/3)
  We supported SB1078 which would’ve disallowed siting of data centers within 1 mile of national or state park or other historically significant site and required a site assessment. (View talking points)
  • On 2/3, the Rules Committee disappointingly voted against moving this bill forward despite an amendment to limit this bill to only state and federal sites (which the state should have purview over). There was strong pushback by legislators, as data centers are seen as an important industry for the state. 

EQUITY

In the category of “pretty good news”, these Dominion bills did pass, but the worst attributes were stripped away!

• HB1770 and SB1265 are headed to the Governor’s desk!
  While we had opposed both HB1770 and SB1265, (Dominion supported bills that were bad for the Virginia Clean Economy Act and bad for rate-payers; View talking points), the Governor intervened in negotiations and removed or altered almost everything Dominion wanted (a win!). The Senate Democrats also deleted language from House Republicans’ bill that would have relaxed the power plant retirement schedule laid out in the Virginia Clean Economy Act. This may have been the best outcome we could’ve hoped for in this political climate.

In bad news, unfortunately, these bills did not go the way we had hoped: 

• SB1333 TABLED IN APPROPRIATIONS Committee (House 2/17 with a 12-9 vote) – bad – we would’ve like to see this passed 
  We supported SB1333 which would’ve created the Commonwealth Solar and Economic Development Program, which would’ve directed clean energy funding to low income communities (View talking points)