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Kilgore, Va. House GOP members slam Spanberger's newly unveiled energy plan
Democratic candidate for Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger. (Photo by Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) After Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger released her energy plan for the state this week, Virginia House GOP members wasted no time bashing it. Her plan emphasizes fair cost share, efficiency projects, and supporting a pilot program to handle peak energy consumption times. 'Her plan leans heavily on demand-side management: programmable thermostats, weatherization programs, utility subsidies, and incentives to reduce consumption during peak hours. That might sound reasonable in theory, but here's the problem: managing scarcity isn't a solution — it's a symptom of failure,' an op-ed penned by House GOP leaders and members read. The demand-side management they referenced is a recently-passed pilot program that requires utility companies to petition the State Corporation Commission to consider how to optimize energy use during peak times, by using virtual power plants, peak-shaving, and other incentives. Dominion is set to go before the Commission on July 15 to present its electric distribution grid plans for the pilot program. The pilot allows homes and businesses to opt in to have their thermostats, appliances and solar arrays controlled during high-demand times. Spanberger's plan also emphasizes weatherization of homes to limit energy waste and aims to reduce the need for additional power plants and transmission lines. Republican House lawmakers pushed back against those measures. 'No one wants to sit through a July heatwave hoping their A/C unit is grid-compliant, or that their A/C won't be the one that someone in Richmond decides that it needs to shut off to save the grid. No one should have to worry that peak-hour surcharges or remote-control thermostats are going to make their daily life harder and more expensive,' the Republican legislators' letter read. Ten of the GOP House members who signed on to the letter voted in favor of Senate Bill 1100 in this year's legislative session, which allowed the pilot program to move forward. Dels. Michael Webert, R-Fauquier, Wren Williams, R-Patrick, Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery, Ian Lovejoy, R-Prince William, Geary Higgins, R-Loudoun, Paul Milde, R-Stafford, Mark Earley, R-Chesterfield, Rob Bloxom, R-Accomack, Chad Green, R-York, and Anne Ferrell Tata, R-Virginia Beach, added their signatures to House GOP Leader Del. Terry Kilgore's. Kilgore, recently selected as House Republicans' caucus leader, sponsored a bill in 2023 that capped Dominion's profit margin, and this year, will allow the SCC to manage the profit margin rates. The General Assembly has also recently passed legislation aimed at expanding the state's market for Small Modular Reactors, a nuclear energy source that's still being developed and hasn't yet been deployed anywhere in the United States. Virginia lawmakers pass competing proposals to encourage small modular reactor development A House GOP spokesperson said the members who voted in favor of SB 1011 are more interested in ramping up energy production in the state to meet increasing energy needs. Spanberger's plan doesn't rule out new energy projects coming to the state to help meet demand, and touts the use of 'advanced energy technologies' like 'modular nuclear reactors, fusion, geothermal, and hydrogen.' The framework also states her administration will 'ensure regulatory agencies in Virginia such as DEQ and VDOT are adequately staffed to deliver timely responses to permit applications.' The GOP letter said they are in favor of speeding up permitting for all energy sources, not just renewable ones. Spanberger's energy outline doesn't go into details on plans to expand natural gas, nuclear, wind, or solar energy sources. It does lay out ideas to ensure the SCC works with stakeholders on efficiency methods to cut back on energy use – something the GOP members took issue with. 'You don't solve an energy shortage by asking people to get used to less. You solve it by building more power,' the letter said. Utility rates in the PJM markets have steadily increased in recent years as brownouts in the summer months have become a growing concern. Virginia was rated as the state that received the most electricity from other states in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. GOP House members want to shift away from this heavy import of energy and boost Virginia as a player in the energy production market. In 2020, the General Assembly passed the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act that put the commonwealth into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Participating states can buy allowances of carbon emissions, and the proceeds are returned to the state for flood and energy projects. Gov. Glenn Youngkin pulled Virginia from RGGI, framing the additional cost to consumers for the program as a hidden tax. The withdrawal was later found to be unlawful by the courts. The state's inclusion in the program is on hold while appeals play out in the legal system. Spanberger's plan suggests negotiating a deal to get the state back in on RGGI and use funding for efficiency projects. Judge deems Youngkin's actions to withdraw Virginia from RGGI 'unlawful' 'Abigail consistently hears from Virginians who are facing high energy bills, and she knows affordable energy is essential for driving economic growth. That's why her plan to make Virginians' energy bills more affordable includes increasing local electricity generation and speeding up the timeline to bring new projects online,' a spokesperson for Spanberger said in a statement. 'As Governor, Abigail will be focused on making Virginia more affordable — and she looks forward to working with both Democrats and Republicans alike to make it happen.' Last week, Republican candidate for governor Winsome Earle-Sears said on the campaign trail that she wants to bolster the state's energy profile through expanding fossil fuels and nuclear energy, according to the Prince William Times, to meet the state's surging energy needs. Data centers in Virginia have 'substantially driven up energy demand in the state, and demand is forecast to continue growing for the foreseeable future,' a 2024 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report found. Earle-Sears didn't mention data centers specifically, but acknowledged that Virginia's electricity demands have led the commonwealth to import 40% of its electricity from other states. Her administration, she said, would push for an all-of-the-above energy approach, an echo of Youngkin's energy platform. Earle-Sears did not respond to the Mercury's request to elaborate on her energy platform. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal court rejects longer block on Idaho's transgender bathroom restriction law
Protestors on April 2, 2024, dropped 48,000 handmade hearts — meant to represent LGBTQ Idahoans, in protest of anti-LGBTQ legislation — down the rotunda of the Idaho State Capitol Building. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) A federal judge panel rejected a longer legal block on Idaho's law to prevent transgender students from using school facilities that match their gender identity. In its opinion, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected a preliminary injunction for Idaho's law, which was requested in the lawsuit Roe v. Critchfield and could have blocked the law during the litigation. In 2023, Idaho passed the law through Senate Bill 1100. Soon after the bill took effect in July 2023, a then-seventh-grade transgender student and Boise High School's Sexuality and Gender Alliance Club sued. In October 2023, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the law, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. But the Idaho Attorney General's Office, in a news release, said Thursday's decision by a panel of judges for the federal circuit court revokes that block, allowing Idaho to enforce the law. In a written statement, Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Peter Renn disagreed, saying the court's temporary block on the law remains in effect. 'The appellate court's injunction against S.B. 1100 still remains in effect while the appeal is pending, and the appeal is still currently pending because the appellate court has not yet issued its mandate,' Renn told the Idaho Capital Sun. 'That mandate will not issue for at least 14 days and potentially longer if there are requests for rehearing.' The Idaho Attorney General's Office did not respond to requests for comment from the Sun asking why the office believed the decision allows Idaho to enforce the law. The temporary federal court block came shortly after a lower federal court judge, Judge David C. Nye for the U.S. District Court of Idaho, rejected a request for a preliminary injunction. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In its opinion released Thursday, written by Judge Morgan Christen, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Nye's decision to reject a preliminary injunction. The opinion stated the lawsuit's plaintiffs were 'unlikely to succeed on the merits' of their objections to the law, including allegations that the law violates the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment, federal Title IX law and the right to informational privacy 'by excluding transgender students from facilities matching their gender identity.' 'Applying intermediate scrutiny, the panel held that the State identified an important governmental objective — protecting bodily privacy — and that the State chose permissible means to achieve that objective,' the federal court panel ruled. Idaho's law requires public schools to maintain two separate multi-occupancy restrooms, showers, changing facilities and overnight accommodations for students based on their sex assigned at birth. The law forbids people of one sex from entering facilities designated for another sex, with exceptions for cleaning, medical aid, athletic staff and some other circumstances. 'At this state in the litigation, the panel saw no argument that S.B. 1100's mandatory segregation of these facilities on the basis of 'biological sex' is not substantially related to the State's interest in: (1) not exposing students to the unclothed bodies of students of the opposite sex; and (2) protecting students from having to expose their own unclothed bodies to students of the opposite sex,' the federal opinion stated. In May 2024, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the lawsuit, Idaho Reports reported. In a written statement, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador applauded 'the court's decision to allow our State Board of Education to continue its job of preserving each student's privacy, dignity, and safety and providing a quality education for Idaho's children.' 'Idaho's law reflects common sense and biological reality, protecting all students' privacy and safety in spaces like locker rooms and showers,' Labrador wrote. 'Every day, we see more examples of the harms of gender ideology, particularly to women and girls.' Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ advocacy law firm representing the plaintiffs, pledged to continue to fight for transgender students' rights. 'This limited ruling is a disappointing but ultimately temporary setback for transgender students across Idaho, who for years have been using school facilities matching their gender identity without incident until Idaho legislators decided to target them for discrimination,' Renn, an attorney with Lambda Legal, said in a written statement. 'Importantly, the court was clear that it was not holding that it would be constitutional to ban transgender students from restrooms, in particular, consistent with their gender identity.' Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm that has agreed to represent Idaho for free in litigation, represented Idaho officials in the case. 'Girls and boys each deserve a private space to shower, undress, use the restroom, and sleep, and they shouldn't have to worry about sharing these spaces with a member of the opposite sex,' the law firm's Senior Counsel Erin Hawley wrote in a statement published by the Idaho Office of the Attorney General. Roe v. Critchfield opinion 3-20-25 SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
