logo

Top Priority Campaign

Restore the Chesapeake Bay:

Now is the time to protect one of America’s great natural resources

The Chesapeake Bay is home to blue crabs, bald eagles and 350 species of fish. It is an amazing place to boat, hike and camp. But the Bay suffers from too much nitrogen pollution.

For 25 years, our approach to cleaning up the Bay has been all carrots and no sticks. As the Environmental Protection Agency creates new pollution limits for the Bay, we need both incentives and penalties.

Learn more >>     Take action >>


Working Together

Environment Virginia combines independent research, practical solutions and tough-minded advocacy to win real results for our environment. As part of Environment America, we fight to protect our air, water and open spaces here in Virginia, in state capitols across the country, and in Washington, D.C. Join us!


Latest News

Extreme Murkowski Action Would Block Clean Air Act Protection 1/21/2010

Washington, DC – Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska introduced a resolution today disapproving of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s December 2009 scientific finding that carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants threaten human health and the environment. She crafted the resolution pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, a law that enables Congress to veto federal agency rules using special, expedited procedures.

Our Latest Reports

Generating Failure: How Building Nuclear Power Plants Would Set America Back In the Race Against Global Warming 11/24/2009

Far from a solution to global warming, nuclear power will actually set America back in the race to reduce pollution, according to a new report by Environment Virginia. Environment Virginia was joined by the Piedmont Group of Sierra Club and local nuclear power activists today to release the report and call on Senators Webb and Warner to focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy instead of nuclear power as the solution to global warming.

Too Much Pollution: State and National Trends in Global Warming Emissions from 1990 to 2007 11/12/2009

America’s reliance on fossil fuels—oil, coal and natural gas—for energy creates a host of problems, including air and water pollution, global warming pollution, high and unpredictable bills for consumers and businesses, and the need to import oil from unstable parts of the world. Moving to clean energy—such as solar and wind power, more efficient homes, and plug-in cars—will cut pollution, help rebuild our economy, and reduce America’s dependence on oil. For decades, America’s use of fossil fuels—and the global warming pollution that results—has been on the rise nationally and in states across the country. But this trend is starting to change in some states—in part because of the move to clean energy. Following the lead of those states will start to put the United States on a path to lower global warming emissions and help drive the creation of a clean energy economy. This report analyzes the most recent data available from the federal Department of Energy to calculate emissions of carbon dioxide from the use of oil, coal and natural gas at the national and state level from 1990 to 2007. Our analysis finds that: * Emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading global warming pollutant, from fossil fuel consumption increased by 19 percent in the United States from 1990 to 2007. Nationally, the rate of emissions growth has slowed in recent years, and emissions peaked in many states in 2004 and 2005. * Seventeen states saw declines in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use between 2004 and 2007.