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Most Recent NewsVirginia Legislators Respond to Attorney General's EPA Challenge 3/02/2010Richmond, VA – This morning 17 Virginia lawmakers stood together to voice their concern over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s recent challenge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding. The EPA’s endangerment finding followed a US Supreme Court decision in 2007 (Massachusetts v. EPA) in which the court ordered EPA to determine if carbon dioxide is a threat to human health. President Obama Reiterates Call for Home Star Energy Efficiency Program 3/02/2010Today at the Savannah Technical College, President Barack Obama toured classrooms training students to install insulation and other efficient technologies and delivered remarks highlighting the proposed Home Star program for residential energy efficiency retrofits. Home Star was included in the Senate Democratic leadership’s Jobs Agenda for this spring, and is also being considered in the House for inclusion in job creation legislation. The program would provide rebates to consumers who invest in new energy efficient appliances, weatherize their homes, or purchase other efficient technologies for their home. Environment Virginia Advocate J.R. Tolbert, released the following statement in response: Attorney General Cuccinelli's Challenge to EPA: Shortsighted and Political 2/17/2010Richmond – On Tuesday afternoon, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed a challenge in federal court to the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding which was issued in December 2008. The EPA finding declared, in accordance with a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, that carbon dioxide is a danger to public health and a cause of global warming. Most Recent ReportsGenerating Failure: How Building Nuclear Power Plants Would Set America Back In the Race Against Global Warming 11/24/2009Far 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 11/12/2009America’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. Watermen Blues: Economic, Cultural and Community Impacts of Poor Water Quality in the Chesapeake Bay 9/16/2009More than 25 years since the Chesapeake Bay Agreement of December 1983 created a region-wide partnership “to improve and protect the water quality and living resources of the Chesapeake Bay,”the bay’s water quality has not improved, and communities that rely on a clean, sustainable bay are paying a high price for the lack of progress.1 |