HB 2735

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Recasts the Virginia Shoreline Resiliency Fund as the Virginia Coastal Protection Fund. Moneys generated by the sale of carbon dioxide emissions allowances through any auction program administered by the Commonwealth are directed to the Fund, which is to be used to implement hazard mitigation projects in areas that are subject to recurrent flooding. The measure directs the State Air Pollution Control Board to adopt regulations to limit and reduce the total carbon dioxide emissions released by electric generation facilities. The regulations are required to comply with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative program. The measure authorizes the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality to establish, implement, and manage an auction program to sell allowances into a market-based trading program. The measure requires revenues from the sale of carbon allowances, to the extent permitted by Article X, Section 7 of the Constitution of Virginia, to be distributed without further appropriation to the Fund, to the VirginiaSAVES program, for certain programs in Southwest Virginia for the purpose of revitalizing communities affected by the decline of fossil fuel production, and for administrative expenses. The measure also (i) states that the development of new utility-owned and utility-operated generating facilities utilizing energy derived from sunlight, or from onshore or offshore wind, to achieve the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions prescribed under the authority of this measure is in the public interest; (ii) directs that Dominion Power and Appalachian Electric Power shall achieve a minimum of 50 percent of the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions prescribed under the authority of this measure through the development of such generating facilities; and (iii) requires any retail customer that purchases electric energy from a supplier other than the customer's incumbent utility to pay a non-bypassable surcharge equal to the price established under the allowance auction to the incumbent utility for any purchase of electric energy that is not from a facility utilizing renewable energy or nuclear power. An enactment clause exempts from the Administrative Process Act actions taken by the Department of Environmental Quality to incorporate provisions of this measure into State Air Pollution Control Board regulations without further action of the Board. The enactment also provides that such incorporation will become effective upon their approval by the Director of the Department and the filing of the amended regulations with the Registrar of Regulations.