Fairfax County is stepping up efforts to meet its carbon neutrality goals with new programs and tools to help residents go green, starting next year.
First outlined in May, the three-part plan includes a public awareness campaign, a climate action tracking app and a home energy advisory service to help residents transition to clean energy and reduce their carbon footprints.
Floyd County Circuit Court Judge Randall Lowe determined Wednesday Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin acted unlawfully by withdrawing Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program aimed to reduce climate changing emissions that has funneled hundreds of millions to the state to deal with the impacts of extreme weather events.
In his five page opinion, Lowe wrote that “the only body with the authority to repeal the RGGI regulation would be the General Assembly. This is because a statute, the RGGI Act, requires the RGGI regulation to exist.”
Fairfax County has shelved plans to create a “green bank,” instead redirecting those funds to a new initiative that offers residents educational and technical support to make their homes more energy efficient.
The Board of Supervisors voted on June 11 to reallocate $638,955 initially designated for the green bank — a publicly financed institution that facilitates funding for residential and commercial clean energy projects — to a new pilot program called Electrify Fairfax.
(Updated at 4:45 p.m.) Local elected officials, including Rep. Gerry Connolly, gathered in Lorton on Wednesday to celebrate the introduction of 42 new electric buses to the division’s fleet.
These buses, which were funded by a $16.5 million federal grant announced in January, join the 18 electric buses already in operation. Although the division currently operates over 1,600 diesel buses, county officials emphasized that these new electric buses mark the start of a larger transition.
Reston Town Center’s first solar panels are on the horizon.
Boston Properties (BXP) plans to install solar panels on top of the green garage in the town center, the property owner and developer announced Friday (March 15). The installation will feature a 1.3-megawatt solar photovoltaic renewable energy system.
Fairfax County Public Schools will more than double the number of electric buses in its fleet, thanks to a new federal grant.
The local school system has been awarded $16.59 million as a winner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s inaugural Clean School Bus program grants competition. The other winner announced yesterday (Monday) was also from Virginia: Newport News Public Schools will receive $525,000.
The public can get a closer look at Fairfax County’s efforts to combat climate change with an updated Climate Action Dashboard.
The dashboard updates, released yesterday (Dec. 18) by the Fairfax County Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination (OEEC), include a new interactive map and sector-specific landing pages, so community members interested in buildings, for example, can view those metrics separately ones about waste.
Virginia is beginning to create plans for how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the primary driver of climate change, on a state and regional basis thanks to millions of dollars from the federal government.
This June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded about $6 million in grants to Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality, regional planning organizations in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads and the Monacan Indian Nation to create two plans.
Several environmental groups, including one based in Fairfax County, have joined forces to challenge Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s decision to pull Virginia out of a cross-state initiative aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
The Southern Environmental Law Center announced on Monday (July 31) that it will appeal Virginia’s planned withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a market of 12 states on the East Coast that regulates carbon emissions from power generators.
The clock is ticking for Fairfax County and the D.C. region to adopt a new transportation plan aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This past June, the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) approved Visualize 2045 — a regional transportation plan that runs through 2045 and must be updated every four years, as mandated by the federal government.
