Virginia Voters Face Clear Climate Choices in Congressional Races
The US is on the cusp of cleaning up our economy in order to avert dangerous levels of climate change, but the hour is late and what our political leaders do now is critical.
As a climate scientist at George Mason University, I was curious about the Virginia electoral candidates’ views on reducing carbon emissions. With a Mason doctoral student, Austin Reed, I have prepared a summary of the positions on climate change of candidates for all Virginia districts of the US House of Representatives.
Close Races, Sharp Differences
Coastal Virginia is sinking into the sea because of human-caused climate change. They say that all politics is local, but Congressional District VA-2’s fate depends on international politics. If the US and other nations don’t stop burning fossil fuels, large tracts of VA-2 on the Eastern Shore, in Virginia Beach, and elsewhere will secede from dry land.
VA-2’s Elaine Luria has worked in the House to slow US carbon emissions. She is now in a tight race with Republican challenger Jen Kiggans. Despite hoping to represent a district with hundreds of square miles less than 20 feet above sea level, Kiggans has not included the environment among issues listed on her website. In a debate last month, she said the US should “reduce regulations for the oil and gas industry.”
The entire Commonwealth faces interminable summer heat waves and devastating storms due to global heating. Sharp contrasts on climate are also on display in two other close Congressional races, VA-10 in Northern Virginia (roughly from Rappahannock to Loudoun counties) and VA-7 just to its south. Both have incumbent Democrats who support decisive action to reduce carbon emissions.
District 10’s Jennifer Wexton is being challenged by Hung Cao, who answered a voter question about climate change by saying that there is no need to worry because the rainbow is “God’s… promise to us he’ll never wipe out the world again” according to the Biblical story of Noah. In District 7, Yesli Vega is challenging Abigail Spanberger. We could not find any statements by Vega about climate change, but her endorsement by the Koch Brothers’ PAC Americans for Prosperity suggests hostility to any restraints on carbon emissions.
Party Divide Extends Across Virginia
The wide gap between Democrats and Republicans is echoed in the other districts. Democrats, representing the Norfolk, Richmond, and the DC suburbs (Scott, McEchin, Connolly, and Beyer), have all called for climate action, and all have a rating of at least 96% from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), based on 2021 votes related to climate and other environmental issues. Republicans (Cline, Wittman, Good, and Griffith), representing largely rural districts, have LCV ratings ranging from 13% down to 0%.
Among Virginia Republicans in the House, Robert Wittman (VA-1, mostly east of Richmond) is perhaps the most open to reducing emissions. He says we should “address climate change,” but lists natural gas (a fossil fuel) as a part of the solution, along with renewables and nuclear power. Similarly, he said that the US should not focus on stopping sea level rise. Herbert Jones, the Democrat running against Wittman, supports “expanding our sources of renewable energy” to “create new jobs.”
Morgan Griffith (VA-9, southwest Virginia) acknowledges “a changing climate due in part to human activities” and supports some renewable energy, but his “all of the above” energy strategy includes oil, natural gas, and even coal. In contrast, his Democratic challenger Aysha DeVaughan puts “a just transition for fossil fuel communities” among her top priorities. Ben Cline (VA-6, Shenandoah Valley) also claims an “all of the above” energy policy, but opposed measures to add green energy to the electric grid or expand electric vehicle charging. His Democratic opponent Jennifer Lewis “supports achieving 100% clean and renewable energy by 2050.”
Strongest opposition to any climate action comes from Bob Good (VA-5, central/southern Virginia), who characterizes efforts to reduce emissions as “climate extremism” in the service of a “radical socialist agenda”. His Democratic challenger, Joshua Throneburg, advocates “an immediate, just transition to renewable energy” and “green jobs within Virginia”.
On the Climate Cusp
Global temperatures have leapt up in the last decade, and the global average is now about 1oF warmer than 1980. If we don’t take action, that 1o can easily become 5o or more. It is now clear that society’s emissions of heat-trapping gas are heating the Earth, and thousands of studies have demonstrated growing risks to humans and the environment.
Solar panels and wind power have come down dramatically in cost to where it is price competitive with fossil fuels. Similar drops in battery costs make it economically feasible to run cars and trucks on green-generated electricity. Energy storage, by pumping water to temporary reservoirs, deploying batteries, and creating a smart grid, will allow an increasing fraction of the power supply to come from intermittent sources. Switching to cleaner energy used to mean a financial sacrifice; now it is a matter of overcoming inertia and building the energy infrastructure to support it.
To the surprise of many, Congress passed two laws that make important progress towards cleaning up our energy systems. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included provisions to improve energy infrastructure, such as building out the network of electric vehicle chargers. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included nearly $40 billion a year to subsidize the installation of more renewable energy sources and energy-efficient technology.
Thirteen Republicans in the House (none from Virginia) and 19 in the Senate voted for the Infrastructure Act, and none voted for the IRA.
All these factors put the US on track to get 2030 emissions 40% lower than they were in 2005. While important, that still does not get us to the 50% reduction already promised in the Paris Climate Agreement. The composition of Congress continues to matter for the health of the planet. As Duke political scientist Geoffrey Henderson points out, Congress members hostile to emission reductions could block future legislation on climate or even use annual budget negotiations to “bargain for concessions that would boost fossil fuels.”
Efforts to trim our climate-altering emissions are winning, but they are still not winning fast enough. Government action is a big part of the equation. For many people, the easiest and most consequential decision they can make to protect the climate is to vote.
Image at top: Hurricane Isabel flood waters at Langley AFB, Hampton, VA, September 2003. US govt photo in public domain, from Effects of Hurricane Isabel in Virginia.