Virginia Attorney General Opinion Issued
Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board Can Cap Greenhouse Gas Emissions

May 12, 2017 by Jane Dittmar

Response to Democratic Leader Toscano’s Request Confirms Legal Authority

David J. Toscano (D-57), Democratic Leader of the Virginia House of Delegates, today issued the following statement:

In March, when a climate change denier was confirmed as the head of the US EPA, I wrote to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring for an official opinion about existing state law or authority to address carbon pollution and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). My request particularly highlighted the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board.

Today, the Attorney General issued a very significant opinion, concluding that the Air Pollution Control Board ‘is legally authorized to regulate GHG emissions, including establishing a statewide cap on GHG emissions for all new and existing fossil fuel electric generating plants.’ This is a huge development in the fight to mitigate further climate change, which the Trump administration in Washington has pushed off to the states.”

The Attorney General’s Opinion, Number 17-010, is available here.

Now Available from the University of Virginia Press

In a timely book, David Toscano has focused us on the path forward in this divided, polarized country—the states, where within a federal framework the laboratories of democracy can experiment with ideas and solutions. He shows us how the states can tackle a wide range of problems with perhaps more success than one-size-fits-all proposals from Washington, D.C.

– Larry Sabato, Director of the Center for Politics, University of Virginia

Toscano Statement on House and Senate Republicans’ Votes to Adjourn the Special Session

July 9, 2019

Toscano Statement on House and Senate Republicans’ Votes to Adjourn the Special Session on Gun Violence Prevention until November 18

RICHMOND –Following this afternoon’s surprise party-line votes which adjourned the Virginia General Assembly’s special session until November 18, 2019, Delegate David J. Toscano (D-57th District) released the following statement:

“House and Senate Republicans today showed Virginia that the only vote they are willing to take regarding gun violence protection is a vote to delay, delay, delay. In the face of clear support for action now, captured by multiple polls and embodied by the energetic activists who rallied at the Capitol today, they abdicated their responsibility to serve their constituents and the Commonwealth of Virginia in an appallingly cynical political move to push any votes off until after the November general election.

“I am disappointed but not surprised. Time and time again, whether it is about passing universal background checks for all gun purchases, or enacting measures that would permit a judge, after a hearing, to remove a gun from a person in a mental health crisis to prevent injury to self or others, the Republican leadership continues to stonewall and not even debate, much less pass, reasonable measures designed to reduce gun violence in the Commonwealth.”

Delegate Toscano is available today to the media for further comment.

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