Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during a press conference. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill Thursday that would have required that long-running vacancies on the state’s environmental justice council be filled, an issue which has, for months, made it difficult for the group to attain a quorum at meetings and do its work.
Del. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, introduced the bill, which would have required vacancies on the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice be filled by no later than Aug. 31, 2024.
The bill also would have added language to state law allowing the council to travel statewide to learn about and document environmental justice issues in communities across the commonwealth. The measure would have also prevented the Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources from “delegating any requested staff support for the Council to any agency.”
Youngkin said the legislation “reinforces historical barriers to achieving overdue objectives.”
“The proposed top-down approach would perpetuate past disparities, preventing the construction of infrastructure in underserved communities, hindering permits necessary for the advancement of clean energy, and imposing regressive costs that disproportionately affect Virginia’s poorest citizens,” Youngkin wrote in his veto memo.
The council was first created under the administration of former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe before being codified in 2020, with the purpose of advising government agencies of environmental issues that have historically and disproportionately harmed disadvantaged communities, including Black and Hispanic people.
Jones introduced the bill after several members of the council had left or became inactive because they couldn’t have mileage requests reimbursed. Council members said they hadn’t heard back from the governor’s administration when seeking help on its inability to have a quorum.
As a result, the council faced months of delay in finalizing its annual report for 2023.
On Thursday, the Democratic delegate told the Mercury in an interview he appreciated the governor reaching out in advance of the veto to express concern “with it being an overreach, with [the council] just being an advisory committee but seeking to structure staff in a particular way that he didn’t feel comfortable with.”
“So what I would ask, what I would like [is], alright let’s move that provision out and get to filling this committee by the end of August of this year,” Jones said.
Senior reporter Graham Moomaw contributed to this report.
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Author: Charlie Paullin
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