Part 1: Virginia

Part 2: Hampton Roads

Officials at the state and local level are embarking on an ambitious effort to identify the Commonwealth’s major sources of climate pollution – and take steps to address them. 

It’s part of the Biden administration’s goal to rapidly reduce the country’s contribution to climate change. 

State and Hampton Roads agencies have received a total of $4 million in federal pollution reduction grants to draw up plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

This level of climate planning will be a new undertaking for the state, said Tom Ballou, air quality planning manager with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.

"We've done it piecemeal," Ballou said. "This is the first time we're going to try to pull everything together in a comprehensive plan."

The Climate Pollution Reduction grants are funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress last year. The law directs hundreds of billions of dollars toward clean energy investments and other measures to combat climate change. 

The program is in line with the Biden administration’s goal of halving the country’s greenhouse gas emissions from their 2005 peak by 2030, said Shaun Eagan, spokesperson for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is administering the grants.

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which drives global warming. The United States emits more than 6,000 million metric tons each year, according to the EPA. A majority is carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

Other major greenhouse gases include methane, nitrous oxide and gases used in refrigerants or industrial uses.

Eagan said in an email that the money is meant to encourage the development of comprehensive climate pollution plans “that will reduce pollution, maximize investment benefits and build clean energy economies over the next decade.”

Before local officials can make a plan to cut Hampton Roads’ carbon footprint, they need to know exactly how much carbon pollution is currently emitted — and from where. 

That will be a first for the region, said Whitney Katchmark, who’s spearheading the $1 million effort for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

“We haven't really looked, as a region, at reducing greenhouse gases (or) getting a handle on sources,” Katchmark said.

The commission will use the grant money to estimate emissions from key local sources, like vehicle transportation, landfills and the energy used to heat and cool homes and businesses. 

Katchmark said she’s not yet sure whether the assessment will also include sources like container ships docked at the Port of Virginia or planes and ships at local military installations, which would impact the region’s overall emissions. 

“We've got some unique situations,” she said.

At the state level, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has been tracking greenhouse gas emissions for more than 20 years, Ballou said.

Statewide emissions dropped by about 21% between 2005 and 2021. That decrease was mainly driven by the transition from emissions-heavy coal-fired power plants toward cleaner-burning fuels like natural gas, and the increased use of solar power, Ballou said.

Transportation is Virginia’s largest source of climate pollution, accounting for more than 40% of statewide emissions. It’s followed by the electric power sector at 21% and other industries with 16%.

The state’s new inventory will build on those efforts, Ballou said, using computer modeling tools in line with those used by the EPA. And Virginia will now have to determine steps to actually reduce those emissions.

Both state and local leaders must submit a Priority Climate Action Plan to the EPA in March, outlining specific projects to cut emissions. It’s a tight timeline that’s forcing officials to scramble a bit, Ballou said. 

The EPA will then use those plans to decide which states and localities receive additional funding next year to implement their plans. 

Ballou said he doesn’t yet know which strategies Virginia will pursue. 

In its grant application to the EPA, state officials said they will likely focus on reducing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas generated from sources like landfills; and sulfur hexafluoride, a potent gas that often comes from the electric power sector. 

They also proposed targeting sources with high energy demands, like data centers.  

In practice, that could mean capturing methane from decomposing waste at landfills, or trying to lower emissions at microchip manufacturers, they wrote.

Katchmark said Hampton Roads officials may propose electrifying local government vehicles or upgrading wastewater treatment plants to use less energy.

“We'll just see what we can build in terms of enthusiasm, and how hard some of the different implementation strategies are,” she said.  

Mike Dowd, DEQ’s air and renewable energy division director, said the EPA is focused on getting “the biggest bang for the buck,” as well as ensuring that a significant percentage of the benefits go to lower-income or disadvantaged communities. 

A large portion of the state falls into that category, including most of the Eastern Shore and many areas in western Virginia. 

Virginia is embarking on the new effort at the same time as it is scheduled to pull out of the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is a cap and trade program designed to reduce carbon emissions. 

The initiative requires power plants of a certain size to pay for their carbon emissions in order to incentivize lowering them. Regular auctions of those credits have so far raised more than $650 million for climate adaptation programs in Virginia.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration has sought to pull the state out of the program, citing increased energy bills. The state’s air board voted to do so this summer, and Virginia is now set to end its participation at the end of this year. Environmental groups are fighting in court to stop the state from leaving, arguing that state lawmakers must weigh in.

Ballou and Dowd declined to comment on how leaving the initiative could impact the state’s new climate plans, citing the ongoing litigation.

Katchmark said it’s somewhat daunting to take on a huge, global issue like climate change. But she sees a lot of opportunities for local action. Taken together, they can add up.

“It’s probably the collective combination of all these efforts that make a difference,” she said. “Certainly we can look at areas where there are a lot of vehicle traffic or stationary air pollution and try to make a dent in reducing that.”

Eagan, with the EPA, said the agency has not imposed specific reduction targets for grant recipients. 

Ballou said the state is emphasizing public outreach as part of the planning process. Virginians can learn more and access a recent presentation about the state grant on the DEQ’s website.

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