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Europe Says<a href="https://www.europesays.com/1801789/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.europesays.com/1801789/</a> Data centers fuel energy debates as lawmakers seek ratepayer protections • Virginia Mercury <a href="https://pubeurope.com/tags/Data" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Data</a> <a href="https://pubeurope.com/tags/DataCenters" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#DataCenters</a> <a href="https://pubeurope.com/tags/Energy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Energy</a> <a href="https://pubeurope.com/tags/VirginiaGeneralAssembly2025" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VirginiaGeneralAssembly2025</a> <a href="https://pubeurope.com/tags/VirginiaHouseOfDelegates" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VirginiaHouseOfDelegates</a> <a href="https://pubeurope.com/tags/VirginiaSenate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VirginiaSenate</a>

Rob PegoraroThe <a href="https://virginiageneralassembly.gov" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Virginia General Assembly</a> is now past the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/13/virginia-general-assembly-crossover-arena-abortion-guns-taxes/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">halfway mark</a> of its first session <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/08/virginia-senate-house-election-results-2023/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">under Democratic control</a> since the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/2021_Virginia_legislative_session" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2021 session</a>, and I have to admit that I expected a little more out of my state’s legislature now that Republicans can’t quietly sink decent bills in committees as they did in the House of Delegates in the previous two-year session.It’s not that the Western Hemisphere’s oldest continuous law-making body–I can’t write that without noting that for the first time in its 405-year history, the House is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/10/virginia-general-assembly-youngkin-convene/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">led by a Black man</a>, Speaker Don Scott (D.-Portsmouth)–has been spinning its wheels in <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=241&typ=lnk&val=02" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">this session</a>. As of Tuesday’s <a href="https://sgr.virginia.edu/frequently-used-terms" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“crossover day,”</a> the deadline for each chamber to pass any non-budget bill that the other may consider, <a href="https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/02/15/with-crossover-behind-them-state-lawmakers-weigh-whats-ahead/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more than a thousand bills</a> have survived that deadline in our state’s <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/resources/details/legislative-session-length" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">unusually short legislative session</a>. <a href="https://robpegoraro.files.wordpress.com/2024/02/virginia-capitol-rotunda.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> They include a raft of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/08/gun-control-bills-sailing-through-virginia-general-assembly/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">gun-control measures</a>, some of which attracted Republican votes and may escape a veto from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), as well as various bills to <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2024/02/14/crossover-roundup-whats-alive-and-whats-on-shaky-ground-in-virginias-general-assembly/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">protect Virginians from the enforcement of abortion bans</a> (you can also think of them as forced-birth laws) in other states.Other accomplishments by either house, in some cases by both, haven’t landed in as many headlines but deserve some recognition: <a href="https://cardinalnews.org/2024/02/13/bills-to-speed-broadband-deployment-clear-house-senate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">streamlining rural broadband buildout</a>, <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/blog-va/bills-banning-legacy-admissions-clear-both-virginia-chambers/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ending legacy admissions to public colleges and universities</a>, <a href="https://vadogwood.com/2024/02/09/bill-to-eliminate-hidden-fees-passes-virginia-senate/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">banning unadvertised junk fees</a>, <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=241&typ=bil&val=sb231" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extending health care to undocumented immigrant children</a>, and <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?ses=241&typ=bil&val=hb1077" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legalizing the customary cyclist practice of treating stop signs without crossing traffic as yield signs</a>. I also appreciate how the General Assembly hasn’t rubber-stamped Youngkin’s ploy to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/14/virginia-youngkin-wizards-arena-general-assembly/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">help the Washington Capitals and Wizards move</a> to Alexandria’s Potomac Yards neighborhood. That arena belongs in downtown D.C. on top of multiple Metro lines.And yet the General Assembly has still missed major opportunities–even setting aside Dems postponing votes for constitutional amendments to end felony disenfranchisement and protect same-sex marriage and abortion rights <a href="https://www.wvtf.org/news/2024-01-17/virginia-democrats-delay-proposals-to-amend-states-constitution-to-2025" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">until next year’s session</a>. (Constituional amendments must pass in separate General Assembly sessions before <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2016/11/04/virginia-voting-tip-distrust-constitutional-amendments/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">going to a popular vote</a>, so I can understand how timing them for the same year as legislative elections makes them more obvious campaign issues.)In particular, it’s disgraceful how often Democrats have quietly <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2024/02/13/in-virginias-democratic-legislature-campaign-finance-reform-bills-languish-without-votes/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sunk decent bills in committees</a> that would have put some limits on the ability of people and even companies to <a href="https://www.vpap.org/money/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">throw money at politicians</a>. Virginia’s lax campaign-finance laws amount to <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2022/03/07/by-allowing-political-cash-for-personal-use-virginia-remains-a-campaign-finance-backwater/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">legalized bribery</a> of candidates and elected officials, and Dems in Richmond should be embarrassed to have done so little to fix that. <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2021/02/23/virginia-senate-punts-on-campaign-finance-bill-but-lawmakers-agree-to-study-future-reform/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Again</a>. On a lesser and more local level, I’m also annoyed that a measure to allow municipalities to ban noisy and polluting gas-powered leaf blowers <a href="https://www.wvtf.org/news/2024-02-08/legislation-cracking-down-on-noisy-leaf-blowers-is-dead-for-this-session" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">got punted to next year’s session</a>. Related: It’s still dumb how often cities and counties <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/202003/it-time-home-rule-virginia" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">have to get a permission slip from Richmond</a> to do things that would have little to no effect on their neighbors.And then there are the cases where legislators didn’t even introduce bills that should have had a chance of passing. For example, four years after we <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/03/10/bad-news-virginia-legislature-cant-sort-out-anti-slapp-law-expect-more-slapp-suits/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">couldn’t finish an anti-SLAPP bill</a> to <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2019/11/09/my-request-of-my-state-legislators-a-strong-anti-slapp-statute/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">close Virginia to libel tourists</a>, nobody tried to introduce one this year. And a year after <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230316143146/https://www.kathyfordelegate.com/legislative-agenda" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a bill to restore direct online filing of state taxes</a> got <a href="https://twitter.com/KathyKLTran/status/1620077745379368962" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">quashed in a House committee</a>, nobody tried to fix that either.I’ll be thinking about that last failure when I once again <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2023/04/27/why-im-back-to-filing-our-virginia-taxes-on-paper/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">file our state taxes on paper</a>. And when I vote this fall–as I will and as I always do, because I’ve already seen <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2018/11/10/this-changing-commonwealth-of-virginia/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">how much my state has changed, one election at a time</a>. And because however grumpy I might get about one season’s legislative results, I’m not going to practice childlike citizenship by holding my voting breath until other people do the work.<a href="https://robpegoraro.com/2024/02/16/progress-in-virginia-still-demands-some-patience/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://robpegoraro.com/2024/02/16/progress-in-virginia-still-demands-some-patience/</a><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/anti-slapp/" target="_blank">#antiSLAPP</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/campaign-finance/" target="_blank">#campaignFinance</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/crossover-day/" target="_blank">#crossoverDay</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/direct-tax-prep/" target="_blank">#directTaxPrep</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/glenn-youngkin/" target="_blank">#GlennYoungkin</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/house-of-delegates/" target="_blank">#HouseOfDelegates</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/leaf-blowers/" target="_blank">#leafBlowers</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/richmond/" target="_blank">#Richmond</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-democrats/" target="_blank">#VirginiaDemocrats</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-general-assembly/" target="_blank">#VirginiaGeneralAssembly</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-ifile/" target="_blank">#VirginiaIFile</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/virginia-senate/" target="_blank">#VirginiaSenate</a>

Perry LindstromJust a reminder to folks in <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/Virginia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Virginia</a> that the <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/election2023" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#election2023</a> is very important. If <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/Youngkin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Youngkin</a> gets his way by taking the <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/VrginiaHouse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VrginiaHouse</a> and <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/VirginiaSenate" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#VirginiaSenate</a> not only will <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/abortion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#abortion</a> be illegal, but this will also unleash a host of bad social and environmental policies. <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/Democrats" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#Democrats</a> <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/environment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#environment</a> <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/abortionrights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#abortionrights</a> <a href="https://freeradical.zone/tags/climatechange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#climatechange</a>

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