With Democrats Back in Control of Virginia’s General Assembly, Environmentalists See a Narrow Path Forward for Climate Policy
By Hannah Chanatry
With all 140 legislative seats in the state up for election, Virginia Democrats retained their majority in the state Senate and flipped the House of Delegates in Tuesday’s elections, fending off an almost-certain attempt by Republicans to roll back the state’s ambitious climate act.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.