Lobbyists kill Virginia climate change bills.

So, I just read this crazy article about how lobbyists killed climate change bills in Virginia. It’s honestly infuriating. Basically, there were a bunch of bills that aimed to reduce carbon emissions in the state, but they all got shot down in committee. Why? Because the fossil fuel industry spent millions of dollars to lobby against them. It’s like the people in charge only care about money, not the planet or our future.

One of the bills would have required utilities to get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2045. Another would have put a cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. Both super important, both dead in the water thanks to the influence of Big Oil and Gas.

It’s so frustrating to see this happening over and over again. I mean, we all know climate change is a serious problem. It’s not some far-off hypothetical scenario, it’s happening right now. And yet, there are still people out there who are more concerned with making a profit than saving the planet.

I actually had a personal experience with this sort of thing a few years ago. I was living in California at the time, and there was this big push to ban plastic bags from grocery stores. It seemed like a no-brainer to me - plastic bags are terrible for the environment, they never biodegrade and end up polluting our oceans and harming wildlife. But then I found out that the plastics industry was spending millions of dollars to fight the ban. They were even running ads on TV, trying to persuade people that plastic bags were actually eco-friendly!

It’s just crazy. We need to start holding our elected officials accountable and demanding that they put the interests of the people and the planet first, not the lobbyists and corporations. Climate change is an existential threat, and we can’t afford to keep ignoring it.