(Photo Credit: Graham Moomaw/Virginia Mercury)

In a key victory for Virginia’s energy efficiency and climate change mitigation efforts, Floyd County Circuit Court Judge ruled that Governor Youngkin’s withdrawal of Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state program to reduce carbon emissions that generates millions of dollars in climate change mitigation and energy efficiency upgrades for housing, was unlawful. The opinion found that only the General Assembly could pull Virginia out of the program, rendering Youngkin’s unilateral decision an encroachment of the state legislature’s authority and thus null and void. For more on the impact of this decision, read the full Virginia Mercury article here.