L4GG’s work helping municipal governments meet their renewable energy goals doesn’t stop with education. For Blacksburg, Virginia, it involves supporting their work to gain critical policy changes.
What Carol Davis, Blacksburg’s sustainability manager, says is most remarkable about L4GG’s Climate Change program director, Jillian Blanchard, is her willingness to stick by them.
“What I love about L4GG is that they just keep hanging in there with us. They seem really committed to helping us shift the landscape,” said Carol.
L4GG’s journey with Virginia municipalities began at one of our energy workshops. Several VA municipalities attended, hoping to create a network and work more closely with one another.
Seeing the potential for collaboration, the municipalities created the Virginia Energy and Sustainability Peer Network (VESPN). Through that network they began to work with L4GG, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and World Resource Institute (WRI) to learn more about the complicated world of energy policy.
VESPN wanted to pursue virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs), but were unsure if Virgina policy around energy would allow it. They contracted L4GG, who drafted a 4-page memo on what was permissible, stating that VPPAs were, in fact, permissible.
Unfortunately, the memo did not persuade localities, who felt that the authority to accept VPPAs was still unclear.
Rather than give up, L4GG stuck with VESPN, and decided to pursue a different track. The next plan was to appeal to the Virginia Attorney General, which L4GG helped VESPN prepare for.
Ultimately, they were unable to move forward with this plan, but L4GG continued supporting the Virginia municipalities who were hoping for a way to purchase renewable energy and become more sustainable.
The current strategy involves creating the authority through legislation. L4GG worked with VESPN to develop draft bill language to give municipalities maximum flexibility on the ways they can access clean energy. L4GG’s role involves developing talking points and a communication and advocacy strategy.
It’s because of L4GG’s dedication to ensuring all cities have access to renewable energy that our Climate Change program continues to come up with creative solutions to the obstacles municipalities face in securing renewable energy.