Inaction on climate change is costing Virginia’s agriculture industry hundreds of millions of dollars a year – Virginia Mercury

More than 125 million dollars. This is a preliminary estimate of the damage done to farmers in Southwest Virginia after Hurricane Helena brought damaging winds, heavy rain and flooding to the region. We were fortunate that the storm did not affect more of our state, but for those farmers today facing crop losses, property and equipment damage, and other recovery costs as a result of Helen’s wrath, the impacts are significant and will be lasting consequences — for their farms, their families’ livelihoods and the region’s economy.

Federal government sends Virginia $10 million to repair Route 58 after Hurricane Helene washout

And it’s not just this year. Weather data shows that since 1980, Virginia has been hit by more than 100 extreme weather events that have cost our state over $1 billion. During that period, records show that the average annual value of billion-dollar weather events in Virginia has tripled in the past five years alone. Floods, freezes and — especially in the past two years — extreme drought have wreaked havoc on our agricultural industry.

This trend comes as no surprise to Virginia farmers. We live by the times and science doesn’t care what you believe. Our weather actually gets warmer and weirder every year. Although we have always understood that our success in making a living through agriculture depends on favorable weather, we did not start farming knowing how quickly the climate would change and how devastating those impacts would be.

We have already seen how increases in average annual temperatures affect planting and growing seasons. Research shows that corn silkworms and pollen die when temperatures exceed the mid-90s. Our farm in the Shenandoah Valley is now in a USDA plant zone 7; in 1990 we were in zone 6. Our Southwest Virginia farmers experienced catastrophic flooding while Shenandoah Valley farmers experienced extreme drought – two years in a row.

While extreme weather trends have intensified at an alarming rate in recent years, we have long known the identity of the main culprit accelerating the pace of climate change: greenhouse gas emissions from our electricity and transportation sectors.

We had a robust tool to more deliberately and meaningfully address emissions from power plants as mandated by law. That tool was the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration single-handedly eliminated earlier this year. Before he ended it, it was working. In the first two years since he has been with RGGI, emissions from Virginia’s power plants have declined 16.8% throughout the country. Today, less than a year after Youngkin removed us from RGGI, EPA data by Virginia’s electricity providers shows that emissions have increased significantly.

Virginia benefits from RGGI to the tune of more than $827.7 million during the years we participated, between 2021 and 2023. RGGI revenue was split between two statewide programs: a low-income energy efficiency program administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and a capacity-building program for flood resilience and project implementation by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. Emissions reductions from the energy efficiency component of RGGI have been steadily progressing. And flood mitigation measures implemented by the Flood Preparedness Component have made progress in helping protect Virginia’s flood-vulnerable communities. A total of 98 sustainability projects funded by RGGI have already been approved, but the status of many of those projects is already at risk because of the funding Youngkin pulled from Virginians when he left RGGI.

If you talk to a dozen farmers, you’re likely to get a dozen different perspectives on the topic of climate change. But as I said before, science doesn’t care what you believe; the weather is getting warmer and stranger. Removing Virginia from the RGGI sets Virginia back in our fight against climate change – a fight that should be accelerated, not impeded or delayed.

The effects of greenhouse gas emissions on our climate are cumulative. The longer we wait, the worse it gets. The harder it gets. The more expensive it gets. Virginia farm families cannot afford the price of inaction. When we bring Virginia back to RGGI, we’ll get Virginia moving in the right direction again.