Along with my neighbors on the Eastern Shore and other residents of coastal Virginia, I held my breath as Hurricane Erin tracked just out to sea. We were fortunate the impact was limited to some higher than normal tides but we know that hasn't always been the case and won't always be in the future.
Flooding is the most common and costly disaster in our country and our commonwealth. Since 2000, U.S. presidents have declared 31 major disasters in Virginia; 21 of them have had a significant flooding component. From Hurricane Isabel to Tropical Storm Helene and hundreds of other events large and small, flood damage has cost Virginians and their communities billions of dollars and disrupted thousands of lives, harming the people and places we love.
The good news is that much of this destruction is preventable. But it takes a lot of resources to build new flood protection infrastructure, restore natural features that soak up or hold back water, and help people move out of hazardous areas. That's why in 2020 Gov. Ralph Northam and I worked with the General Assembly to pass the Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Act.
This law created the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund, paid for with proceeds from a carbon pollution auction called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). RGGI requires energy companies in participating states to buy credits if they burn fossil fuels to produce electricity. The less you pollute, the less you pay: a natural gas plant has to buy fewer credits than a plant that burns coal.
This is about as fair a system as you could imagine. Without taxing consumers, RGGI gives producers a strong financial incentive to move toward clean energy but doesn't force them to do it on an unreasonable schedule. In the meantime, Virginia communities get resources they need to fight back against flooding, which is getting worse because of global warming caused by burning fossil fuels.
In the two and a half years that Virginia was part of RGGI, we raked in more than $370 million for flood preparedness. That's in addition to $455 million for energy efficiency upgrades in low-income communities, which help lower electric bills for everyone.
This revenue funded wetland restoration and drainage improvements in Virginia Beach, flood barriers and living shorelines in Norfolk, and stormwater system upgrades and road elevation in Chesapeake. It benefited rural and inland communities as well, with awards going to 70 different localities and a dozen regional planning organizations across the state. A study published last year by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Allstate found that every dollar invested in resilience projects like these saves $13 in damages, cleanup costs and economic loss.
Unfortunately, Gov. Glenn Youngkin choked off the commonsense, market-based funding stream for this program, illegally removing Virginia from RGGI in an executive action that is still being litigated. In the meantime, he has left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table and the meter is still running.
That funding could have been used to keep water off of roads and out of people's homes. Instead, more Virginia communities will remain vulnerable to flood hazards for longer. Thankfully the General Assembly has kept some money flowing to the fund but now flood protection has to compete with other priorities such as public schools, health care and job training for Virginia workers.
We can and must do better. A recent report from the company Lending Tree found that Virginia has more coastal flood events annually than any other state, and it's not even close. The problem of flooding is not going away, and our economy, our military installations and the places we call home are all at risk.
Hampton Roads voters would be well served to keep this in mind as they consider their choices for governor and other offices this November