Crossover, which is a like a legislative version of the “Red Rover, Red Rover” game has happened at the General Assembly and all bills have transferred between the House and Senate.

SB 1164 the bill that will classify chemical conversion as a manufacturing process instead of a Solid Waste facility /process will be heard by the House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee on Monday (2/8) morning! We’ve written extensively about this bill- for more detailed information about how the petrochemical industry, being led by the American Chemistry Council, is attempting to change Virginia’s laws to benefit powerful polluting corporations check out our most recent blog post.

Despite the many assurances by the members of the Senate’s Agricultural Committee who get all their talking points from the American Chemistry Council apparently, this bill does not and will not remove plastic pollution from waterways and communities, it actually increases plastic production and creates more waste. It enables harmful, polluting facilities to expand across Virginia with the most severe impacts placed on vulnerable populations with fewer restrictions and reporting requirements of a Landfill for similar.

In addition, Chemical Conversion is not economically or environmentally sustainable and this bill is being used to kill HB1902 to ban EPS food and beverage containers. The solution to the plastic crisis is reducing waste at its source, not dangerous downstream approaches.

Delegate Plum had a companion chemical conversion bill (HB 2173), but because of public outreach, Delegate Plum requested his bill be stricken from the docket! Grassroots advocacy works! We need to recreate that success one more time. Today is the last chance to take a couple minutes to let your elected official know you oppose SB 1164 and chemical conversion! Send your elected official an email or a Tweet so they know where their constituents stand. While you’re at it thank Delegate Plum for removing HB 2173 from consideration! There won’t be any public comments during the committee hearing, but you can provide written testimony by following this link. You can access a 1 page talking point document with this link.

Virginia Grassroots provides access to an excellent spreadsheet with all the contact information for Virginia’s elected officials. Follow this link to get their email address, phone number, Twitter handle, and Facebook page information.

Here are some sample Tweets

“Please vote no on SB 1164, don’t sell Virginia’s future to the petrochemical industry. Protect vulnerable communities!”

“Would you put a chemical conversion facility in your district? Then vote no on SB 1164 which is a sneaky way of allowing this sort of thing with minimal permitting”

Here is a sample email

“Good afternoon XXXX,
I am your constituent at (insert address). I oppose SB 1164. Virginians have worked extremely hard to ensure our future is not intertwined with fossil fuels. Enabling fossil fuel facilities to expand in Virginia is not only a danger to our air and water quality, fossil fuel facilities around the country disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities”

Written testimony can look something like this

“I strongly oppose SB 1164 because it will enable dangerous, polluting fossil fuel facilities to proliferate across Virginia. This bill does not and will not remove plastic pollution from waterways and communities, it actually increases plastic production and creates more waste. It enables harmful, polluting facilities to expand across Virginia with the most severe impacts placed on vulnerable populations with fewer restrictions and reporting requirements of a Landfill for similar.
Thank you to Delegate Plum for striking HB 2173 from the docket and we hope it is the will of the committee to oppose this bill as well. Thank you.”