The National Climate Assessment identified sea level rise and extreme heat to be two of the most pressing climate impacts affecting theSoutheast United States. Flooding troubles of Norfolk are a prime example. Norfolk has experienced a foot and a half of sea level rise during the last century.
As of 2014, there are 2,000 Virginians employed in the solar industry, across 180 companies. Between renewable energy and efficiency projects, Virginia’s 11,000 clean energy workers outnumber Virginians employed by coal-producing companies. Additionally, future renewable projects will likely grow that figure, with around 10,000 jobs created by Dominion’s new offshore wind project.
The Yale Map Project on Climate Change Communication also gauged Virginia’s support for regulating CO2 and funding renewable energy. The project revealed that 77% of Virginians support funding renewables research. It also found that fully 74% would support regulating CO2 as a pollutant, and an estimated 63% would support setting strict CO2 limits on existing coal-fired power plants.