GOVERNOR KAINE COMES TO NORTHERN TO SIGN ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION, INCLUDING MARGI'S BILL PROMOTING GREEN ENERGY

Arlington, May 28, 2008 Virginia Governor Tim Kaine traveled to Arlington County this week to sign a half dozen environmental bills passed by the 2008 General Assembly. State Senators and Delegates from all around northern Virginia joined Arlington elementary school students at Bluemont Park to watch the Governor sign the legislation into law.

Governor Kaine signed a bill (HB 1228) sponsored by Delegate Margaret Vanderhye (D, McLean and Great Falls) requiring utility companies to include information about renewable power options on customer bills.

“This was a wonderful accomplishment for a first year legislator,” Kaine said, noting that Delegate Vanderhye worked to enlist the support of the utility companies in enacting the requirement. “Sometimes it it’s not enough just to want to do the right thing,” Kaine told the students. “Delegate Vanderhye’s bill helps consumers to learn how to do the right thing.”

State Senator Mary Margaret Whipple (D, Arlington) was the sponsor of budget language that added $20 million to state efforts to address non-point source water pollution by creating incentives for farmers to adopt Best Management Practices (BMP) for the application of fertilizer and pesticides and safe waste management.

“This is a huge step forward in our efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay,” Kaine said. Nearly sixty percent of Virginia is in the Bay Watershed.

Kaine also signed a bill sponsored by Delegate David Bulova (D, Fairfax) and Emmett Hanger (R, Staunton) that freed up funds from the State Water Quality Improvement Fund to be used for non-point source pollution clean-up. Both legislators were on hand for the ceremony.

The Governor also praised legislators for adding funds to the budget for open space preservation. He said his administration was more than halfway to its goal of placing 400,000 new acres of land in preservation programs. This year, the General Assembly dedicated $5 million to Civil War battlefield preservation.

Arlington Delegates Bob Brink and Al Eisenberg were on hand to welcome Governor Kaine and the visiting legislators to Bluemont Park, a seventy acre facility along the banks of Four Mile Run, a tributary of the Potomac River.