Public Comments for: HB538 - Virginia Student Environmental Literacy Plan Grant Fund and Program; established.
Last Name: Giannakouros Organization: Virginia Progressives Locality: Harrisonburg

HB359, HB538, and HB1008 work together to support HB936, one of the three top priority bills in the [Virginia Progressives legislative agenda](http://VAProgressives.org). Taken together, the bills shape physical and curricular infrastructure Virginia's children will need to prepare for taking on the problems of the social provisioning of human needs going into a global climate crisis, and include proper funding mechanisms for their implementation. These bills reach up to meet initiatives from the federal level. Billions in federal funds are being spent into existence, and will flow in greater amounts in the future. They are seeking such programs in order to be spent effectively. More than half a dozen currently active can be found in our above linked legislative agenda, including, directly addressing the impact statement for HB936, [guidance for the EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG)](https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-09/CPRG%20General%20Competition%20NOFO.pdf) which states: ---- Accordingly, the CPRG general competition for implementation grants is designed to enable states, municipalities, tribes, and territories to achieve the following goals:" ... 2. Pursue measures that will achieve substantial community benefits (such as reduction of criteria air pollutants (CAPs) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs)), particularly in low- income and disadvantaged communities; ... In general, EPA anticipates that applications may seek funding for the following types of measures: ... • Implementation of new benchmarking and building performance standards ----- VA DEQ has been made aware, including in its Glen Allen DEQ CPRG public input session, that HB936 can tap this program while making DEQ's application more competitive.

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