Labor and Commerce Subcommittee #3 advanced five substantive bills on energy affordability, railroad safety, offshore wind workforce, and EV infrastructure, while deferring four bills for the day. The most contested items were HB 2 (heat pump upgrades for low-income customers, opposed by the petroleum and propane industry) and HB 25 (minimum two-person railroad crew requirement, opposed by railroads on federal preemption grounds).
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Mike O'Connor (Virginia Petroleum Marketers and Propane Association) argued the bill applies only to households where product is delivered and stored on site, characterizing it as 'targeted at Virginia small business specifically,' and offered an amendment to make it apply statewide — which was rejected as gutting the bill. Walton Shepherd (NRDC) responded that the bill 'is not about them' and that the oil industry 'has seen record profits in the last several years.'
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“The two person crew requirement exists as an administrative regulation, not as a federal statute. Therefore, it's volatile and we know the volatility that's happening above the Potomac right now. And so therefore it does not provide durable or permanent permanent protection. Hence why 6 out of 12 states have already enacted this piece of legislation.”
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Sign in to subscribeWelcome to the mighty sub three of Commerce and Labor. Good to see you all. A lot of familiar faces. It's almost like family here in this subcommittee. Although we have a lot of new faces up here on the dais and I want to welcome all of them to this really interesting and hard working subcommittee. Shall we take the roll, Mr. Clerk? Looks like we have a quorum, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here. I know there's always a lot of interest in the in the legislation that works its way through this subcommittee. Just by way of planning purposes. I want to let people know that the overwhelming likelihood is that this subcommittee will need to meet every Tuesday and every Thursday at least until crossover to get through what looks to be a pretty daunting number of bills headed our way. So if this happens to be the subcommittee to which you are assigned for one reason or another, and I see a lot of folks for whom that's true, just plan on being with us in this same format. We will go last after the other subcommittees have gone and go until we…
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