In the face of ever-worsening climate change, it takes more than paper straws and recycling to make a dent in our carbon emissions--it takes policy on a national, state, and local scale. So what does local climate action look like? How do cities and counties set policy in the realm of housing, transportation, and energy to reduce carbon emissions and prepare their communities for a changing climate?

To answer that question, we talked to Bill Eger, Chief Climate Policy Officer for Arlington County, Virginia. He leads Arlington’s Office of Climate Coordination and Policy, whose mission is to "amplify, coordinate, and add capacity to the County’s ongoing responses to the climate crisis."

We’ve all heard of machine politics. Tammany Hall. Boss Tweed. Right in the heart of New York City, the Gilded Age, an era synonymous with corruption in America’s history. But Virginia has its own slice of machine-politics history: under the control of Harry Byrd, Sr., the Byrd Machine controlled the state government for the better part of fifty years.

Who was Harry Byrd? How did he gain total control of the government? And what are the lasting impacts we feel today? To answer these questions, we're joined by friend of the show Michael Pope, author of The Byrd Machine in Virginia: The Rise and Fall of a Conservative Political Organization.

The 2023 primary results are in...and they're pretty interesting. Many incumbents held onto their seats, but some challengers won key victories--Democratic Senators Joe Morrissey and Chap Petersen were defeated by Lashrecse Aird and newcomer Saddam Salim, while Republican Senator Amanda Chase lost to Glen Sturtevant. If you're looking for a narrative to explain what happened, you'll probably find it somewhere in the results.

And all of this comes against the backdrop of a huge shift in the General Assembly. New district lines, tons of retirements, and all one hundred and forty seats up for re-election in a few months. So what should we take away from this week’s results, and what should we look forward to in the November general election?

To break it all down, we're joined by journalist Michael Pope and Democratic strategist Thomas Bowman. They're friends of the show and the hosts of Pod Virginia, a fellow podcast breaking down Virginia politics.

The United States saw over 44,300 deaths from guns in 2022. And as the last year has made painfully clear, Virginia is not immune. Our state has been rocked by the horrific shootings in Charlottesville, Chesapeake, and Newport News. But even so, almost no meaningful gun safety legislation passed the General Assembly in the 2023 session. House Bill 2387 established tax credits for people who purchase gun safety devices, but that was about it.  That’s a departure from 2020 and 2021, when Democrats in the House and Senate passed a bevy of legislation aimed at reducing gun violence. Yet while those were important changes, there’s still a long way to go.  So, what do Virginia’s gun laws look like now? And what can be done to end gun violence in the state? To help answer those questions, we talk to Andrew Goddard, Legislative Director at the Virginia Center for Public Safety, and Brian Moran, who served as Virginia Secretary of Public Safety from 2014 to 2022.

To learn more, check out the Virginia Center for Public Safety's Research Resources.

Whether coming for school, work, or to escape bad situations at home, immigrants are a vital part of Virginia’s culture and economy. So today we’re digging into the opportunities and the obstacles facing immigrants and refugees in the state. First, we talk with Freddy Mejia, Deputy Director of Policy at the Commonwealth Institute. His work covers state-level policies that affect marginalized groups in Virginia. He walks us through who’s immigrating to Virginia, and how they fit into the larger tapestry of the state. Then, we talk with Harriet Kuhr, Executive Director of the International Rescue Committee in Virginia, about what refugee resettlement looks like on the ground.

Learn more about how immigration status can affect access to health coverage in Virginia

Find out how you can volunteer with the International Rescue Committee, or learn more about their Charlottesville or Richmond offices.

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As the Bold Dominion team works on an upcoming episode, here's one from the vaults -- a Bold Dominion classic covering the perennially important, yet frequently misunderstood, Dillon Rule. This episode originally aired in February 2021.

Virginia politicians like to talk about freedom and local control. So why are local governments sometimes prohibited from addressing local challenges? The reason is called the Dillon Rule. If you’re a political news junkie, you’ve probably come across this, but most Virginians stare at me blankly when I mention it. Basically, the Dillon Rule says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the General Assembly. (As opposed to “home rule,” where local governments are free to make any policy that isn’t prohibited by state law.) How does this affect our local governments and our state as a whole? To answer that question, we talk to Richard Schragger, the Parre Bowen Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. We also talk to Andreas Addison, a member of the Richmond City Council and a lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, who has dealt with the Dillon Rule as part of his legislative experience.

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This week, we tackle criminal justice and incarceration in Virginia from two angles: for one, what injustices are criminal justice reform advocates trying to fix? For two, how can we help incarcerated people stay out of prisons and live better lives?

To answer the first question, we spoke with Rob Poggenklass, interim executive director of Justice Forward Virginia about the causes of mass incarceration and the ways that legal and societal hurdles create injustice in the law.

For the second, we spoke with John Donnelly, Vice President for Instruction and Student Services at Piedmont Virginia Community College. He runs the Higher Education in Prison program, which provides a college-level education to students behind bars, allowing them to earn a college degree while incarcerated.

To learn more:

• Justice Forward Virginia
• PVCC HIgher Education in Prison Program
• College Behind Bars | PBS

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Here on the podcast, we like to keep tabs on Dominion Energy. As the largest of only 2 publicly regulated utilities in the state, Dominion is a monopoly. The caveat is that it’s a state regulated monopoly, meaning its rates and profits are monitored by a regulatory agency called the State Corporation Commission. But the SCC’s power has eroded the past few decades, thanks to a variety of bills that have been pretty soft on Dominion.

This year’s General Assembly changed that trend. In the final days of the session, the General Assembly passed sweeping legislation on Dominion. Among other things, it changes how profit margins are set and strengthens SCC oversight. That can mean pretty big things for both Dominion, and for ratepayers like us. To step us through the new legislation and its impact, we talk to Charlie Paullin, energy and environment reporter for the Virginia Mercury.

But, that’s just the latest news — and energy policy is measured more in decades than in years. One big inflection point happened back in 2020, with the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The law set a variety of energy standards, including that our energy providers be 100% renewable by 2050. But setting the standards and meeting them are two different things. So we talked to Kim Jemaine, policy director at Advanced Energy United, about the opportunities and challenges of the Clean Economy Act.

This episode is special in other ways as well. This marks the last episode of Nathan Moore as the host of Bold Dominion. Today, Nathan hands off the baton to a new host, Aaryan Balu. You’ve heard his voice before… he was Bold Dominion’s first Assistant Producer, going back more than three years. Welcome back, Aaryan!

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