Sic Semper Tyrannis, Glenn Youngkin Edition

By Kindler

Virginia’s state flag and seal feature a badass woman standing victoriously atop the dictator she just bested, with the motto Sic Semper Tyrannis – “Thus always to tyrants.”  And MAGA Governor Glenn Youngkin just learned that we mean it.

That seal sits appropriately at the top of the decision issued this week by Circuit Court Judge C. Randall Lowe voiding Youngkin’s tyrannical act of pretending that he could defy a state law that required the Commonwealth to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).  Youngkin pretended that he could nullify a law by means of an executive branch regulation, which as the judge schooled the governor…is not how it works in America.

The Democratic General Assembly and Governor Ralph Northam passed this law in 2020 for very good reasons.  This includes the proven track record of RGGI in the northeast, where member states have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 44% while benefiting from the millions of dollars in utility fees that go towards investments in climate disaster resilience and energy efficiency – which in turn create jobs and slash energy bills and hopefully, future disaster recovery costs.

In the short time that Virginia was a member of RGGI before the Youngkin shutdown, the Commonwealth gained more than $830 for such grants while achieving a 20% reduction in power plant emissions.

But tyrants by their nature don’t care about the public interest. They care about protecting themselves and their rich buddies, be they landed gentry or billionaire fossil fuel donors.

At a time when another would-be dictator slouches back to Washington, across the Potomac, it is immensely important for all the key players in our democracy to assert their fundamental rights and responsibilities under our system, to keep providing the checks and balances that eternally remind us that no, the king is not the law, it’s actually the law that is king.

So thank you, Judge Lowe – with no thanks to you, Governor Youngkin, Attorney General Miyares and crew. Now let’s go back to massively cutting energy use and emissions like the damn law says.

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