It is unacceptable that Republican leaders in the Virginia House of Delegates are playing dirty politics when it comes to one of the most serious issues facing the commonwealth. Climate change has been declared to be a threat by the military, it’s negatively affecting our community’s public health and worsening current inequality. Sea level rise caused by climate disruption is already impacting our family down in Hampton Roads with worsening flooding and increasing damage from flooding.

Unable to get their way with legislation blocking state implementation of the Clean Power Plan, one of President Obama’s flagship strategies to protect public health and limit harmful carbon pollution from power plants, Tea Party-aligned lawmakers have hijacked the state budget with an amendment preventing our state’s environmental experts from working on a climate action plan until the conclusion of a legal challenge at the federal level.

This plot reflects a growing and unsettling partisanship in Virginia’s legislature. Republican leadership in the House of Delegates should be ashamed for valuing polluters over people. An overwhelming majority of Virginians favor action on climate through the Clean Power Plan. The time to act is today. Too much is at stake to be playing petty politics.

KENDYL CRAWFORD

Richmond

The writer is conservation program coordinator for the Virginia Sierra Club.