Virginia mayors: Time to respond to climate change

[peoli]

WILLIAMSBURG, Va.

– Weary of debating the causes of climate change, mayors and other elected officials from Virginia's battered coastal regions gathered here last week and agreed that local impacts have become serious enough to present a case for state action.

"We are here to ask for your assistance," said Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim. "It's a threat we can no longer afford to ignore."

"The fact of the matter is, we've got rising waters," Watkins added. "We've got recurrent flooding. There are more 100-year storms in the last 15 years than we've ever seen. Somebody has got to deal with it." Watkins said he would be proposing a state legislative study commission in the next legislative session.

"Virginia's coastal communities were being left alone and blind to wander across an increasingly dangerous landscape by inaction on the part of federal and state government," said Skip Styles of Wetlands Watch, one of the non-governmental organizations involved in the conference and working on coastal issues.

http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/09/virginia-rising-seas

[ananda]

1. Reality bites.

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[hatrack]

2. Snort! VA Beach GOP Mayor endorsing McAuliffe

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms, a Republican, is set to endorse Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor. It marks the first time Sessoms has crossed party boundaries to publicly endorse a Democrat for governor in his 20 years in politics in Virginia’s oceanfront haven, which is the state’s largest city. He has, however, contributed marginally to three Democrats years ago.

Sessoms is to make the announcement official Tuesday while touring the Virginia Beach Advanced Technology Center with McAuliffe and Norfolk’s mayor, Paul Fraim, McAuliffe’s campaign announced Monday afternoon.

It comes after one of northern Virginia’s most influential business groups, the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s political action committee, endorsed Republican Ken Cuccinelli over McAuliffe on Monday, giving the Republican campaign that had been struggling a timely boost.

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gop-virginia-beach-mayor-will-sessoms-to-endorse-democrat-mcauliffe-in-va-governor-race/2013/09/16/60abd3fe-1efa-11e3-9ad0-96244100e647_story.html