Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles offices are reopening for walk-in service three days a week.

Virginians can now visit all 75 DMV offices without an appointment each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, department officials announced Monday. Appointment-only service will be offered each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Hours vary by location.

The department closed its offices at the beginning of the pandemic and reopened in May 2020 on an appointment-only basis. The General Assembly adopted a budget during this summer’s special session that required the department to reopen customer service centers for walk-ups within two months. Sen. Chap Petersen, a Democrat representing Fairfax City, has called the DMV’s hybrid plan “not satisfactory,” because it isn’t providing walk-in service every day, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

The hybrid plan is popular with customers, according to the department, which said 77% of customers said in a survey that they want appointments to continue. More than 50 services are available online and others can be completed by mail, officials said.

More than a year after a watershed federal court ruling, Virginia is becoming a case study of whether environmental justice protections can get enshrined into law, or be stymied by legislative and regulatory fights.

In January 2020, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals slammed the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for failing to adequately study the risks of building a natural gas compressor station along the now-canceled Atlantic Coast pipeline in a community established by freed slaves after the Civil War. The landmark decision prompted DEQ to begin a rulemaking process for determining site suitability for projects seeking air permits.

The court ruling is also now gradually building momentum behind Virginia legislators’ efforts to protect low-income and minority communities in the state, supporters say.

“Environmental justice is a huge priority,” state Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D) told E&E News in a recent interview. “When you know that there are communities disproportionately impacted by these projects and you do nothing about it, that’s definitely not justice.”

“I think it’s what the 4th Circuit case showed us is without more guidance from the Legislature, I’m not sure they’re going to quite do it,” she said.

A bill McClellan co-sponsored in the Virginia General Assembly this year would have required companies planning new major industrial pollution sources, like compressor stations and landfills, to prove they had conducted outreach to environmental justice communities before applying for a DEQ permit.

The bill had come out of a recommendation by the state’s Council on Environmental Justice, an advisory body designed to study concerns of low-income and minority communities.

“You’ve got to really consider the impact the proposed project would have on the community,” said McClellan, who represents Richmond. The bill did not advance out of committee, but McClellan said she’s optimistic about the future of environmental justice reform in Virginia.

Three Virginia lawmakers say schools hoping to receive state dollars next year should be required to open for in-person learning in the fall.

At the Science Museum of Virginia on Wednesday, state Sens. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond; Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico; and Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, announced their intention to introduce a budget amendment this week to make state school funding contingent on a plan to welcome students back to classrooms, regardless of COVID-19 spread.

As of last month, 52 out of 132 school divisions were operating on a fully remote basis, according to the state education department; many have remained virtual since Gov. Ralph Northam last March ordered buildings shuttered to mitigate the spread of the potentially lethal virus.

The measure would streamline the requirements for health professionals who want to volunteer, and help identify more locations where the state could establish mass vaccination sites. It provides civil and criminal immunity to individuals and organizations acting within the provisions of the bill.

“I have people from the medical community that want to help,” Dunnavant told members of the committee. “This is what they do. Our dentists, our doctors, our nurses, our nurse anesthetists, our NPs, this is what they do. They help people and they want to help us get this job done.”The legislation has bipartisan support.

“Getting people vaccinated in the most efficient way possible is in our joint interest,” said Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax). “I hope every senator will read this legislation and if they see fit, will put their name on it and take credit for it.”

Lawmakers are considering a bill aimed at making sure guns are not available to people who shouldn’t have them. Delegate Elizabeth Guzman is a Democrat from Prince William County who introduced a bill to create new penalties for gun owners who don’t secure their firearms from people who live with them and aren’t allowed to have a gun.

“If we’re going to make the decision to live with someone, for the safety of our families, we will ensure that there is a criminal background check if it’s going to be a stranger,” Guzman explained.

“Anyone you live with? They should do a criminal background check,” asked Petersen. That question was from Senator Chap Petersen, a Democrat from Fairfax City who’s critical of the idea that people can be held liable for guns that are in the possession of someone they live with.