The Virginia legislative session this year is going to be a tough one. Both traditional and social media were set ablaze with the recent gun rally in Richmond reflecting broad unrest over dozens of gun control bills in both chambers of the General Assembly. The Virginia Institute for Public Policy quickly understood that this was only the beginning. From reinstating the estate tax and eliminating the value of every Virginian’s vote with the National Popular Vote Compact, to effectively repealing the Commonwealth’s 70-year-old right-to-work legislation, the liberty movement has its hands full.

This is not to say that there aren’t real opportunities for positive movement, however. Alongside the bad, there are some solid efforts in the realm of healthcare innovation, competitive energy, and occupational licensure reform that all show strong support in both parties. It seems both libertarian leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats are reaching for a consensus that special carve-outs and privileges for certain industries, businesses, and individuals is not right for the future of Virginia. The Virginia Institute is in complete agreement.

Specific to competitive energy, the Virginia Energy Reform Coalition recently held a press conference where Virginia Institute’s President, Lynn Taylor, articulated, “Virginia stands to ride the very razor’s edge of a wave of innovation in the electricity market, but a 120-year-old monopoly distribution model is not going to be what takes us into the future.” What Virginia needs is for “space to be made” for the kind of competition that creates the goods and services we most need, and even some that we didn’t even know we wanted.