Del. Kathy Tran

Requires a background check for any firearm transfer and directs the Department of State Police (the Department) to establish a process for transferors to obtain such a check from licensed firearms dealers. A transferor who sells a firearm to another person without obtaining the required background check is guilty of a Class 6 felony. The bill also provides that a transferee who receives a firearm from another person without obtaining the required background check is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill exempts transfers (i) between immediate family members; (ii) that occur by operation of law; (iii) by the executor or administrator of an estate or by the trustee of a testamentary trust; (iv) at firearms shows in accordance with law; (v) that are part of a buy-back or give-back program; (vi) of antique firearms; (vii) that occur at a shooting range, shooting gallery, or any other area designed for the purpose of target shooting, for use during target practice, a firearms safety or training course or class, a shooting competition, or any similar lawful activity; or (viii) that are temporary transfers that (a) occur within the continuous presence of the owner of the firearm or (b) are necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm. The bill removes the provision that makes background checks of prospective purchasers or transferees at firearms shows voluntary. The bill also provides that the Department shall have three business days to complete a criminal history record information check before a firearm may be transferred. The bill establishes an appropriation for the fiscal impact of the bill and authorizes the Director of the Department of Planning and Budget to allocate such appropriation among the agencies and programs impacted by the bill.

Creates a procedure by which any attorney for the Commonwealth or any law-enforcement officer may apply to a general district court, circuit court, or juvenile and domestic relations district court judge or magistrate for an emergency substantial risk order to prohibit a person who poses a substantial risk of injury to himself or others from purchasing, possessing, or transporting a firearm. If an emergency substantial risk order is issued, a judge or magistrate may issue a search warrant to remove firearms from such person. An emergency substantial risk order shall expire on the fourteenth day following issuance of the order. The bill requires a court hearing in the circuit court for the jurisdiction where the order was issued within 14 days from issuance of an emergency substantial risk order to determine whether a substantial risk order should be issued. Seized firearms shall be retained by a law-enforcement agency for the duration of an emergency substantial risk order or a substantial risk order or, for a substantial risk order and with court approval, may be transferred to a third party 21 years of age or older chosen by the person from whom they were seized. The bill allows the complainant of the original warrant to file a motion for a hearing to extend the substantial risk order prior to its expiration. The court may extend the order for a period not longer than 180 days. The bill provides that persons who are subject to a substantial risk order, until such order has been dissolved by a court, are guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor for purchasing, possessing, or transporting a firearm; are disqualified from having a concealed handgun permit; and may not be employed by a licensed firearms dealer. The bill also provides that a person who transfers a firearm to a person he knows has been served with a warrant or who is the subject of an order is guilty of a Class 4 felony. The bill creates a computerized substantial risk order registry for the entry of orders issued pursuant to provisions in the bill. The bill establishes an appropriation for the fiscal impact of the bill and authorizes the Director of the Department of Planning and Budget to allocate such appropriation among the agencies and programs impacted by the bill.

Prohibits any state agency maintaining an information system that includes personal information from disseminating to federal government authorities information concerning the religious preferences and affiliations of data subjects for the purpose of compiling a list, registry, or database of individuals based on religious affiliation, national origin, or ethnicity, unless specifically required by state or federal law. This prohibition applies even if consent is given to disseminate such information to public institutions of higher education, state facilities under Title 37.2 (Behavioral Health and Developmental Services), and juvenile correctional facilities established pursuant to Title 66 (Juvenile Justice) or Chapter 11 (§ 16.1-226 et seq.) of Title 16.1 (Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts). As introduced, this bill is a recommendation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council.

Requires Dominion Power and Appalachian Power Company to a seek approval for a three-year program of energy conservation measures providing incentives to low income, elderly and disabled individuals in an amount not to exceed $25 million in the aggregate for the installation of measures that reduce residential heating and cooling costs and enhance the health and safety of residents. The measure also requires the utilities to develop a program of energy conservation measures providing incentives, open to low income, elderly and disabled individuals who also participate in the above-described incentive program, in an amount not to exceed $25 million in the aggregate, for the installation of equipment to develop electric energy derived from sunlight. The measure provides that the utilities may provide such incentives directly to customers or to organizations that assist low income, elderly and disabled individuals. The measure directs that in developing such incentive programs, each utility shall give consideration to low income, elderly and disabled persons residing in housing that a redevelopment and housing authority owns or controls.

Directs the State Corporation Commission to establish a pilot program that affords the opportunity for any locality to participate in net energy metering if it is a retail customer of a certain type of investor-owned electric utility. In order to qualify for the program, the locality is required to own and operate a renewable generating facility with a generating capacity of not more than two megawatts that is located on the municipality's premises and is intended primarily to offset all or part of the locality's own electricity requirements. Under the pilot program, a municipal customer-generator that generates electricity in amounts that exceed the amount of electricity consumed by the municipal customer-generator, determined annually, to credit one or more of the municipality's target metered accounts in order that the generation energy charges on the electric bills of the target's metered accounts are reduced by the amount of excess generation kilowatt hours apportioned to the metered account multiplied by the applicable generation energy rate of the target's accounts. In Appalachian Power's service territory, metered accounts of the public school division of a locality may be target accounts. The amount of generating capacity of all generating facilities that are the subject of a pilot program are limited to (i) five megawatts if Appalachian Power is the pilot program utility, though the utility may increase the amount to up to 10 megawatts or (ii) 25 megawatts if Dominion Power is the pilot program utility. Such aggregated capacities of the generation facilities that are the subject of a pilot program constitute a portion of the existing limit of the utility's adjusted Virginia peak-load forecast of the previous year that is available to municipal customer-generators, eligible customer-generators, eligible agricultural customer-generators, and small agricultural generators in the utility's service area. The duration of the pilot program is six years. This bill is identical to

Establishes requirements for net energy metering by electric cooperatives effective upon the earlier of July 1, 2019, or the effective date of implementing regulations by the State Corporation Commission. Instances where the new net energy metering program's requirements differ from those of the existing program include (i) the cap on the capacity of generating facilities, which will initially be two percent of system peak for residential customers, two percent of system peak for not-for-profit and nonjurisdictional customers, and one percent of system peak for other nonresidential customers; (ii) authorizing an electric cooperative to raise these caps up to a cumulative total of seven percent of its system peak; (iii) legalizing third-party partial requirements power purchase agreements for those retail customers and nonjurisdictional customers of an electric cooperative that are exempt from federal income taxation; and (iv) establishing registration requirements for third-party partial requirements power purchase agreements, including a self-certification system under which a provider is required to affirm certain information to Commission staff, under penalty of revocation of its registration. The measure authorizes the board of directors of an electric cooperative to adjust its rates, terms, conditions, and rate schedules governing net energy metering and prohibits a cooperative after the date of such an adjustment from collecting stand-by charges. The measure authorizes an electric cooperative to adopt a new rate schedule or rider containing demand charges based upon a net energy metering customer's noncoincident peak demand and provides for alternative caps on its net energy metering program. The measure authorizes a cooperative's fixed monthly charge covering the fixed costs of owning and operating its electric distribution system as an alternative to volumetric charges associated with demand and to rebalance among any of the fixed monthly charge, distribution demand, and distribution energy charges. The measure authorizes an investor-owned utility participating in the pilot program for community solar development to move the Commission to make its pilot program permanent. The measure also requires Dominion Power to (a) convene a stakeholder process, using an independent facilitator, to make recommendations to the utility concerning issues related to the implementation of advanced metering technology and related investments in customer information systems; (b) submit to the Commission for approval retail rate schedules designed to offer time-varying pricing; and (c) submit to the Commission for approval an incentive program for the installation of solar equipment for customers served under time-varying retail rate schedules that have advanced-metering technology equipment.

Requires any comprehensive financial aid award notification provided to a student by a public institution of higher education or private institution of higher education to meet the requirements and best practices established by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia in its Financial Aid Award Letters Policies and Guidance. This bill is identical to