DMME To Change Name To Department Of Energy

The Virginia Department of Mines Mineral and Energy will become the Virginia Department of Energy effective October 1, 2021.

The General Assembly voted for this change which also reflected a reorganization of the current agency structure in January 2021. Regulatory and enforcement programs were changed during the reorganization,  with Phil Skorupa becoming the director of the non-coal programs, mineral mining, and gas and oil.

Important Things to Remember for October 1:

• The agency will now be identified officially as the Virginia Department of Energy and the acronym DMME will be replaced with “Virginia Energy”. There will be no acronyms associated with the agency as those were all claimed.
• What was formally the Division of Mineral Mining will renamed the Mineral Mining Program, and referred to as “Mineral Mining”.
• The website www.dmme.virginia.gov will become www.energy.virginia.gov.
• Email addresses for Virginia Energy Team Members will become: firstname.lastname@energy.virginia.gov.
• Services will remain the same. Worker safety and the environment remain top priorities of the agency that will not change.

Virginia Energy hopes this transition is as easy as possible for their customers, stakeholders and the companies served. If you have any questions, please contact the Mineral Mining Team.

The new logo for Virginia Energy:

 

Additionally, because of the Agency name change appropriated by the General Assembly, sections of the Code of Virginia relating to mining are to be relocated effective October 1, 2021.

The sections of the Code of Virginia that contain the Mineral Mine Safety Laws of Virginia and the Virginia Mineral Mine Reclamation Laws will be moved from 45.1 of the Code of Virginia to 45.2 of the Code of Virginia. Simultaneously, 45.1 will be repealed and be replaced by 45.2. Please note that these sections of the laws have been renumbered and reordered during this process.

At this time, Mineral Mining is in the process of arranging and having copies of the laws affecting mineral mining operators printed or made available online. During the interim, the laws can be found by going to the Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS) under Mines Minerals and Energy or by using the following link: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title45.2/.