Harrisonburg Vice Mayor Laura Dent was named vice chair of the National League of Cities’ 2024 Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Dent’s appointment was made public in a press release from the national advocacy organization on Friday. She will serve alongside 2024 EENR chair Ruth Grendahl, of Apple Valley, Minnesota and incumbent vice chair Brian Jones, of Union City, Georgia, according to information from the NLC website.
As vice chair of the EENR, Dent said she will play a more direct role in the committee’s actions to shape energy and climate policy at the federal level.
“Likely, I’ll take an active role in the leadership and the agendas for the meetings, along with the chair and the other vice chair,” Dent said. “The main thrust of NLC as a whole is to advocate for cities. In particular, for cities to have autonomy and to get the funding directly from the federal government to do the projects that we need — in particular, renewable energy.”
Dent added that her appointment was the result of three years of work.
“In fact, this is the third year I’ve applied,” Dent said. “The third time’s the charm. I applied again last year, and I got some glowing recommendations from my colleagues, and still didn’t get it.”
In addition to being a member of the EENR, Dent said she spent time on smaller groups within the EENR before being appointed vice chair. While she has been primarily focused on the energy sector, she added that work with the committee’s group on water resources has increased her interest on regulations surrounding Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances, also known as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment, according to information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dent also said her previous work as a technical writer gave her a unique advantage in the position.
“All those decades as a technical writer have really served me well in this work, in making sure we have the impact we want,” Dent said, adding that she worked as a technical writer for 34 years, in addition to teaching at James Madison University.
Dent said she will travel to Washington in March to advocate for climate and energy policy to Harrisonburg’s representatives on Capitol Hill.
