Report corroborates what activists and residents have been saying all along… Dominion does not need to build new fossil-fuel plants to meet demand.
RICHMOND, VA —On December 8, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) Hearing Examiner recommended the state agency reject Dominion Energy’s energy plan known as the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). Senior Hearing Examiner A. Ann Berkebile stated that she does “not recommend the Commission find the 2023 IRP to be reasonable and in the public interest.”
Victoria Higgins, Virginia director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, stated:
“The Hearing Examiner’s report corroborates what the environmental community and residents around the proposed methane gas plant in Chesterfield have been saying all along: there is no evidence to suggest that Dominion must build new fossil fuel plants to meet demand.
“On top of that, the report underscores how Dominion has utterly failed to plan for an energy future that ensures environmental justice for all.
“Finally, the report also notes that it is incumbent upon Dominion to account for the extraordinary health and economic costs we bear as a Virginia community when the company continues to build and use polluting infrastructure. It is self-evidently unreasonable and against the public interest to double down on fossil fuels with just six years left to cut U.S. emissions in half.”
The news comes shortly after CCAN’s advocacy arm, the CCAN Action Fund, commissioned a report from Gabel Associates finding that Dominion’s proposed plan to build new fossil fuel plants imposes enormous economic and social risks on Virginians, and that Dominion can meet electricity demand with clean energy instead. Read the report here.
It also comes amid months of opposition to Dominion’s proposal to build a massive new methane gas plant in Chesterfield, which is in line with the utility’s fossil fuel-friendly plan and Governor Glenn Youngkin’s 2022 Energy Plan. The proposal is not in line, however, with Virginia’s state law to phase out fossil fuels per the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
Contact:
Victoria Higgins, Virginia Director, vhiggins@chesapeakeclimate.org, 201-937-7017
KC Chartrand, Communications Director, kc@chesapeakeclimate.org, 240-620-7144
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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the oldest and largest grassroots organization dedicated exclusively to raising awareness about the impacts and solutions associated with climate change in the Chesapeake Bay region. For 20 years, CCAN has been at the center of the fight for clean energy and wise climate policy in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
