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Will Governor Youngkin’s energy plan look anything like what the law requires?
What happens when state law requires an anti-clean energy governor to draw up a plan for a zero-carbon energy economy? We’re about to find out. Virginia gives a new governor until Oct. 1 of his first year in office to write a plan “identifying actions over a 10-year period consistent with the goal of the […]
A tale of two realities
It was the best of summers, it was the worst of summers. It was the summer the United Nations declared a healthy environment a universal human right, and a summer that shattered heat records across the globe. The U.S. enacted a historic climate bill not long after the Supreme Court struck down the Environmental Protection […]
Buckle up, folks: this federal climate bill is going to supercharge Virginia’s energy transition
On Sunday the U.S. Senate passed the historic climate legislation package hammered out between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. The House is expected to follow suit this week, giving President Joe Biden a huge win on one of his administration’s priorities and finally making good on his pledge to […]
Your electric bills are skyrocketing. Blame our failure to invest in renewable energy.
Fossil fuel prices are higher everywhere, and the effect is hitting electric bills as well as prices at the gas pump. Utilities that generate power from natural gas and coal face fuel costs two or three times as high as they were just a couple of years ago —and those costs are passed on to […]
Getting gas out of buildings is critical for climate action, but the recipe isn’t easy
I grew up with brothers, so I knew from an early age that the surest way to make friends with guys was to feed them homemade cookies. I took this strategy with me to college, commandeering the tiny kitchenette tucked into the hallway of my coed dorm. The aroma of chocolate chip cookies hot out […]
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em? Dominion Energy begins selling residential solar
Dominion Energy never used to be happy about customers producing their own energy from solar. “Hostile” is more the word that springs to mind. The company has traditionally seen privately owned solar arrays as competition: The more solar panels people put on their roofs, the less electricity they buy from their utility. But Virginia has […]
West Virginia wants to raise Virginia power bills
Most people are aware by now that inflation has hit the energy sector hard, with fossil fuels in particular skyrocketing in price over the past year. Dominion Energy Virginia, the state’s dominant utility, says it needs to charge residential customers an extra $14.93 per month on average to cover higher natural gas prices. Appalachian Power, […]
Not a great time to roll out Dominion’s pricey solar tariff
Well, that didn’t take long. A few weeks after I wrote about rising natural gas prices, Dominion Energy Virginia asked the SCC for permission to raise the price of electricity by about $9 per month for the average residential customers, citing higher fuel costs. Virginia law allows utilities to pass through its fuel costs to […]
What new Virginia laws reveal about how the natural gas industry sees its future
Natural gas is having a moment. The war in Ukraine spotlighted Europe’s heavy reliance on Russian gas and the challenge of replacing it with new supplies from elsewhere. Suddenly the Biden administration, after talking so much about the need to get off fossil fuels, wants to expand oil and gas production and boost exports of […]
Keep an eye on costs, but Virginia needs offshore wind
A massive wind farm 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach moved one giant step closer to reality last November when Dominion Energy filed its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind development plan with the State Corporation Commission. Dominion expects to begin construction on CVOW in 2024, and have all 2,587 megawatts of power connected to […]
Dominion’s proposed charge for solar program is absurdly high
A Dominion Energy customer wrote me recently to ask what her condo association could do to go solar. The building’s roof can hold many more solar panels than needed to power the needs of the common area. Is it possible to sell the excess electricity to individual residents to power their units? I get this […]
The GOP offensive against climate action begins
Even before taking office, Gov. Glenn Youngkin made two rookie mistakes: he declared his intention to pull Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative by executive order, not realizing it can only be done by legislation; and he nominated the much-reviled Trump-era EPA chief Andrew Wheeler to be his secretary of natural resources, apparently […]