Can NextEra-Dominion Merger Solve the Virginia Energy Challenges that the 2026 General Assembly Just Made Worse?
5/19/2026 — Assuming Dominion Energy Virginia is indeed absorbed into an expanded NextEra Energy, the more things change the more they may stay the same. The average consumer might see no real difference in their service or their cost. This step was probably inevitable. Credit (or blame) the massive electricity demand growth facing Virginia, especially in the Dominion […]
Assembly and Spanberger Made Zero Progress on Virginia’s Worsening Energy Challenges
5/18/2026 — In advance of the 2025 election, the Jefferson Forum outlined in this June commentary the energy challenges facing Virginia. New Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the General Assembly have now concluded work on the 2026 energy legislation and Virginia has made zero progress – and may be losing ground. Ignore the political posturing coming from Capitol Hill […]
Do Data Centers Actually Reduce or Slow the Growth of Energy Costs?
For several years, opponents of data center growth in Virginia have advanced a simple political narrative: data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, therefore they “must” be driving up electric bills for ordinary Virginians. It is an emotionally intuitive and persuasive argument. It is also increasingly unsupported by the evidence. A new analysis from the Institute for Energy Research directly examined electricity […]
The Virginia General Assembly Passed Nine Bills to Increase Electricity Costs
The 2026 Virginia General Assembly has passed at least nine separate new laws that will increase the cost of your electricity. Not one of the bills creates a single megawatt of additional energy for our use. Most of the bills create new ways for the utilities to take money from all their ratepayers and spend it […]
Your Electricity Bill is the General Assembly’s New Favorite Piggy Bank
Key energy legislation poised to pass the 2026 General Assembly will increase your future electricity bills, not lower them. They will worsen price increases already caused by the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which passed the last time Virginia was under one party control. As the Assembly crosses its first deadline, with each chamber now able to […]
Legislators Not Curious About Cost, Safety or Efficiency As Massive Battery Mandate Rushes Toward Approval
Today, a Senate committee is scheduled to take up the bill directing Virginia’s two investor-owned utilities to propose huge battery installations that will cover square miles of ground, cost ratepayers billions of dollars, and produce zero energy to power our homes and businesses. The bill has Governor Abigail Spanberger’s endorsement. So far, legislators have been in a “see, […]
A “Free” Heat Pump Conversion for Oil and Propane Customers, Paid for by Virginia Ratepayers
A free heat pump for thousands of Virginians who are now using oil or propane to heat their homes, paid for by Virginia’s general population of electricity ratepayers. That is the goal of legislation that passed its first hurdle in a House of Delegate subcommittee Tuesday on a bipartisan vote. House Bill 2 is the same as legislation vetoed last year by former Governor Glenn Youngkin (R). The language linked is a substitute adopted […]
Proposed Commission Would Expand Beyond Electricity to Oversee All Forms of Energy in Virginia
A legislative commission created in 2008 to oversee one narrow function of two electric utilities is about to expand its scope of oversight of all forms of energy in Virginia, including nuclear, coal, and natural gas. It will be the legislative counterpart – and counterweight – to the politically independent State Corporation Commission. The bill to […]
The VCEA Renewable Certificate Mandate Reduces Energy Affordability
A key, but poorly understood, provision of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is a requirement that Virginia’s two largest electric utilities must either generate or purchase a growing number of renewable energy certificates (RECs). Eventually their RECs must equal 100% of their non-nuclear generation. What are RECs and why do they matter to you? Put simply, […]
Dominion Describes Efforts to Limit Turbine Radar Interference
Dominion Energy Virginia’s team building its offshore wind facility spent years working with the U.S. Navy and the air defense agency NORAD on ways to mitigate the problems that would be caused by the 836-foot-tall turbines, reaching several agreements, the utility has told a federal court. The company – meaning ultimately the company’s customers – […]