The "VCEA" includes
one of the largest energy
storage targets in the
country at 2.4 GW by 2035.
VCEA requires Virginia’s
electric utilities and
competitive suppliers
to generate electricity
from 100% renewable
energy by 2050,
passed on the same day
that Dominion Energy,
the state’s largest utility,
announced its goal
of achieving net-zero
emissions by 2050.
The Virginia Clean
Economy Act passed
as House Bill 1526
and Senate Bill 85.
The Act incorporates
clean energy directions
that the Governor
issued in Executive
Order Forty-Three
in September 2019.
The Act establishes
a carbon dioxide
cap-and-trade program
to reduce emissions
from power plants,
in compliance with
the Regional Greenhouse
Gas Initiative (RGGI).
The Department of
Environmental Quality
will establish and operate
an auction program
to sell allowances
into a market-based
trading program.
Carbon dioxide
has been deemed
a pollutant.
The legislation prevents
the Virginia State
Corporation Commission
from approving
“any investor-owned utility
to own, operate, or construct
any electric generating unit
that emits carbon as
a byproduct of combusting
fuel to generate electricity”
until the state legislature
has had a chance to review
a report from the Air
Pollution Control Board.
There are escape clauses
allowing fossil-fuel energy
just in case the 100%
carbon-free dream
fails in the real world.
Dominion Virginia Power
now says it may need
to import energy from
pollution-intensive sources
out of state, even though
nuclear power is part of
the permitted energy mix.
Get ready for acres of
environmentally destructive
solar panel installations
which will fail to meet
energy demand in the
midst of winter, while
decimating native habitat
and leaching toxic
chemicals into the soil.
Trust that the air-conditioner
will work during a summer lull
in ocean breezes when those
European-built, experimental
offshore wind turbines
produce little electricity.
Trust that the Atlantic
hurricane season does no
t cause them to shut down
in a self-preservation
safety mode just when
you need electric power.
Trust that servicing
those giga-windmills
in a most hostile
saltwater corrosive
environment does
not take them
off-line too often.
Trust that those
envisioned giga-battery
storage complexes,
for when the sun
doesn’t shine, and
the wind doesn’t not
blow, can actually be built.
Trust that the tons
of rare earth minerals
needed to build
such batteries can be
sourced, and that
such battery installations
do not become ticking
fire and explosion
environmental
time bombs.
Whatever the outcomes,
Dominion can pass on
these costs to their
captive consumers.
Virginia seems to be
vying with California
for the title of creator
of the most destructive
and unreliable energy
policy at the highest
cost to its citizens
and industry.
The coronavirus economy
caused California Governor
.Gavin Newsom to propose
budget cuts include canceling
billions of dollars in climate
change spending.
Virginia’s green plans
appear unchanged.
Expect needlessly
increased energy
costs for local
governments
and the public.
Natural gas and
petroleum are at
low prices, yet
Virginia’s new
energy plan
has promised
increased energy
costs.
By the target date
of 2045, the authors
of this legislation
will probably
(hopefully?)
be out of office
and have no fear
of facing the voters.
The Act establishes:
Establishes renewable portfolio standards.
The Act requires Dominion Energy Virginia to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2045 and Appalachian Power to be 100 percent carbon-free by 2050. It requires nearly all coal-fired plants to close by the end of 2024.
Establishes energy efficiency standards.
The Act declares energy efficiency pilot programs to be “in the public interest.” It creates a new program to reduce the energy burden for low-income customers, and it requires the Department of Social Services and the Department of Housing and Community Development to convene stakeholders to develop recommendations to implement this program. The Act sets an energy efficiency resource standard, requiring third party review of whether energy companies meet savings goals.
Advances offshore wind.
The Act provides that 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind generation is “in the public interest.” It requires Dominion Energy Virginia to prioritize hiring local workers from historically disadvantaged communities, to work with the Commonwealth to advance apprenticeship and job training and to include an environmental and fisheries mitigation plan.
Advances solar and distributed generation.
The Act establishes that 16,100 megawatts of solar and onshore wind is “in the public interest.” The law expands “net metering,” making it easier for rooftop solar to advance across Virginia. The new law requires Virginia’s largest energy companies to construct or acquire more than 3,100 megawatts of energy storage capacity.