Virginia Energy Plan Calls for Scrapping Clean Energy Policies

By Christian Roselund

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has released a new energy plan for his state which advocates against multiple decarbonization measures, including the state’s clean energy mandates for electricity, its plans to transition to electric vehicles, and its participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The 2022 Energy Plan also calls for deployment of the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactor, creation of greater retail choice for electricity consumers and more options for small-scale solar, re-evaluation of electric rate riders, and investment in thehydrogen economy.

Much of the text of the Energy Plan is dedicated to arguments against the 2020 Clean Economy Act, which set a mandate that utilities procure an increasing share of zero-carbon generation to reach 100% by 2050. The Plan calls for a re-evaluation of the Act in 2023 and every five years. The plan’s central critique of the Clean Economy Act is that to reach the plan’s goals, the state will have to shutter its natural gas generation, which it describes as baseload. This is an imprecise description, as across the United States gas plants are typically run as a combination of baseload, “mid-merit” (often operating, sometimes not) and “peaker” (operating during periods of limited power supply and/or very high demand) plants.

This inaccurate use of terminology in the plan is accompanied by a generous application of outdated energy concepts that have been used to argue against renewable energy. The plan appears to conflate the terms “baseload” and “dispatchable,” while arguing that the shift to wind and solar will result in reduced reliability. In doing so, the plan downplays the potential of batteries to deal with the intermittency of wind and solar and dismisses hydrogen-powered generation to provide dispatchable power as “unproven.”

Youngkin, a member of the Republican Party, was elected in 2021 and replaced Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat. The Republican Party has generally been opposed to clean energy mandates and many Republican politicians openly deny the scientific consensus around man-made climate change. Governor Youngkin’s approach is different; he acknowledges that climate change is a threat to Virginia, but often opposes policies to mitigate emissions.

However, Youngkin’s plans to scrap the Clean Economy Act may end up as no more than hot air for the time being. Clean Economy Act is a state law and therefore changes to its requirements require approval by both houses of the Virginia Legislature. While the Virginia House has a Republican Majority, the Virginia Senate is currently controlled by the Democratic Party.

Source: 2022 Virginia Energy Plan (Virginia Department of Energy)