Blame for power cost hike falls to lawmakers
Virginia’s General Assembly has not left the State Corporation Commission with much authority over electricity regulation in Virginia, but it retains the power to compel the production of crucial information. As the ink was drying on new state legislation mandating huge investments in solar and offshore wind, the commission asked: Just what will this all cost customers?
The question was to be answered in the integrated resource plan for the next 15 years filed by Dominion Energy Virginia for the SCC’s review. The SCC asked for more granular projected cost data than usually appears in those filings, and on May 1 the plan was submitted. Newspapers all over Virginia had headlines about projected increases over 10 years of $46 per month ($550 per year) for customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours monthly.
Legislators who voted for the bill that all but mandated those price increases were quick with their denials of responsibility. The following appeared on Twitter May 2 from Norfolk Democrat Del. Jay Jones: “Blaming the GA is easy and lazy, but incorrect. Bills rise because Dominion (yes, them not us) sets terms of regulation by SCC and rigs the game for itself annually.”
Affixing blame on legislators is not only correct, it is essential. Virginians must understand that Dominion rigs the game by writing and passing favorable legislation.
Jones’ denial of responsibility was doubly disappointing because during the 2020 session he had championed a different piece of legislation restoring the State Corporation Commission’s traditional rate-making authority. That bill failed, but it was a noble effort and its premise was that since 2007, in a series of bills, the assembly has allowed Dominion to slip the regulatory leash.
Frankly, it is hard to understand how Jones could sponsor that excellent bill and then vote for the exact opposite: a new bill further weakening consumer protections.
It is the mandate of the General Assembly in that bill, outlined well in the massive integrated resource filing, that up to 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind turbines be installed off Virginia. The SCC will be powerless to challenge whether it is necessary, reasonable, or prudent. That is the single largest element of the coming storm of higher electricity costs.
Under the same blank check written for the utility, Dominion is also planning about 31,400 megawatts of new solar fields, which will cover a land area 25% larger than Fairfax County. In a filing filled with statements that rise to the level of high comedy, this comment is the funniest: “Utilization of such a large land mass area for energy generation will likely encounter local and environmental permitting issues.”
These new renewable projects will be built to operate with — not replace — the utility’s existing fleet of natural gas and coal-burning generators. The environmental promise was a sham.
There are plenty of other ways the bill will add costs on consumers. One sign that legislators understood the cost impact is something else the bill does. It creates a new payment assistance plan to subsidize electricity bills for low income customers, paid for by a surcharge on everyone else.
There is another reason to be concerned about Jones’ denial. He is now embarked on a quest to become attorney general of Virginia, a post that carries with it another title: Virginia consumer counsel.
The staff of that division has diligently sought to defend consumer interests and bolster the utility regulatory process at the commission. How Jones will do that job is now a legitimate question.
Plenty of politicians have had to claw back Twitter pronouncements, sprinkle some salt and try to swallow them. Harder to erase will be this: a major campaign promise as Democrats took over the assembly last year was that they would no longer do the utility’s bidding. Then they very much did, with Jones voting aye.