Virginia session sets up clean energy investment, Dominion regulations fall flat

Virginia lawmakers passed bills during the 2020 legislative session that unlock billions of dollars in potential clean energy investments and continue shifting off of fossil fuels, although proposals to challenge the power of the state's largest electric utility gained little traction. Bills that sought to open up the state to retail competition, curb contributions from Virginia's investor-owned utilities and put stricter regulations on utility earnings were either weakened or passed over. Dominion Energy Inc. still has a "very strong tool in the toolkit" in Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw and the "powerful" Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia, said in a March 13 phone interview. "They still have an ability to use the legislature through that tool, but the wall that that tool provided in the past has been breached and we were able to get around it in a couple places," Gilmore said.