Virginia’s governor announces plans to address high energy costs

For months now, Virginians have been demanding action to reduce their energy bills. Gov. Abigail Spanberger proposed a new long-term plan.

Spanberger announced her plan to reduce energy costs on Thursday, during a mandated budget plan presented every four years. The plan calls on the data center industry to cover the incremental price increases that their demand creates.

The plan also leans into solar energy generation and storage, and tries to get Virginia away from its reliance on natural gas as the largest source of fuel to create electricity.

The plan is going to help lower costs, but it will need legislation to become real policy, so it’s going to take some time.

When the cost of natural gas goes up, we pay for it in our bills. Past spikes have been so significant that the state has made Dominion spread the added costs out over several years.

“Virginians are now paying for gas that we bought and consumed years ago and that’s clearly gonna keep happening,” said Del. Rip Sullivan, whose district includes parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties. “It’s like putting things on a credit card. What this plan will do, and what the Clean Economy Act was always designed to do, is trying to ween Virginia off of the kinds of energy that requires expensive fuel — unpredictably priced fuel — and try to make everyone’s bill more predictable and, of course, lower.”

Republicans are blasting Spanberger’s plan, saying it will drive up costs for Virginians. They also say this plan calls for hundreds of thousands of acres of solar farms that people won’t want covering Virginia.

Ultimately, the details will be hammered out in the legislature starting early next year.