Transformative Energy Plan Puts the Public Back in Charge of Virginia’s Energy Future
Campaign Finance Reform, Scrutiny of The NextEra-Dominion acquisition Is Critical to Executing Plan’s Vision to Lower Bills & Transition to Clean Energy
October 1, 2026
A statement from Executive Director Brennan Gilmore:
“Governor Spanberger’s 2026 Virginia Energy Plan marks a real shift in how Virginia makes energy policy. For decades, utility monopolies have shaped the laws, plans and models that determine Virginia’s energy future, focused on maximizing their own profits. The Governor’s plan rightly shifts Virginia’s energy planning and decisions away from utility boardrooms and back to accountable public officials.
For the first time, the Commonwealth is running its own energy modeling in-house. Policymakers — not industry lobbyists — produced independent, detailed analysis of the best paths forward, centering affordability and the public interest. The plan calls for state-led energy planning and infrastructure site identification. It also proposes exploring a state-run procurement process for renewable energy that evaluates utility-owned and third-party resources side by side on least-cost, least-risk criteria, rather than favoring utility ownership. Utilities could still bid, and win, when their projects are the cheapest option.
The plan acknowledges that Virginia’s century-old regulatory model pays utilities for spending capital, not delivering results. It recommends evaluating the tying of utility returns to a market benchmark, reducing the share of expensive equity that customers finance and advancing performance-based regulation. These reforms are critical to lowering Virginians’ electric bills.
The data center industry is placing extreme demand on the state’s energy infrastructure, and most of the energy infrastructure expansion addressed in the plan is to serve the industry. The plan acknowledges that data centers should bear the cost of that infrastructure, instead of passing it on to Virginia families and small businesses.
Dominion Energy’s own plans project residential electricity prices rising roughly 60% over the next decade. Alternatively, the Governor’s plan offers a path to stay on track with Virginia’s clean energy goals while ensuring energy affordability. Additionally, it recognizes the need for greater attention to environmental justice and the disproportionate impacts of new energy infrastructure in marginalized communities.
Significantly, some of the policy recommendations from the plan have been introduced in previous legislative sessions, only to die under the weight of hefty political donations from corporations with a vested financial interest in energy decisions. As long as Virginia remains one of only four states with no laws restricting corporate campaign donations, the influence of corporate money will always remain a fundamental threat to achieving the vision of an affordable clean energy future. Notably, Governor Spanberger was elected to office without taking money from monopoly utilities.
Finally, the release of the Governor’s new energy plan comes as Virginia weighs whether to approve Florida-based NextEra’s $67 billion bid to acquire Dominion Energy. Both Dominion and NextEra have a long history of leveraging campaign contributions to gain political power and access to policymakers. In Florida, NextEra has used its political power and campaign contributions to fight rooftop solar and customer-owned energy, the very kinds of solutions the Governor’s plan rightfully promotes.”