“Reclaiming Affordability“ is an op-ed series in partnership between the Independent Women and the Washington Examiner. Each day this week, a policy expert at Independent Women will tackle the top voter concern of this election cycle from a different angle, putting forth realistic solutions to the affordability crisis.
Energy affordability is a top issue for women nationwide. Although data centers are blamed for raising our utility bills, states’ Green New Deal-esque plans deserve more scrutiny. Virginia is Exhibit A.
Virginia is home to the most data centers in the United States, but it has lower electricity rates than blue states. The state’s average cost of electricity is 15.41 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) — a rate that’s 11% lower than the national average (17.24 c/kWh). An Institute for Energy Research report determined that the number of data centers doesn’t “correlate with current electricity prices.” Nonetheless, Virginians are still experiencing frustrating electricity rate increases. But it’s not the growing number of data centers that deserves the blame.
THE NEXT MINNESOTA SCAM COMES WRAPPED IN GREEN
Independent Women’s new “Reclaiming Affordability” report examines how states have near-exclusive power to regulate electricity within their borders. Congress delegated this power to states under the Federal Power Act of 1935. As a result, states control their own decisions about the creation of generation portfolios, retail price regulation, and green energy mandates.
States that implemented aggressive renewable energy plans are seeing higher energy costs, pushing blue state governors in the Northeast, for instance, to quietly water down or eliminate these mandates.
And that’s what happened in Virginia. The Virginia Clean Economy Act, enacted in 2020, mandates that the state’s largest utility transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045 and to build out the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Similar legislation in 2020 also mandated Virginia’s membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program. The State Corporation Commission, the state agency that regulates utilities, warned that the VCEA would increase energy bills by $300 annually by 2030 and by $808 annually by 2050, respectively. The SCC analyzed the VCEA and predicted Dominion Energy utility bills would increase: Offshore wind buildout would add an additional $11 to $12 per month, solar buildout would increase bills $11 to $16 per month, and RGGI membership would add about $2.50 per month to each customer bill, respectively.
From 2022 to 2026, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration slowed VCEA’s implementation, withdrew from RGGI, and prioritized new natural gas and nuclear projects. Six years later, with Democrats back in charge of Richmond, the SCC’s warnings about Virginia’s Green New Deal came true. One analysis found that residential customers are paying an additional $24 per month — nearly $300 annually — under the VCEA for offshore wind, solar buildout, energy efficiency subsidies, and for a mandate that utilities buy renewable energy certificates to reach net-zero by 2045.
Younkin’s administration gave Virginians a reprieve from this harm by withdrawing from RGGI, after the governor recognized it was adding $4.50 per month — or $54 per year — to each customer’s bill. Unfortunately, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) believes rejoining RGGI is a cost-saving measure, despite it being a carbon tax that raises energy costs, especially those in lower-income brackets.
On March 25, Spanberger announced the appointment of Southern Environmental Law Center lawyer Josephus Allmond as Virginia’s inaugural chief energy officer — a new Cabinet-level position to ensure “every Virginia family, business, and community has access to affordable, reliable energy.” Allmond believes climate change — not energy security — is the most important issue today. In the announcement, he mentioned he will promote “homegrown clean energy and battery storage” — not natural gas and nuclear power. These two primary sources account for 87% of Virginia’s net-electricity generation. More discouraging is that the incoming Allmond’s former employer, SELC, questioned small modular reactors as “unproven, risky, and expensive technology” despite evidence to the contrary.
PARTISAN ENERGY GRIDLOCK IS HOLDING THE US BACK FROM MUCH-NEEDED ‘ALL OF THE ABOVE’ APPROACH
Subsidized wind and solar energy are unreliable and expensive. In polling by Independent Women, over half (53%) of women say they feel misled by policymakers about the costs of the transition to renewable energy. The Spanberger administration and other governors who support these policies would be wise to approve new natural gas and nuclear projects that would meaningfully cut energy costs.
A tax-and-spend climate agenda won’t deliver reliability or affordability. Instead, repealing the VCEA while building new natural gas and nuclear power plants will bring actual relief.
Gabriella Hoffman is the director of the Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation. Follow her on X at @Gabby_Hoffman.