Passed during a Democratic trifecta in 2020, the Virginia Clean Economy Act was viewed as a monumental step toward modernizing the state’s dirty power generation.
But in the face of President Donald Trump’s alternative energy funding cuts and data center-fueled power demand, the most powerful Democrats in Virginia’s legislature appear open to reviewing the law.
“We went a long while with more supply than we had demand, now it's flipped upside down. We have much more demand than we have supply,” the top Democrat in the House of Delegates, Speaker Don Scott, told Radio IQ after a meeting of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation, or CEUR, held at the General Assembly building Thursday. “And so, we have to respond. And I think sometimes you have policies we have to examine and make sure we meet demand and keep costs low.”
The statement came after Asim Haque with PJM Interconnection gave a presentation on just how much energy demand has increased.
“An increase in demand is a very good thing. It means progress, growth, but that increase in demand has to be met with a commensurate increase in supply,” Haque warned.
PJM is the company responsible for connecting every other power company in the region, including Virginia. His presentation showed projections for power demand back to 2020 when the VCEA was passed, then about 150,000 megawatts. Now, in 2025, that projection is closer to 210,000 megawatts.
“Effectively, what you’re seeing is… a substantial increase in demand,” Haque said, linking it to an increase in data centers across the Commonwealth.
Meanwhile the Trump administration is seeking to radically roll back solar and alternative energy investments. If the plan passed by House Republicans in Washington Thursday succeeds, Ben Norris from the Solar Energy Industries Association said impacts could be catastrophic for his industry.
“It will be virtually impossible for new solar and storage projects to utilize federal tax credits beginning 60 days after enactment,” he said. “Even projects that have already begun construction, if they’re not placed in service by the end of 2028, the eligibility for those projects also goes away.”
So, what about other alternative energy production? Brittney West, with power plant builders The AES Corporation was similarly pessimistic about new, non-fossil fuel projects.
“Despite the VCEA, despite the demand that exists, we can no longer build [in Virginia],” she warned, saying millions of dollars in early investment would be required and the state has already failed to address issues that could have helped.
“The question is, what can we get in the ground now? It’s solar, its batteries,” she said. “If you want developers back to Virginia, we’ve got to bring some predictability, quicker permitting.”
But Scott, whose face oscillated between a grimace and exhaustion during the two-hour meeting, appeared more concerned with ratepayers' pocketbooks in the short term than the long-term goals of Virginia’s landmark environmental law.
“We have to look at everything,” he said. “There are no Holy Grails when we’re trying to keep energy reliable and costs down.”
All of this will be music to the ears of Republicans like Senator Mark Obenshain. Long critical of the VCEA, he and his compatriots have argued the law has increased energy prices, especially in rural parts of the state that make up their deep-red districts.
Obenshain hopes the legislature will address the issue before rates spiral out of control.
“The VCEA is imposing artificial constraints on our generation capacity and is creating many of these challenges,” Obenshain told Radio IQ.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell was also open to the grim task of reviewing a law his party once held up as untouchable. In a text message, he told Radio IQ power demand is set to rise 50% over original projections in place during the VECA’s passage. He added “we need to reexamine the law.”
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
