Labor and Commerce Subcommittee #3 advanced a broad slate of utility and energy bills — including low-income rate assistance expansions, grid planning reforms, EV charging infrastructure guardrails, and a net metering fix — while unanimously tabling a bill that would have required an independent RFP process before utilities could build new fossil fuel plants, over sharp reliability and jurisdictional objections.
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Delegate Tran argued the bill simply asks for an independent, competitive, transparent process before building fossil fuel plants, and that having the SEC hire the administrator rather than the utility makes it genuinely independent. Chrissy Noonan (Dominion Energy) countered that the bill substitutes the judgment of the SCC with that of an independent monitor, causing the commission to lose its ability to make ultimate determinations on system needs, reliability, and security, and that a megawatt is not a megawatt. Delegate Kilgore argued that during recent cold weather solar was not even in the picture and that Virginia must ensure reliable dispatchable generation.
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“Voices. We also support the bill. Walton Shepherd, NRDC we support anyone here to testify against this bill. Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Chrissy Noonan with 7 Hill Strategy Group on behalf of Dominion Energy and we do oppose the bill. I would submit to you that this bill substitutes the judgment of the State Corporation Commission with the judgment of an independent monitor. The commission affirmed in its recent CERC order that there is a narrow but viable pathway to approval of carbon emitting generation when it's necessary and only when it's necessary to address threats to reliability of electric service. They also affirmed and demonstrated that they already have the authority to require an independent monitor because they ordered just that and they did it because they thought it was”
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Sign in to subscribeLadies and gentlemen, let's get started. We missed by two minutes what we were trying to do. But mark 7:32. We're all tired, it's late. But I want to make sure everyone does get a chance to be heard this evening. Sounds like a Bob Seger song. The good news is, at the risk of jinxing us, we were talking in the back about that. I know a lot of people have been working really hard on these bills. While we get frustrated as we take things by, it does have the upside of occasionally getting things worked out. So I'm hoping that a good number of our bills tonight will be able to complete in in fairly short order. The ground rules are as they always are, but maybe just a little more so tonight until things get really crazy. I'm not going to put you on a clock, but I want you to think as if you are on a clock and shoot for sort of 30 seconds for your testimony. When you're testifying, let us know who you are and quickly why you like or don't like the bill. We don't have a lot of online testimony…
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