If the Trump administration repeals the Clean Power Plan, what justification is there for an electricity rate freeze in Virginia?
Is it time to reverse the rate freeze on electricity rates in Virginia? If President-elect Donald Trump revokes the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, author of SB 1095, thinks it would be.
Two years ago, no one knew what to make of the Clean Power Plan, an Environmental Protection Agency initiative that compelled electric utilities to reduce emissions of carbon-dioxide in the cause of fighting Global Warming. No one in the 2014 General Assembly session knew what the final regulations would look like or which of four broad regulatory options the Commonwealth of Virginia might adopt. If the plan required Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power to close coal-fired power plants and replace generating capacity with gas, solar or nuclear, the utilities warned that rates could spike higher. On the other hand, the plan might not survive legal challenge.
At the time, it made sense to many legislators to freeze base electric rates until the dust settled. Since then, Trump has declared his skepticism of Global Warming, promised to roll back regulations hurting the coal industry, and nominated a new EPA chief who, as attorney general of Oklahoma, had filed suit to block the Clean Power Plan. However, it is not clear how quickly the plan, was implemented under a novel reading of the Clean Air Act after extensive administrative proceedings, could be repealed.
Peterson says it is time for a second look at the freeze. “You really can’t say, ‘Oh we have a federal government that’s trying to put coal out of business, so we need to give power plants a financial break.’ Sorry, that narrative doesn’t work anymore,” the Associated Press quotes him as saying.
Large industrial customers say the freeze could cost Dominion customers $2.4 billion in unnecessary payments by 2022, when the freeze expires, and Appalachian Power customers another $300 million. But Thomas Wohlfarth, a Dominion senior vice president, said those estimates are based on overly optimistic projections about the true cost of providing electricity.
Moreover, Wohlfarth said, Trump can’t just dispense with carbon regulations with the stroke of a pen. “We’re not of the opinion that carbon regulation is going to go away.”
Update: Well, well, this blog post had the shortest relevance of just about anything I’ve ever published on Bacon’s Rebellion. When I checked Richmond Sunlight a couple of hours ago, the bill was still alive. Now I have been informed that the bill died in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on a 12 to 2 vote.
Update: Peterson is vowing that “the fight isn’t over to stop excessive profits for regulated utilities.” In what may be the most quotable quote so far this session, he said: “If you use electricity in Virginia, you should want this bill. If you live in a teepee, you probably don’t care.”
Update: Yikes, the updates are flowing fast and furious. The rate freeze “has provided direct benefits to low-income seniors and military veterans through the expansion of Energy Share, and saved customers millions of dollars in costs while keeping Dominion’s rates well below the national average, which are lower now than before SB 1349 was passed,” said Dominion spokesman David Botkins.
“The broader issue of uncertainty around how EPA will regulate carbon is increasing, given the current Clean Power Plan may be replaced with an alternative that would then be subject to a new round of challenges,” Botkins said.
