thomas jefferson the art of power review

First is the revised demand forecast by the regional electricity marketplace PJM, showing far greater growth in the data center industry and the need for more electricity as transportation and other sectors abandon fossil fuels under climate alarmism pressures. Second was a close call just before Christmas as demand for energy spiked in a cold spell, with PJM’s members almost replicating the blackout problems Texas suffered a few years back. Youngkin and the Dominion plan summary point to two major developments since last year’s IRP discussion. Virginia Democrats are firmly opposed to and have voted down efforts to delay retiring the existing natural gas plants, let alone adding new ones. The fate of that idea may rest with the voters. The review process will take months and may not be complete until after the November elections.

Release of the IRP was followed that evening by a news release praising it from Governor Glenn Youngkin (R), something that normally doesn’t accompany these bureaucratic undertakings. But Youngkin has pinned his political fortunes to what he calls the “moon shot” of introducing more nuclear power into Virginia’s mix, and his 2022 energy plan also supported continued and even expanded use of natural gas to maintain system reliability. Dominion did both. On the same day, Dominion also announced an application to change how it will collect fuel costs from customers, and some changes in the structure of its base rates and rate adjustment clauses. The radical turn in the IRP is the bigger news, however. Future columns will address those other two proposals. The previous 2022 plan did include the possibility of the utility building additional nuclear generation, with the first of four small modular reactors proposed to come online about 2042. This plan advances that schedule by eight years, to 2034, and calls for six reactors in all with 1,600 megawatts of capacity. It wants to add 2,900 megawatts of new gas plants in all. That proposal will prove anathema to the climate alarmism movement that imposed the Virginia Clean Economy Act just three years ago, demanding carbon-emissions free electricity by 2045. The alternative plan that the company seems to be pointing to as preferred includes adding natural gas generation as early as 2028, an idea not even hinted at in the previous plan just a year ago.

With the filing of its most recent integrated resource plan (IRP) on May 1, proposing how to meet customer needs out 25 years, it has made those warnings concrete. Dominion Energy Virginia has long been warning, albeit somewhat quietly, that the dream of running Virginia’s economy on nothing but solar, wind and battery power was not based on reality.

Thomas jefferson the art of power review