Virginia kept its climate law. Dominion sees a loophole.

Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility, wants to build a huge natural gas plant in Cumberland County to help power growing data center demand. At 3 gigawatts, it would be nearly the biggest gas plant in the country. This tests Virginia's 2020 climate law, which is supposed to block new fossil fuel plants and phase out existing ones by 2045. Regulators can waive those rules if they decide the plant is needed for grid reliability, and Dominion used that same waiver last year to build a smaller gas plant nearby.

The Cumberland plant is still years from approval. Dominion needs sign-off from county officials, an air pollution permit, and approval from state utility regulators, a process the company says could stretch into 2028, with the plant not running until 2033 at the earliest. Critics, including the Southern Environmental Law Center and local group Protect Cumberland, argue Dominion decided on gas before seriously comparing it to cleaner options like batteries and solar, and that an independent study found the state could meet demand without new gas plants by leaning more on nuclear, wind, solar, and battery storage.

For homeowners, this doesn't create an immediate rebate or program change, but it matters for your electric bill. If regulators approve the plant, Dominion customers could end up paying for a multibillion-dollar facility that may need to shut down or convert to costly hydrogen fuel by 2045 to comply with the state's clean energy law, or that could keep running past that deadline under the same reliability exception Dominion is using now.