Maria Alvarado, a representative of the Central American Solidarity Association, or CASA, speaks at the Friends of Chesterfield People’s Hearing Tuesday. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
CHESTERFIELD – About 150 Chesterfield County residents showed up Tuesday to again oppose Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed gas plant that the utility says is needed to meet rising energy demand in the state.
The Friends of the Chesterfield, a group formed to push back against the plant, held their own “People’s Hearing” in lieu of a public hearing they’ve requested but that the County Board of Supervisors hasn’t held.
Maria Alvarado, a representative of the Central American Solidarity Association, or CASA, a group advocating on behalf of Black, Latino, Afro-descendent, indigenous, and immigrant communities, called the planned plant “a ticking time bomb” threatening residents’ health.
“Every breath we take is at risk. It is not just about today, it is about long term health and survival of our community,” Alvarado said in Spanish, a translator rendering her words in English to the crowd.
Sustained opposition
Tuesday’s hearing was the latest pushback against the 1,000 megawatt natural gas plant that Dominion proposed in 2023. The utility has said the plant will provide power when solar and wind can’t amid increasing electricity demands from data center development, electrification of vehicles and Virginians’ everyday use.
Earlier this month, environmental and community groups, including the local Sunrise Movement, protested outside Dominion’s Thomas F. Farrell II building in downtown Richmond before dropping off a letter for Dominion Chair, President and CEO Bob Blue asking for alternative energy sources.
Since the inception of initial plans to build the plant at the James River Industrial Park on Battery Brooke Parkway, community and environmental groups have lambasted the project, saying it runs counter to the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a 2020 law that requires the state’s largest utilities to transition to zero-carbon emitting energy sources by mid-century, unless there is a concern over the ability to meet electricity needs.
After 15 state legislators issued a statement in opposition to the plant in May, five delegates attended the People’s Hearing Tuesday night, including Del. Rodney Willet, R-Henrico, Del. Rae Cousins, D-Richmond, Del. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, Del. Debra D. Gardner, D-Chesterfield, and Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Prince William.
“We’ve heard tonight people would be directly affected by it and that’s just unacceptable,” said Willet alongside Cousins in an interview. “We passed the Clean Economy Act for a reason, to pursue those clean energy alternatives, and this is flying in the face of that.”
The project is proposed to be built in a community consisting largely of minority and low-income residents, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice screening and mapping tool.
“I am a resident of the city of Richmond, but I’m here, and I will be here to help that fight. At some point they will not get those permits,” said Richard Walker Tuesday, while referencing past court decisions that have overturned air permits for other controversial energy projects, including one for an Atlantic Coast Pipeline compressor station in Buckingham County. “We went to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and that three judge panel told them, ‘You do not have sufficient evidence for us to agree to grant you this permit.’ That needs to happen here.”
The critics have asked the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors to hold a public hearing to solicit community input for local approvals, a requirement for Dominion in order to receive its air permit from the Department of Environmental Quality and final certificate of public convenience and necessity from the State Corporation Commission.
But because a former coal plant site on Coxendale Road that is now the proposed location is already zoned for an electricity generation plant, Chesterfield officials have indicated to DEQ local requirements have been satisfied and no further public action is needed.
Attempts to reach Chesterfield County officials were unsuccessful, but Tuesday night, county Supervisor Jessica Schneider sent a statement to the Friends of Chesterfield, saying she was “sorry I am in the minority and could not convince my fellow supervisors to do the right thing and hold a public hearing.”
“I continue to stand with you in opposition to the gas plant, because not only does it go against the Virginia Clean Economy Act, but more importantly, it poses severe health risks to the Black and Brown and economically disadvantaged communities that are nearby and have been subjected to over 60 years of coal pollution and air pollution from the coal plant,” Schneider’s statement read. “It is a clear case of environmental injustice.”
Dominion’s response
In August, in response to community concern, the utility switched the location of the proposal to its former coal-fired Chesterfield Power Station where the existing infrastructure may be used to reduce construction costs. The utility signaled Tuesday that the planned plant will remain part of its future energy mix, which includes more solar, wind, battery storage and nuclear sources than its previous plan, though the percentage of zero-carbon sources has decreased from 95% to 80% of the plan.
“We are all-in on renewables, building the largest offshore wind project in the U.S. and operating the nation’s largest solar fleet,” said Jeremy Slayton, a Dominion spokesperson. “Renewables alone cannot reliably keep our customers’ power on around the clock. The Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center will allow us to continue to transition to renewables without ever sacrificing reliability.”
But a report from the Southern Environmental Law Center, created in partnership with Applied Economics Clinic and touted at Tuesday’s event, suggests that clean energy could do the trick, instead.
“Not only would the 1,000 megawatt need be met with resources that do not add harmful air pollutants, these alternatives would cost less,” SELC staff attorney Rachel James told the crowd.
Dominion previously said it expects DEQ to unveil a draft air permit by the end of the year. Critics of the plant say they’re preparing for Dominion to submit its application for a certificate of convenience and necessity to the State Corporation Commission early next year.
The project is still expected to come online in 2029, though an update to Dominion’s long term planning document, called the Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, shows 944 megawatts of electricity from natural gas first being produced in 2030. That represents the first full year of service, Slayton said.