Wiley’s Richmond Roundup - The 2025 General Assembly is Busy!
Week 3 (January 20-24)
Dear Friends,
We call odd year sessions in Richmond the “short session,” but there’s nothing short about the days we’re putting in here. We’re one week from the halfway point, and my team and I are working fast and furious to make sure your voice is heard.
The news wasn’t all good, though. We learned this week that Virginians are about to be on the hook for some $450 million in higher power bills this year as our utilities struggle to keep up with the “clean” energy demands of the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Under that 2020 law, Dominion and Appalachian Power must meet specific targets for wind and solar power production. And just as we warned them five years ago, it’s not feasible to do that without passing costs on to the ratepayers.
Those missed targets trigger “deficiency payments,” which the utilities can simply tack onto bills. The end result is your power bill goes up, and there’s nothing you or state regulators can do about it. Our Republican team is working hard with the Governor to find a solution to stop these hikes, but Democrats have thus far refused to budge.
