HB469:

Electric utilities; clean energy mandates, transitioning workers, etc.

Bill Summary:

Electric utilities; clean energy mandates; transitioning
workers; New Virginia Economy Act. Establishes a moratorium, effective
January 1, 2023, on approval by any state agency or political subdivision of any approval required for (i) electric
generating facilities that generate fossil fuel
energy through the combustion of a fossil fuel resource; (ii) import or export
terminals for fossil fuel resources; (iii) certain maintenance activities
relating to an import or export terminal for a fossil fuel resource; (iv)
gathering lines or pipelines for the transport of any fossil fuel resource that require the use of eminent domain on private property;
(v) certain maintenance activities relating to such gathering lines or
pipelines; (vi) refineries of a fossil fuel resource; and (vii) exploration for
any type of fossil fuel, unless preempted by applicable federal law. The
measure also requires that at least 80 percent of the electricity sold by a
retail electric supplier in calendar years 2030 through 2034 be generated from
clean energy resources. In calendar year 2035 and every calendar year
thereafter, 100 percent of the electricity sold by a retail electric supplier
is required to be generated from clean energy resources. The clean energy mandates
apply to a public utility or other person that sells not less than 1,000
megawatt hours of electric energy to retail customers or generates not less
than 1,000 megawatt hours of electric energy for use by the person. The
Director of the Department of Energy (the Department) is authorized to bring
actions for injunctions to enforce these requirements. The measure requires the
Department to adopt a Climate Action Plan that
addresses all aspects of climate change, including mitigation, adaptation,
resiliency, and assistance in the transition from current energy sources to
clean renewable energy. The measure provides that
any retail electric supplier that fails to meet any goal or benchmark is liable
for a civil penalty equal to twice the cost of the financial investment
necessary to meet such goal or mandate that was not achieved, or three times
the cost of the financial investment necessary to meet such goal or benchmark
that was not achieved if not met in an
environmental justice community. The measure further states
that the Department shall appoint and convene a state Environmental and Climate
Justice Task Force (the Task Force) to provide recommendations about the
implementation of the Climate Action Plan.

The measure provides that it is the goal of the Commonwealth
to achieve a 36 percent
reduction in electric energy consumption in buildings by 2036.
The measure requires the Department, in coordination with the Virginia Council
on Environmental Justice (the Council) to establish performance benchmarks for
environmental justice communities and to establish programs
for jobs for people in environmental justice communities. The measure
requires the Council to develop and make available to each state agency
training modules designed to facilitate the promotion of environmental justice.

The measure requires the Department to
establish the Just Transition Fund (the Fund) to be used for state programs,
grants and loans, job training and placement programs that support renewable
and clean energy development and energy efficiency, and for funding the
Transitioning Workers Program, which provides support for workers in the fossil
fuel industry and affected communities and provides such workers with job training, relocation support, income and benefit support, and early retirement benefits. The measure prohibits
the State Corporation Commission from approving
construction of any new utility-owned generating facilities that emit carbon
dioxide as a by-product of combusting fuel to generate electricity. The measure
requires that all utility costs associated with the construction of,
acquisition of, or agreements to purchase the energy, capacity, and
environmental attributes of certain required generation and storage facilities
be recovered through the utility's rates for generation and distribution
services.

The measure requires that under the renewable energy portfolio
standard program, Dominion Energy Virginia and
American Electric Power be required to produce
their electricity from 80 percent renewable sources by 2030 and 100 percent by
2035. The measure increases the incremental energy efficiency savings that each
investor-owned incumbent electric utility is required to achieve that start in
2023 at 2.4 percent for American Electric Power and Dominion Energy Virginia of
the average annual energy retail sales by that utility in 2021 and increases those savings annually.