The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the Chesterfield County branch of the NAACP, Appalachian Voices, and Mothers Out Front, on Wednesday filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Virginia over state regulators’ approval of Dominion Energy’s Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center (CERC), a gas peaker plant fiercely opposed by the groups and residents that’s slated to be completed in 2029.
In November, the State Corporation Commission gave Dominion the go-ahead to build the $1.47 billion, 944 megawatt natural gas facility in Chesterfield, just south of the James River outside of Richmond.
The facility will be built at the site of a former coal burning plant and where two gas turbines currently operate. CERC will operate an estimated 33% of the time on especially hot and cold days to quickly create more power and ease strain on the power grid.
The groups appealing the decision previously appealed to the SCC and asked regulators to reconsider their decision to approve the project because it would violate the Virginia Clean Economy Act. That law mandates Dominion retire carbon-emitting energy production by 2045, with exceptions.
They also argued that the emissions from the plant would subject surrounding neighborhoods to health-harming pollution tantamount to environmental injustice.
The SCC rejected that appeal, stating that Dominion had clearly explained the need for the plant, that the company would not be in violation of the VCEA, and that the air permit granted to the facility would not have disproportionate impacts on the surrounding community.
The latest filing with the state Supreme Court asks justices to reconsider the SCC’s finding that the gas plant does not violate the Virginia Environmental Justice Act.
“The Environmental Justice Act requires them to consider whether they’re disproportionate impacts on any particular groups out there,” SELC Attorney Grayson Holmes said in a statement Wednesday after the groups’ appeal to the high court was announced. “They didn’t do the analysis in the way that the act actually requires.”
The filing also states that the SCC should not have allowed Dominion to recover the cost of the facility through a rate adjustment clause, because the company has not met its energy efficiency requirements under the VCEA.
The groups also took issue with Dominion’s fuel cost estimate to power the plant – calling it an unreliable estimate of how much fuel will cost during an entire year. Dominion’s estimates covered two-thirds of the year, when the plant is slated to operate. But SELC argues that the fuel cost estimates used by the company don’t account for running the plant December to March, 75% of the plant’s useful life. The group said this contradicts the proposed purpose of the plant, which Dominion said will be used on the coldest and hottest days of the year, and skews their fuel estimates too low.
“The SCC needs to hold Dominion accountable. The policies at issue here — the Environmental Justice Act, the Virginia Clean Economy Act — are not just nice ideas. They are laws that Dominion must follow and the SCC must enforce,” Peter Anderson with Appalachian Voices said Wednesday.
Dominion was adamant throughout the regulatory process for the plant that it is part of an “all of the above” energy portfolio and argues it is a critical project to ensure grid reliability, which makes it acceptable under the VCEA.
By Wednesday evening, the utility had reaffirmed its support of the SCC’s ruling.
“The SCC performed a thorough review and confirmed the project is needed to serve growing demand,” a statement from a Dominion representative read. “Power demand is growing at historic levels, and Virginia needs more power generation from every source. CERC will provide reliable power for hundreds of thousands of homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals in Chesterfield and beyond.”
If the Supreme Court of Virginia grants the petition then a schedule will be released for all parties to file briefs later this year.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to better reflect the SELC’s argument against Dominion’s fuel cost estimates.