Proposed Dominion Chesterfield Power Plant Threatens Health and Environment of Surrounding Community

Analysis Shows Dominion Can Meet Customer Needs Without Building Gas Plant

The proposed Dominion gas plant in Chesterfield is a threat to the health of people and the environment in the surrounding community, according to testimony filed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Southern Environmental Law Center before the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) during a September 23 hearing.  

One of Dominion’s first steps toward securing the necessary approvals to construct and operate the proposed facility has been to apply for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the SCC. Before granting a CPCN, the SCC must consider two things: whether the proposal will have an adverse effect on rates paid by customers or on the reliability of electric service. They must also consider whether the project would be otherwise contrary to the public interest. 

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation filed expert testimony before the SCC demonstrating that Dominion Energy’s proposed 944-megawatt Chesterfield gas plant is unnecessary and a threat to the health and safety of nearby residents and surrounding environment.  

The maximum health burdens are concentrated southeast of the facility where existing industry and minority populations create environmental justice concerns, according to the testimony. 

The new facility, which would sit just north of the Dutch Gap Conservation Area, has the potential to emit 353 tons per year of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 153 tons per year of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). 

Exposure to the plant’s continued emissions could potentially cost local residents $88.5 million annually in healthcare costs. 

The analysis also challenges Dominion’s argument that the plant should be exempt from Virginia law due to a purported threat to system reliability.  

Virginia law prohibits the construction of new carbon-emitting facilities unless a demonstrated “threat to system reliability” exists. The project is projected to cost ratepayers over $8 billion over its lifetime. 

Dominion claims that the facility is necessary to meet increasing energy demands in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but CBF argues that Dominion’s analysis employs unreasonable, misleading assumptions and a failure to consider alternative solutions to meet load growth, such as grid scale batteries that wouldn’t pollute communities. 

Taylor Lilley, Environmental Justice Staff Attorney with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, issued the following statement: 

“It’s important for the record to reflect the full scale of environmental and public health realities that residents will face if this facility is allowed to be constructed. The commission must consider these threats to people and environmental health. If constructed, this facility would exacerbate the burdens of a community that has already endured decades of emissions. 

“Using misleading assumptions and faulty analysis, Dominion has tried to obscure this project for what it really is: an avoidable threat to a community’s right to clean air and a healthy future.”