Dominion Energy Rightly Challenged As A Trendy Grifter, When It Should Be Ensuring Energy Security for Virginians
Guest Post from Nate Myers via CFact.
One of CFACT’s largest corporate adversaries, Dominion Energy, convened its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Dominion is a publicly traded energy company and one of the largest financial players in the renewable energy industry by a large margin. Wanting to show off its return on investment to investors ahead of time, Dominion published its 2025 Proxy Statement in March. Reporting on the company’s expected returns and other metrics, it also detailed several eyebrow-raising projects.
For instance, the company has poured over $10.7 billion dollars into its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project alone. Once completed, the wind farm will boast 176 towering turbines. Other troublesome highlights include a 2050 net-zero pledge and board compensation linked to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) score compliance.
Though CFACT’s question raised during the meeting wasn’t quoted by the board directly, Chair and CEO of Dominion Energy Bob Blue did take time to respond to a question that was of a similar nature.
The question posed was this:
“It appears that Dominion has unwisely spent money on alternative energy sources that produce expensive electricity. Would it not be better for Virginia and other coal producing states like Wyoming and West Virginia to invest in more clean coal generation plants?”
Mr. Blue then gave this response:
“Well, we do generate electricity today with coal. So I would really disagree respectfully with the premise of the question. First, it suggests that we’re only generating and investing in renewables, and second, that investing in renewables is unwise. Every source of generation has its advantages and disadvantages. And that’s exactly why we have an “all of the above” approach. You hear a lot of people talk about an “all of the above” approach, but we actually live an “all of the above” approach every day. As we see the demand that I talked about in the presentation coming our way, we need every electron we can generate. Today we do that with natural gas, nuclear, solar, wind, coal, biomass, hydro, pump storage, and battery storage. If you look at our fifteen-year integrated resources plan in Virginia, we don’t call for the retirement of any of those resources, none of them. That’s because we know we’re going to need them to meet the need that’s headed our way.”
Though his response did acknowledge the need for coal plants and other forms of traditional energy generation, Mr. Blue sidestepped the shareholder’s implied line of questioning regarding renewable energy’s reliability and Dominion’s questionable motives in investing in the energy sector to begin with.
Additionally, a shareholder proposal put forward by The National Legal Policy Center (NLPC), a CFACT ally, requested Dominion revisit the company’s choice to link goals of carbon capture with executive pay incentives. The voting results are pending and will be published in a week or so.
The proposal is just one thrust of a major offensive against corporate sponsorship of green energy, spearheaded by NLPC, The Heartland Institute, and, of course, CFACT.
CFACT will continue to monitor Dominion’s activities so that our donors and the public at large remain informed about the company’s investments.
Nate Myers is the National Field Coordinator for CFACT's Collegians program.
#Wind #Offshore #DominionEnergy #CFact #Virginia #WindTurbines #Grifter
Hold them accountable !!
But the grifting shoujd be paid for by the execs out if compensation - that would eliminate the shenanigans.
What a bunch of BS. Show me the incentives and I’ll tell you the outcome.