It’s hard to believe that it was 2009 - 13 years ago - when the federal government first gathered various stakeholders to see if there was any interest in developing wind energy off the coast of Virginia. The answer, of course, was a resounding “yes, we are interested”!
In 2013, after four years of bureaucratic wrangling (it is a brand new US industry after all), the feds leased to Dominion an area for what is now known as the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. And again we waited. It wasn’t until 2019 - six anxious years later - when Dominion finally publicly committed to developing CVOW’s 2600 megawatts (MW). They did so by filing plans with PJM, our huge regional grid operator, to connect the project to the grid by 2026.
Dominion’s hesitation for both the commercial CVOW project and the pilot project was fear of the State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) rejection of their applications for rate recovery. Without it, Dominion would not move forward.
In 2018, the SCC very begrudgingly approved the pilot project, saying they felt the law - specifically the Grid Transformation & Security Act - forced them to it. For SCC approval of the larger CVOW project, all eyes are now on the SCC’s interpretation of the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which put 5200 MW of OSW in the public interest. The CVOW hearing before the SCC occurred in May and the penultimate decision is due in August 2022.
Very interestingly, the VCEA also called on Dominion to submit an economic development plan for the CVOW project that included provisions for diverse hiring. The Sierra Club hired Cale Jaffe and the UVA Environmental Law Center to represent us as a participant in the case, arguing that Dominion’s hiring plan was inadequate and lacking in specific goals. We hired an expert, Dr. Mark Gabriel Little with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, to make recommendations and most were adopted via a stipulation agreement with Dominion. Assuming approval by the SCC, here’s what we are getting:
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Dominion will update the Economic Development Plan semi-annually to include reporting on racial and ethnic demographics, veteran status, and geographic location of Dominion employees as well as contractors and suppliers.
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Dominion commits to increasing its diverse workforce representation by 1% point each year with a goal of reaching at least 40% diverse workforce representation by the end of 2026.
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Create an advisory group to meet semi-annually to review and consider Dr. Little's testimony and recommendations related to supplier diversity and access to capital strategies.
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Hold and participate in at least 10 clean energy career events, no fewer than 5 of which will be held in collaboration with minority serving institutions.
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Hold and participate in at least 10 business opportunity expositions with at least 5 in collaboration with diverse or small business/trade organizations.
This is a huge win on two fronts!
One, the agreement helps to ensure that the communities bearing the brunt of environmental injustice are specifically included in the benefits of CVOW. Climate change threatens our coastal communities, and disproportionately affects people of color and low-income communities.
Two, the agreement also sets precedent for the equitable development of the country's nascent offshore wind industry going forward. Atlantic OSW leasing is huge. Lease areas like the six in the New York Bight ended up being auctioned off for over 6 billion dollars. We are quickly realizing that developers need to come to the auction block with more than big wads of cash. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management who administers all US OSW is now starting to insert stipulations for hiring and supply chain into lease terms.
What a long, bumpy yet very exciting road it’s been, from 2009 to 2022. We worked to get OSW done (i.e., electrons on the grid) and then done right (i.e., benefitting Virginians via wealth-building jobs).
A huge round of applause to our legal team - Cale Jaffe, Stephen Wald, and the UVA Environmental Law Center, Dori Jaffe, our brilliant Sierra Club attorney, and the visionary that is Dr. Mark Little. We took what was just a vague mention in the VCEA and made it an actual set of goals and deliverables for Dominion. Offshore wind done right in Virginia!