Community and nonprofit groups take Chesterfield fight to Supreme Court of Virginia 

RICHMOND, Va. — Today, on behalf of the Chesterfield County branch of the NAACP, Appalachian Voices, and Mothers Out Front, the Southern Environmental Law Center appealed the State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) approval of a gas plant Dominion has proposed building in Chesterfield County. The appeal will be heard by the Supreme Court of Virginia.  

The SCC reinstated its final order approving the CPCN in February after briefly suspending the order/authorization in December following a petition for reconsideration from SELC and community groups.  

Today’s filing identifies multiple ways in which it asserts that the SCC’s authorization violated existing law by: 

• Failing to carry out the requirements of the Virginia Environmental Justice Act, 
• Allowing Dominion to recover the costs of the plant through a rate adjustment clause even though Dominion had not met its energy efficiency requirements, and 
• Declining to require Dominion to provide a reliable cost estimate associated with the fuel required to run the facility.

Client Statements  

Nicole Martin, President, Chesterfield County NAACP: “This has always been an environmental justice fight. Why else would Dominion believe it could just come in and continue its streak of being a bad actor in our community? NAACP and our neighbors are not giving up this fight.” 

Peter Anderson, Director of State Energy Policy at Appalachian Voices: “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.”