Virginians Hit With Power Bill Shock As Gov. Spanberger Pushes New Energy Costs

Residents across Virginia are reporting sticker shock on their electricity bills following the inauguration of Gov. Abigail Spanberger, with some consumers saying their monthly costs have soared dramatically. “I just got my energy bill for the month,” one Virginia resident said in a video shared online. “My bill has tripled.”

“I usually pay around 200 bucks,” the woman said, adding that her bill can sometimes climb to $300. “But this month it was 621 bucks. That’s more than my car payment,” she said. “What in the actual hell is going on?”

While the sharp spike described by the resident is not consistent with approved rate increases, the higher costs come amid recent decisions affecting energy prices statewide.

In fairness to the new governor, base rate hikes for Dominion Energy customers were approved under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. However, additional increases expected in the coming years, along with new climate related policies, will take effect under Spanberger’s administration.

The new governor announced that Virginia will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state cap and trade program that requires power plants to purchase allowances for carbon dioxide emissions. Those costs are typically passed on to consumers through higher electricity bills, the American Energy Alliance said.

Ironically, Spanberger, a Democrat, ran her campaign on affordability, including promises to lower energy costs.

American Energy Alliance President Tom Pyle criticized the decision in a statement released this week.

“Cap and trade is just another name for a consumer tax, plain and simple,” Pyle said. “It affects not only energy affordability but also the reliability of the grid, as it makes adding and retaining baseload generation more difficult.”

Pyle said rising electricity bills should make affordability and grid reliability the administration’s top priority.

“Instead, she remains fixated on pushing pointless, costly policies that Americans have repeatedly rejected,” he said.

Youngkin withdrew Virginia from RGGI during his term. He previously said residents paid $828 million in what he described as a regressive interstate tax while the state participated in the program.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved rate increases for all Dominion Energy customers in November as part of the company’s biennial review.

According to the SCC, the typical residential customer will see an $11.24 increase in 2026 and an additional $2.36 increase in 2027.

The increases are smaller than Dominion originally requested. The SCC said the approved rates will generate $565.7 million in additional revenue in 2026 and $209.9 million in 2027, compared to the $822 million and $345 million the utility had sought, according to WRIC.

“As the utility regulator, we are obligated by law to set a revenue requirement that affords the Company an opportunity to recover reasonable and prudent projected costs and earn a reasonable rate of return,” the SCC said. “In this case, that has resulted in an increase in rates, but not to the extent requested by Dominion.”

In addition to the base rate increases, the SCC approved a new “GS 5 rate class” for customers demanding 25 megawatts of electricity or more.

“To help insulate ratepayers from the costs around the rapid build out and construction of infrastructure to support businesses such as data centers, certain large scale customers will be required to pay a minimum of 85% of contracted distribution and transmission demand and 60% of generation demand,” the SCC said.

The increases approved by regulators fall well below what some residents are reporting.

A report from JLARC said a typical Dominion residential customer could see generation and transmission-related costs rise by an estimated $14 to $37 per month by 2040, independent of inflation.