Renewable energy advocates vow to push for offshore wind competition in Virginia after bill’s postponement.

Renewable energy advocates are planning to continue their efforts next year to introduce legislation to allow private developers to compete with Dominion Energy on offshore wind projects in Virginia. The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee’s decision to postpone the bill was taken after intense lobbying from Dominion Energy to protect its monopoly. The bill would have required the state’s next 2,600 MW to be competitively bid among private developers and would have allowed Dominion to purchase power from the winning entity. Critics argue that this would provide a faster, cheaper, more transparent, and less risky path to meet or exceed the target of 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind by 2032. However, the bill would not have impacted Dominion’s plans to build its 2,660 MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.