Community and nonprofit groups appeal Chesterfield air permit 

Press release from the Southern Environmental Law Center 

For immediate release:
February 13, 2026 

Contact:
Tasha Durrett, 571-405-1101, tdurrett@selc.org 

RICHMOND, Va. — Today — on behalf of the Chesterfield County branch of the NAACP, CASA Inc., Appalachian Voices and Mothers Out Front — the Southern Environmental Law Center appealed the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s issuance of an air permit allowing Dominion Energy to build and operate a new methane gas plant in Chesterfield County. The appeal was filed in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond. 

Today’s appeal points to violations of the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Law, the Virginia Administrative Process Act, the Virginia Environmental Justice Act and the federal Clean Air Act. 

Specifically, SELC raised the following in today’s petition: 

• DEQ did not adequately analyze whether nearby low-income communities, communities of color and fenceline communities would experience disproportionate health impacts from the gas plant’s pollution.  
• DEQ also did not meaningfully involve those communities in the decision-making process, including frequently failing to engage with the significant Spanish-speaking population in the area and not translating relevant materials into Spanish. 
• DEQ allowed Dominion to avoid a heightened level of review for the gas plant’s emissions of four harmful pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and sulfuric acid. 
• DEQ ignored Dominion’s failure to demonstrate that its gas plant would not lead to levels of air pollution above federal standards. 
• DEQ refused to include proper emissions limits in the permit, so Dominion would not have to reduce pollution as much as it reasonably could. 

“We take our clients’ concerns and the spirit of the laws setting forth how to engage on issues when entering fenceline communities seriously. The state’s Environmental Justice Act is meant to be followed and directs agencies and regulators on how to properly assess requests such as this one from Dominion. It’s not just a box to be checked, but in this case, even that wasn’t attempted,” said Rachel James, a staff attorney at SELC. 

DEQ approved the permit on December 19 after years of community opposition and organizing in Chesterfield and advocacy against the plant from around the state. In granting the air permit, DEQ treated the new gas plant as a modification of Dominion’s existing Chesterfield Power Station, the site of a retired coal plant, an existing gas plant and the site it seeks to build the new power plant on. 

Prior to construction, Dominion also needed to obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the plant from the State Corporation Commission. Just yesterday, the SCC reinstated its final order approving the CPCN after briefly suspending the order/authorization in December following a petition for reconsideration from SELC and community groups. 

Client Statements 

Nicole Martin, President, Chesterfield County NAACP: “My neighbors in Chesterfield have endured too much already. The pandering to corporations while passing monetary costs and health costs on to those who can least afford it needs to stop, not today, but yesterday. Decades ago, even. We are still fighting this gas plant.” 

Christian Martinez Lemus, Research and Policy Analyst, CASA Inc.: “CASA continues to stand with so many of our neighbors in Chesterfield and those helping fight this plant from all over the state. The stakes are too high for us to give up now. Not only our health, but the health of generations to come hangs in the balance.” 

Peter Anderson, Director of State Energy Policy at Appalachian Voices: “The decision to bring more pollution into the state — and specifically into a community that is already overburdened — is a bad one. We continue to believe this plant is unnecessary, and we know it is unwanted. The recent actions from the SCC and DEQ do not reflect what an overwhelming number of Chesterfield residents — and Virginia as a whole — want. ” 

Linnea Brett, Director of Organizing, Mothers Out Front: “Mothers Out Front maintains that this polluting, unnecessary plant does not belong in Chesterfield or anywhere else in the state. We are excited to continue this fight with today’s filing.”