Virginia’s 2026 Legislative Session
Our priorities for the 2026 General Assembly include defending the progress we’ve made on clean, affordable energy, keeping power bills in check, enacting safeguards to protect communities from methane gas pipeline leaks, encouraging the expansion of energy storage and putting in place common-sense safeguards around data center growth.
The 2026 General Assembly session begins on January 14 and ends in March. Watch this space for updates and action opportunities throughout the session! You can also check the official General Assembly website for more information.
Defending progress on clean, affordable energy
In 2020, Virginia passed major legislation to reduce carbon emissions and shift to a 100% clean energy economy by mid-century with the Virginia Clean Economy Act. However, powerful fossil fuel interest groups would like to weaken or repeal Virginia’s landmark clean energy policy. Help us encourage our lawmakers to stand strong, create clean energy jobs, and insist that fossil fuels are phased out of our power sector and that power companies don’t take advantage of customers during the transition.
BILLS TO WATCH
OPPOSE: SB40 (Stanley) This bill eliminates a provision that makes Virginia’s clean energy standard enforceable.
OPPOSE: SB 69 (Peake) This bill repeals provisions of law that require regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. It would also eliminate barriers to new polluting power plants and get rid of policies encouraging clean energy development.
Ensuring common-sense safeguards around data-center growth
Currently, Northern Virginia is the largest data center market in the world. The largest of these facilities, known as hyperscalers, often consume as much energy as a mid-sized city, driving an unprecedented increase in energy demand. A state commission study recently found that if data center development continued at the unabated pace proposed by the industry with no restrictions, Virginia would nearly triple its electricity demand. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission’s 2024 study also estimated that unmitigated demand from data centers could add nearly $40 to Virginians’ monthly electricity bills over the next 15 years.
Appalachian Voices supports legislation that:
- Enhances transparency – information about data centers’ energy use, water consumption, noise and emissions should be publicly available.
- Ensures that any state tax incentives for data center developers and operators are contingent upon meeting state public interest goals, like energy efficiency and protecting our air and water.
BILLS TO WATCH
SUPPORT: HB 155 (Thomas): Empowers state oversight over large new electricity users like data centers to ensure that our grid is reliable and continues on a path to zero emissions by mid-century.
SUPPORT: HB 284 (Feggans), SB 371 (McPike): Requires data centers to adjust their energy use during the hours of the year when electricity demand is at its peak to reduce the need for new power generation.
SUPPORT: HB 658 (Maldonado): Directs the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to determine whether regular customers of Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power Co. are paying for generation and transmission costs that were caused by data centers. Empowers the SCC to ensure that regular customers do not subsidize data center customers
SUPPORT: HB 496 (Guzman): Prohibits non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) as a way to conceal data center water use during local permitting.
SUPPORT: HB 589 (Simonds): Requires aggregate data center water use to be disclosed to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
Strengthening pipeline safety
Methane gas pipelines crisscross Virginia, putting nearby communities and the environment at risk. An essential part of keeping communities safe from operational gas pipelines is being able to quickly and easily prevent and detect leaks of methane gas. Virginia can do more to improve leak detection standards through common-sense safety measures like requiring annual leak detection surveys and reducing intentional methane emissions.
BILLS TO WATCH
SUPPORT: HB 1073 (Rasoul) Directs the SCC to develop regulations for pipeline leak detection and repair standards.
Taking advantage of advancements in energy storage technology
A key aspect of the clean energy transition is storing the energy produced during sunny or windy days for later use in the evening or during peak demand time. The VCEA requires a modest development of battery energy storage, but expert studies show that the commonwealth must go farther. Recent modeling demonstrates that Virginia can meet high projections of increased electricity demand with clean energy, if we invest now in battery storage.
Why energy storage matters now:
- Costs are falling fast. Battery energy storage is significantly cheaper than just a few years ago.
- Technology has improved. Modern systems are more efficient, reliable and flexible with the ability to store enough electricity for short and long periods of time – even up to several days.
- Solar is Virginia’s lowest-cost energy source. Storage allows utilities to use affordable solar power after the sun sets.
BILLS TO WATCH
SUPPORT: HB 895 (Sullivan) Increases the short and long duration energy storage that Dominion and Appalachian Power are required to build or acquire by 2045. It also establishes a model ordinance and energy storage work group.
SUPPORT: HB 617 (McNamara) Establishes a 150MW virtual power plant (VPP) pilot program for Appalachian Power.
SUPPORT: HB (Reid) Authorizes electric cooperatives to establish and implement VPP programs.
Keeping rising power bills in check
All across Virginia everyday folks are feeling the strain of rising electricity bills. After a recent ruling by the State Corporation Commission, customers of Dominion Energy will see their monthly bills increase on average by $11.24 in 2026. Appalachian Power customers’ monthly bills this spring will be almost $44 higher than in July 2022.
Energy affordability is a complex topic, but here are three ways legislators can help and the policies below will have an impact on Virginians’ bills.
- Establish an energy efficiency task force to identify barriers that prevent people from taking advantage of energy efficiency programs and weatherization services — and recommend solutions. The General Assembly passed a bill doing just this with broad bipartisan support in 2025 before it was vetoed by Gov. Youngkin.
- Let more Virginians opt in to programs that allow them to connect their smart appliances to the grid and save money when electric demand is high. The legislature can do this by expanding the virtual power plant program to include Appalachian Power territory and allow rural electric co-operatives to offer these programs.
- Direct state regulators to stop utility companies from charging their customers extra when the company chooses to operate power plants in costly and inefficient ways. This is called uneconomic dispatch, and it’s a topic you’ll be hearing more about in the coming years.
BILLS TO WATCH
SUPPORT: SB5 (Locke), HB3 (LeVere-Bolling) Establishes a weatherization and low-income energy efficiency task force to identify barriers to participating in Virginia’s energy efficiency programs and ways to more effectively deliver energy efficiency and weatherization resources.
Coal impacts
The story of Appalachia can’t be told without coal. Its impacts to the people, communities, water and landscape of the region is wide ranging and persists long after a mine closes. In Virginia, nearly 45,000 acres of former surface coal mines have yet to be remediated. These damaged lands negatively impact waterways and endanger nearby communities. Unfortunately, the current system of coal mine bonding is insufficient to cover the costs of reclamation, and is in need of an overhaul.