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Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger will become Virginia’s new governor after a decisive win this week — and after a campaign that centered around rising power prices in the data-center capital of the world.
With Spanberger’s win, Democrats now control all branches of the state government. Virginia Democrats added more than a dozen seats to their majority in the House of Delegates on Tuesday; the Democrat-controlled Senate didn’t face an election.
That outcome may be a game-changer when it comes to preserving and enforcing the Virginia Clean Economy Act. Passed in 2020, the law requires top utilities Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to achieve 100% renewable power production in the coming decades. Virginia’s Republican delegates and current Gov. Glenn Youngkin have blamed the legislation for rising power prices and pushed to repeal it, while state regulators have approved Dominion’s plans to build a raft of new gas plants in spite of the law.
The Clean Economy Act remains divisive even among Virginia Democrats. Spanberger has said that she’s committed to its long-term goals and to scaling up clean energy generation. But Democratic House Speaker Don Scott was reluctant to get into details about its future in a press conference this week, and didn’t deny the possibility of weakening its fossil-fuel restrictions, Inside Climate News reports.
The trifecta could also pave the way for Virginia to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a collaborative of East Coast states that requires power generators to meet a set cap on carbon emissions or buy allowances to exceed it. States reinvest those proceeds into emissions-reducing projects and clean energy. Youngkin pulled Virginia out of the partnership two years ago, but Spanberger has promised to rejoin.
But there’s one piece of the clean-energy landscape where Spanberger’s win could be more problem than solution. Dominion is currently building what will be the country’s largest offshore wind farm, with support from Youngkin. That Republican backing could be why the Trump administration hasn’t targeted the Dominion array, while at the same time dealing blow after blow to offshore wind projects in blue states.
Climate action wins in elections big and small
It wasn’t just Virginia: Democrats swept statewide races across the country this week. In New Jersey, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill campaigned on a promise to rein in rising power prices, and, in contrast to her Republican opponent, showed support for offshore wind. Still, the state has no operational or under-construction offshore wind projects, and Sherrill will have limited power to counteract the Trump administration’s anti-wind policies, Canary Media’s Clare Fieseler reports.
In Georgia, Democrats beat Republican incumbents in two elections widely seen as referendums on rising utility bills. Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson will now take seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, which oversees for-profit utilities and their requests to raise rates. And in New York City, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani — who tied climate action into his affordability-focused campaign — won the mayoral race.
Several other smaller races also have energy implications. Here are the results of a few:
Clean energy carries on
As the world prepares to meet in Brazil next week for the COP30 climate conference (sans the Trump administration), new reports show that clean-energy progress is still happening in defiance of White House opposition.
BloombergNEF took a look at the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which rolled back federal incentives for clean energy. The legislation will slow solar, wind, and storage deployment over the next few years, BloombergNEF predicts, but growing power demand will ultimately lead renewables to rebound after 2028.
And while the world remains far off track to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, it’s still making progress. A United Nations report projects the impact of many countries’ new, bolstered emissions-reduction commitments, and finds they’ll limit warming to around 2.5°C this century if fully implemented. It’s not ideal, but it’s still a win from previous reports that forecast as much as 5°C of warming through 2100.
The coast is (somewhat) clear: The U.S. Interior Department removes the Atlantic coast and a portion of the Gulf Coast around Florida from Trump’s plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling, after opposition from local Republicans. (Politico)
Take another look: A federal court ruling is forcing FEMA to fully study whether installing distributed solar and batteries makes more sense than hardening Puerto Rico’s existing grid and repairing fossil-fuel plants in the wake of recent hurricanes. (Canary Media)
Fixer-uppers: The Trump administration announces a $100 million program for operators to refurbish aging coal plants and retrofit facilities to run on natural gas. (E&E News)
Diving deep for clean heat: A 75-year-old gas-powered steam-heating network in Boston and Cambridge is transitioning to electric boilers and heat pumps that draw thermal energy from the Charles River, even in winter. (Canary Media)
Lingering shutdown impacts: The U.S. Senate will vote today on a framework to reopen the government, but funds that help low-income families pay for heating will likely still be delayed for several weeks even if the shutdown ends. (E&E News, E&E News)
Energy Star saved? EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is quietly reconsidering plans to end the Energy Star program, and the agency has renewed contracts with the firm that administers it. (New York Times)
Coal-country dilemma: Navajo Nation citizens and officials debate the future of the coal industry in the Southwest, weighing the economic benefits against the environmental and human health impacts. (New York Times)
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