Dominion Energy
Dominion Energy is a Virginia-based corporate holding company for electric and gas utility companies.
Virginia Power is the company’s largest subsidiary. The utility delivers electricity to approximately 2.6 million customers in the state. Dominion North Carolina Power serves over 120,000 electric customers in North Carolina. In 2019, Dominion completed its acquisition of SCANA Corporation (South Carolina Electric & Gas) and now provides electricity to approximately 758,000 customers across South Carolina.
Dominion also is a gas provider for customers in Ohio, West Virginia, North and South Carolina. Additionally, the company completed a merger with Questar Gas in 2016 and today provides gas service to more than 1 million customers in Utah, southwestern Wyoming, and a small portion of southeastern Idaho.
In 2020, Dominion sold its interstate pipeline assets and a 25% ownership stake in the Cove Point liquified gas facility to Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway paid $4 billion in cash and assumed another $5.7 billion of Dominion’s debt. Dominion still has a noncontrolling 50% interest in the Cove Point LNG facility.
Coal and gas combined for 54% of total generation for Dominion Energy in 2019.
While Dominion Energy has a net zero carbon emissions by 2050 goal, research conducted by the Sierra Club shows that its subsidiaries are not moving fast enough toward clean energy to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Sierra Club assigned a score to every utility in January 2021 based on its plans to retire coal, construct new gas plants, and build new clean energy. Dominion’s Virginia subsidiary received a ‘D’ and the South Carolina subsidiary received an ‘F.’
Dominion’s climate policy engagement was also assessed in January 2021 by the Climate Action 100+, which is a collection of 570 investors responsible for over $54 trillion in assets under management coordinated by a group of five investor networks.
Climate Action 100+ found that Dominion fails to:
- Provide a specific commitment/position statement to conduct all of its lobbying in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
- List its climate-related lobbying activities, e.g., meetings, policy submissions, etc.
- Ensure that the trade associations the company is a member of lobby in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
- Discloses its trade association memberships.
- Conduct and publish a review of its trade associations’ climate positions/alignment with the Paris Agreement.
Climate Action 100+ believes that an important component of company commitments on climate change is the formation of comprehensive business strategies that fully align with the goals of the Paris Agreement and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.
