Citizens and groups who opposed the push to develop offshore wind under former President Joe Biden have now asked President Donald Trump to rescind even the wind projects already under construction. Dominion Energy Virginia’s $10.7 billion project off Virginia Beach is among those they want to pause and possibly cancel.

The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, an original opponent and continued skeptic of the Dominion project, did not sign the request, which you can read here. With the project close to halfway finished, according to the utility, the amount spent to date exceeds $6 billion, and costs would continue even if pending supplier contracts were canceled. Even a pause will add to costs.

At the time of Trump’s executive order pausing permit reviews for future projects, many assumed projects already approved and underway would not be affected. That assumption is being tested. This could be very bad news for Dominion’s ratepayers, the reason for Thomas Jefferson Institute’s reluctance to join the effort.

Under traditional rules for regulation of a monopoly provider like Dominion, the ratepayers could be on the hook for all those stranded costs. With the project cancelled it would be $6 billion for nothing. An independent look at the possible cost of closing the project is needed, probably from the State Corporation Commission.

While the SCC might have some discretion to spread those costs to shareholders, the utility will want full reimbursement from somebody else. Whether it is from the customers as customers or from all Americans as taxpayers (or both, meaning we Dominion ratepayers would be hit twice), the bill would be substantial. Decades ago, the cost of canceled Virginia nuclear reactors was split between the customers, the company, and the taxpayers. Customers in South Carolina are still paying for a failed nuclear power plant project that ceased construction in 2017 with abandoned debt of $9 billion.

And dealing with the stranded costs of a failed project is just part of the impact on Dominion’s 2.6 million customer accounts and the state’s economy as a whole. There are two other major problems created, both adding expense mainly for ratepayers. Much of this was first explained here in a summary for Bacon’s Rebellion.

Virginia’s 2020 Clean Economy Act sets aggressive requirements for Dominion to produce non-hydrocarbon electricity, targets which rise annually. The wind project is a big part of Dominion’s plans to meet some of those targets. Without it, the company by law must purchase millions of renewable energy certificates from other energy producers, at ratepayer expense. Repealing VCEA would eliminate this problem but repeal is politically impossible at this time.

Virginia needs the power. The wind project will not have a great capacity factor and may often be idle, but when running it will produce substantial electricity. It will be far superior to solar panels. Kill it, and Virginia needs that much more power from some other new or leased generation, again at a major cost to ratepayers.

The Thomas Jefferson Institute has been aware of the discussions leading up to this petition to Trump’s Department of Interior. No mention was made in the appeal of protection for ratepayers or consideration of federal reimbursement. The other three projects under construction are not financed the same way as Dominion’s and the impact on ratepayers in those states would be far less (or nothing).

Some of these advocates believe our utility should be on the hook because the company acted in bad faith. The letter petitions for the project pause and possible cancellation based on the long-standing allegations that corners were cut, and evidence ignored during the environmental reviews.

The concerns about the impact on ocean mammals have been recently detailed again here and are now incorporated in the petition, which uses the Dominion permits as its examples. Bacon’s Rebellion has shared them in quite a few posts from that author over the years. The whale impact has been discussed before with Thomas Jefferson Institute’s readers, too, but we did not join in the litigation which was filed on that basis.

The Thomas Jefferson Institute was more focused on the economic problems, the concern it would not be worth the money, the concern about building such a project in hurricane-vulnerable waters. But the General Assembly passed VCEA to mandate this project and in late 2022, the SCC gave the green light.

If the result of the review by the Trump Administration causes the federal government to rescind the leases on two other project areas being planned for Dominion, the Thomas Jefferson Institute would applaud that outcome. But a decision on the fate of the current project should not be made without a full economic and accounting analysis of customer impacts either way.

Despite the expectations Trump has raised with his challenge to the Green Energy Agenda, this petition may be rejected. This is yet another issue that would be ripe for a court review with the developers waving all their approvals, further delaying any final decision. Wind advocates will certainly hope that the next election in 2028 will result in yet another 180 degrees turn in the wind.

Steve Haner is a Senior Fellow for Environment and Energy Policy. He can be reached at Steve@thomasjeffersoninst.org.