We, constituents in your district, are writing to express our disappointment in your testimony in support of the Chesterfield gas plant and ask that you make a public statement to revoke your support.

The proposed plant is a 944 Megawatt fracked methane gas plant, similar in capacity to a nuclear facility. While Dominion has labeled the plant a “peaker,” it is rated to operate up to 37% of the time, or 3240 hours per year. Traditional peaker plants operate a couple hundred hours per year at times of extreme stress on the grid, and are defined as operating less than 15% of the time – though most fall well under this utilization rate.

What the proposed project has in common with traditional peaker plants is its exorbitant cost. Over the lifetime of the project, the Chesterfield gas plant will cost ratepayers $8 billion, including the cost of fuel. According to the latest analysis, gas peaker plants are twice to three times as expensive per unit of delivered electricity as solar plus storage facilities. Solar plus storage plays the same role as a peaker, flexibly dispatching electricity to meet surges in demand.

The Virginia Clean Economy Act requires Dominion to deliver 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045. This plant makes that impossible. Its 36-year lifespan would run more than 20 years past the legal deadline, while emitting nearly 5 billion pounds of greenhouse gases every year, the same as putting 500,000 more cars on Central Virginia's roads. Approving this project would put Dominion out of compliance with state law and lock Virginians into decades of costly, polluting energy.

The health impacts of the plant are enormous, and disproportionately harm Black, Brown, and low income community members in the vicinity of the plant. According to public health models, increased emissions of PM2.5, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the proposed CERC would impose $13 to $21 million in annual health-related costs on Virginians, $3.3 to $4.8 million of which would fall on Chesterfield County alone. PM2.5 emissions from the proposed gas plant project would cause 80 premature deaths in Virginia over the expected 36-year life of the plant, withBlack residents facing a 150% higher risk of death compared to other Virginians.

Due to the severe environmental, health, and ratepayer impacts of the proposed plant, we respectfully request that you issue a public statement reversing your position on the project.

Signed,