So, let me get this straight. Dominion Energy, the company that sends me a bill every month that seems to be written in some ancient, unknowable currency, just dropped its new "plan" for Virginia. And buried in the corporate jargon and sunny projections is a little nugget just for you and me: our electricity bills are set to double, maybe even triple, by 2045.

They want us to be paying $268 a month. Or, if you use the state's math—which, call me crazy, I trust a little more than the company charging me—it's more like $381. Per month.

And for what? So a handful of tech giants can build more soul-crushing, windowless data centers in Northern Virginia to store cat videos and our targeted ad profiles. This isn't a plan. It's a shakedown. And while Justin Leonard buries eagle on final hole to win Dominion Energy Charity Classic—give me a break with that name—the company was teeing up the rest of us for a future of energy feudalism.

The Green Paint Job on a Gas-Powered Engine

Dominion's big filing is a masterclass in corporate double-speak. On one hand, they're bragging about their "largest proposal to date" for solar and battery projects. They're dutifully nodding to the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), the law that says the state has to go green. It all sounds great on the press release.

But then you read the fine print.

Their 20-year roadmap to meet this surge in demand includes, and I am not making this up, six new natural gas-powered plants. This is a bad idea. No, 'bad' doesn't cover it—this is a five-alarm dumpster fire of logic. They are literally telling the state regulators that they don't see a "viable way" to meet demand and comply with the 2045 law that mandates retiring these exact kinds of plants.

So which is it? Are we saving the planet or are we building a bunch of new fossil fuel infrastructure that will become expensive, useless monuments in 20 years? It’s like watching someone announce they’re going on a diet by ordering a family-sized meat lover's pizza for dinner. It’s not a plan; it’s a confession that you have no intention of sticking to the plan. You're just saying the words you think people want to hear. And offcourse, they’re hoping we’re all too busy trying to figure out how to pay our skyrocketing bills to notice the contradiction.

What happens in 2044 when these multi-billion dollar gas plants are still humming along? Does anyone actually believe they’ll just flip a switch and write off the investment? Or will a new army of lobbyists descend on Richmond demanding the "common sense" repeal of the VCEA to "protect the grid"? We all know the answer to that. This ain't their first rodeo.

A Charity Classic for Whom, Exactly?

I have to circle back to the golf tournament. The timing is just... perfect. As they're filing documents that outline a future where Virginians are squeezed for every last cent, they're polishing their public image at the Country Club of Virginia. You can almost picture it: executives in crisp polo shirts, shaking hands on a perfectly manicured green, the "Dominion Energy" logo plastered on everything that isn't moving. It's a world away from the communities that will have to live next to their new gas plants, breathing whatever comes out of those stacks.

Consumer advocates are already pointing out the complete lack of analysis on the health impacts of these proposed plants. But who has time for that when there's a PGA playoff event to sponsor? It’s the modern corporate playbook: create the problem, then slap your name on a charity event to prove you’re one of the good guys.

This whole spectacle feels like a calculated distraction. Look at the shiny object, the golf balls, the big check for charity. Don't look at the 20-year projection that saddles you, your kids, and maybe even your grandkids with higher costs and more fossil fuels. Don't ask why the regional grid operator, PJM, is apparently so backed up that it's easier to spin up a new gas plant than to connect approved solar farms. It's just easier to blame the middleman. Then again, maybe I'm the crazy one for thinking a power company's primary job is to provide affordable power, not to host a golf tour.

The Data Center in the Room

Let's be real about what's driving this. It’s the insatiable, frankly terrifying, energy appetite of the data center industry. Dominion projects energy use will double by 2045, with a 5% increase every single year. That isn't because we're all leaving our lights on. It's because Northern Virginia has become the physical backbone of the internet.

Dominion's spokesman, Aaron Ruby, is quick to point out that data centers are paying a 10% larger share of transmission costs than they were five years ago. Okay, great. But what is their share of the demand? If their demand has grown by 500% and their cost-share has only grown by 10%, that sounds like a hell of a deal for them and a raw deal for the rest of us. We're being asked to subsidize the infrastructure for the wealthiest corporations on the planet.

This whole plan is built on a future that serves Big Tech, not the average citizen of Virginia. They need the power, Dominion provides it, and we get the bill. The proposal for small modular nuclear reactors and wind farms sounds futuristic and cool, but that's a decade or more away. The gas plants and the rate hikes are what's real, and what's coming soon. They're building a system where our wallets are permanently tethered to the profit margins of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and honestly...

You're Paying for Their Party

Let's drop the pretense. This isn't a clean energy plan. It's a blank check, written from our bank accounts to Dominion Energy and its largest corporate customers. They've looked at the future, saw a gold rush in data processing, and figured out a way to make us pay for the shovels. The solar panels and wind turbines are just the fancy wrapping paper on a box full of fossil fuels and rate hikes. They're building their future, not ours. And we're expected to just sit here, check the `dominion energy login` portal every month, and pay up with a smile. I don't think so.