Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: Dominion Energy (Dominion) exhibits both supportive and oppositional engagement with science-aligned climate policy. The company engages on US climate policy with a mix of positions, with evidence of advocacy at the federal level and across several states, including North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia. The company has taken increasingly negative positions on federal regulations related to the energy mix and is critical of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. As a board member of the American Gas Association (AGA), Dominion reinforces the AGA’s anti-electrification agenda by promoting a long-term role for fossil gas, including by advocating for state-level legislation that blocks local climate policies aiming to reduce fossil gas in buildings.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: Dominion appears to have limited top-line messaging on climate policy, especially in recent years. In the company’s climate report published in December 2022, CEO Robert Blue appeared to support government regulation to respond to climate change. In the same report, Dominion stated support for the Paris Agreement.
Engagement with Climate-Related Policy: Dominion appears to take a mix of negative and positive positions on US climate policy. At the state level, Dominion has repeatedly opposed Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), including in its 2024 CDP report. As reported by AP News in June 2023, the company supported Governor Youngkin’s plan to withdraw from RGGI, following October 2022 comments to the state Department of Environmental Quality advocating for the repeal; previously, during a May 2022 earnings call, CEO Blue opposed Virginia’s participation, emphasizing that it would result in a financial burden on customers with “no real mitigation” of regional GHG emissions. Dominion appears to take a mix of positions on measures to expand solar access, with a January 2024 Energy News Network article reporting on the company’s opposition to Virginia legislation aiming to expand solar and wind power in the state, while a May 2025 Virginia Mercury article reported on the company’s support for small-scale solar legislation.
Positioning on Energy Transition: Dominion takes mostly negative positions on the energy mix and strategically advocates for fossil gas infrastructure. At the federal level, the company has strategically opposed the Biden administration’s power plant carbon standards, submitting August 2025 joint comments with the Class of ‘85 Regulatory Group that advocated in support of the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the standards, in addition to December 2023 comments and August 2023 comments that opposed the ambition of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s original proposal. Dominion also took legal action to defend fossil gas projects: in July 2023, the company submitted an amicus brief requesting that the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project which had been a focus of negotiations in Congress, be completed.
At the state level, Dominion similarly advocates for the long-term role of fossil gas. In its December 2022 climate report, the company expressed support for gas ban preemption policies, stating that the company is “supporting legislation in our service territory that preserves consumer access to natural gas services.” This statement was confirmed by reporting on Dominion’s advocacy for specific gas ban preemption bills: in June 2023, an S&P Global article stated that the company supported North Carolina House Bill 130, and Pew Charitable Trusts reported in January 2022 that Dominion was involved in introducing Utah House Bill 17. More recently, CEO Blue repeatedly called for Virginia to allow the company to build new gas power plants in order to meet data center-driven energy demands, stating in a November 2024 Washington Post article that “our view is that we’re going to need that gas generation to provide reliable electricity to our customers.”
Industry Association Governance: Dominion published an October 2022 industry association review, however the disclosure did not fully disclose each group’s climate policy engagement and is no longer available on the corporate website as of August 2025. Dominion is a board member of several US groups that strategically oppose climate policy, including the American Gas Association, National Association of Manufacturers, and The Transport Project. The company is also a member of the US Chamber of Commerce, which takes negative positions on US climate policy, and the Edison Electric Institute, which strategically opposed the ambition of the Biden administration’s power plant carbon standards.
A detailed assessment of the company's corporate review on climate policy engagement can be found on InfluenceMap'sCA100+ Investor Hub here.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q3 2025.