By Steve Haner,

Democratic nominee for Governor Abigail Spanberger told the October 9 statewide debate audience that she favors an “all of the above strategy” in addressing Virginia’s massive demand for new electricity in coming years. If she has used that phrase before in this campaign, it hasn’t made the record.

“All of the above” is a slogan more than an energy plan, and plenty of politicians in both parties are quick to use it. It is also a stock phrase used by the Republican candidate, Winsome Earle-Sears. But Earle-Sears was also clear during the debate that she embraces coal and natural gas as thermal generation fuels in “all of the above”, and Spanberger has never embraced either.

The Virginia Clean Economy Act Spanberger supports calls for both fuels to be fully eliminated by utilities and created legal impediments to building new gas plants before the final deadlines for retirement. Spanberger has said in interviews that she understands the existing gas plants are not going away soon (a brave statement of the obvious) but indicated hostility to new ones in the meantime. Building new ones is the issue. 

In responses to both Cardinal News and Inside Climate News, she said:

“At this juncture, natural gas is going to be part of the energy mix into the future… However, I think when it comes to new natural gas infrastructure, that’s where we really need to be focused and sort of thinking carefully about the lifespan of those projects and whether indeed they are the most cost-effective solution.”

Sorry, folks, that is about as clear a statement as anybody gets out of her sometimes, on energy or a host of other issues. If you watched the debate, you saw her artful dodging. But with Dominion Energy in the middle of an application at the State Corporation Commission for a new gas plant in Chesterfield County, her position on “new natural gas infrastructure” matters. And that statement she made would also include “thinking carefully about” natural gas pipelines, with more of those also needed in the near term.

The implication Spanberger could now be open to new hydrocarbon plants might be significant or could be another example where she is seeking to prevent a clear contrast with Earle-Sears. The debate opened with the most prominent example of that, as both candidates desire to eliminate the local car tax and neither has the foggiest idea how to replace the lost revenue. 

The energy discussion in the fractious, painful-to-watch one-hour debate was of even less use than the opening discussion of the “hated car tax.”   One question from the moderators did focus on the challenge created by the explosion of energy-guzzling data centers, to which Spanberger promised she would make them pay their “fair share.” There is another stock political dodge line, but in fairness Earle-Sears didn’t try to answer their question. 

Spanberger used the “all of the above” phrase late in the debate (54:36 on my DVR) after discussing her support for building additional nuclear generation in Virginia, which was not a change of position. She includes nuclear power among the favored alternatives in her on-line campaign website arguing how she would seek to make energy more affordable. 

Along with solar everywhere (roof tops, schools, abandoned mines) she also proposed turning to hydrogen and geothermal. She mentions the $11.3 billion wind project off Virginia Beach as an example of “local energy production.” There is no mention of natural gas or coal in the text, and the phrase “all of the above” is conspicuous for its absence. 

Her mention of support for nuclear during the debate led Virginia Public Media to race to an anti-nuclear activist to raise the specter of radioactive waste for a radio report. In an earlier report on nuclear VPM’s broadcast opened with references to Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The nuclear advocates still underestimate the terror the media is poised to create.  

None of the reporters who might get access to Spanberger to follow up on her “all of the above” line did so in the debate aftermath, but there is still time. Bets? As voters, it is still safe to assume a Governor Spanberger would stand by the Virginia Clean Economy Act as it is now, and if Dominion somehow does get its gas plant approved at the SCC, bills to keep that from happening again might find their way to her desk.