The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), representing the Chesterfield County branch of the NAACP, Appalachian Voices, and Mothers Out Front, filed an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court on Wednesday to challenge the State Corporation Commission's (SCC) decision to allow Dominion Energy to build the Chesterfield Energy Reliability Center (CERC) gas plant. The 1.47 billion dollar project with a capacity of 944 megawatts was approved by the SCC in November 2025 and is expected to be completed in 2029.
SELC argues that the SCC failed to properly evaluate the disproportionate impact on surrounding communities under Virginia's Environmental Equity Act. SELC attorney Grayson Holmes stated: "They failed to conduct the analysis as required by law.
The group also contends that Dominion's fuel cost estimates omitted the December to March period, which accounts for 75% of the plant's useful life, resulting in understated figures. Dominion maintains that the project is necessary to ensure grid reliability as demand consumption is rising at historic levels.
The Environmental Equity Act and the Clean Economy Act are not just good ideas — they are laws that Dominion must comply with and the SCC must enforce.
Analysis
This lawsuit raises a core legal question: can the SCC approve major infrastructure projects while disregarding environmental equity analysis obligations.
This is not the first time Dominion has faced legal pressure over its energy strategy. The 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act established a roadmap to eliminate carbon fuels by 2045 — but Dominion argues that the gas plant can still exist within that framework thanks to grid reliability exemption clauses. The SCC accepted this argument. The Virginia Supreme Court must now decide whether the SCC's interpretation of that authority is correct.
Dominion's real weakness lies in the fuel cost estimation issue. If the company projected costs for only two-thirds of the operating time in a year but claims the plant will operate on the hottest and coldest days — that is, during both winter and summer — then that contradiction will be very difficult to defend in court.
In terms of policy, the consequences of this case extend beyond Chesterfield. If the Virginia Supreme Court requires the SCC to conduct more thorough environmental equity analysis, it will set a precedent for numerous energy projects awaiting approval across the state, where communities of color and low-income populations often bear disproportionate pollution burdens.
Diaspora Impact
Two specific Vietnamese American communities have reason to closely follow this lawsuit.
First, Vietnamese American residents in the Richmond and Chesterfield County area — where the Vietnamese community has settled since the 1980s — live within the direct radius of the plant. If SELC loses the case and CERC begins operations in 2029, they will face additional air pollution from a facility operating an estimated 33% of the time each year, according to SCC records.
Second, Vietnamese American homeowners and real estate investors in the Richmond Metro area must account for the possibility of rising electricity bills: if the Supreme Court rejects the appeal and Dominion is allowed to recover the 1.47 billion dollars through a rate adjustment clause, that cost will be passed directly to consumer electric bills in Dominion's service area for years to come.