The Daily Signal - The Hidden Costs of Solar: Andy Anderson Exposes the Flaws in Virginia’s Clean Economy Act

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

You may have heard the expression “there are lies, damn lies and then, statistics.” This speaks loudest when the issue of ‘renewable’ energy comes up. We sat down with Andy Anderson, businessman who has been called to testify before the State Corporation Commission on energy costs, who shows us what he uncovered in the ‘statistics’ used to sell the Virginia Clean Economy Act and it’s reliance on Solar Energy.  Keep Up With The Daily Signal   Sign up for our email newsletters:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.dailysignal.com/email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠     Subscribe to our other shows:    The Tony Kinnett Cast: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2284199939⁠ The Signal Sitdown: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL2026390376⁠   Problematic Women:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL7765680741⁠   Victor Davis Hanson: ⁠https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9809784327⁠     Follow The Daily Signal:    X:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal⁠ Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Facebook:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  Truth Social:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  YouTube:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. Thanks for listening to this bonus episode of the Daily Signal podcast. I'm your host, Joe Thomas, Virginia correspondent for The Daily Signal. Before we dive into today's interview, I want to thank you for tuning in today. If you're a first-time listener, The Daily Signal, brings you fact-based reporting and conservative commentary on politics, policy, and culture. And I hope you join our band of regular listeners to our podcast. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and also take a

moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcast. You can find additional content at DailySignal.com. Now, let's get started with today's conversation right after this. A story that we have covered in these spaces multiple times, both in print and podcast, is the story of energy in Virginia, whether it's a data center, wind turbines in the Atlantic, California's energy standards, and the Virginia Clean Energy. Act plus Dominion insisting that it's the data center development that's going to cause your rates to skyrocket. We've covered quite a bit of ground and joining us to take us into one of the big places where

the energy generators and the government itself are pulling a little fast one on statistics. You know the expression. There are lies, damn lies and statistics. Well, that's redoubly the case in electric generation. when it comes to clean energy. Andy Anderson is on with us to take us into the reality of some of this, Andy. Thank you for taking a little time out to debunk some of the myths about solar energy and how much it can do for a community.

How are you doing? I'm doing well, thank you. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, the whole solar, I think, is really not well understood. For example, when a solar plant is advertised is producing like 100 megawatts of power, that's at peak production. But that has to be multiplied by the capacity factor. And that takes into account that the sun doesn't always shine. And per the SEC, that's the state corporation commission that has to approve all our rates.

they look forward and approve these at 25%. So that means it's not really 100 megawatt. It's 25 megawatts. You'll get 100 maybe at noon and you'll get zero at seven. But you average that all out. It's 25%. But then they don't actually even perform the SEC did a study of 25 of, we have to act, 25 in Virginia. of in 23, in 2024.

And they found on average that they actually have a capacity of 21%. And as poor as one place that has 12%, Piney Creek, the Piney Creek Solar Facility has had a 12%. So they're not living up to their promises. The shortfalls are dramatic. So every time a solar field is advertised as a certain capacity, it's false advertising to the ratepayers. So I don't understand why they do that, but they do. And if you kind of step back from how did we get here, you know, it's the solar and wind tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, and along

with all the regulations from the DOE and EPA that put coal plants pretty much out of business and had them decommissioned. Here in Virginia, we've had two. Recently, yeah. Yeah, there's, and we're really lucky this past summer that the DOE didn't decommissioned some coal plants. They gave them 90 days, kept on giving them 90 days and 90 days and 90 days. So we didn't have brownouts. We dodged some bullets this summer, I think, because they did that.

But then the way we got here, obviously for developers, it's most profitable for them to build the solar and wind because they get the tax credits. And then in terms of the utilities, they get a dominion, they get a percentage of project cost as their profit. So solar and wind are much more, are much more expensive to build for. the same effective capacity. And of course, we just talked about the effective, effective capacity, not really being there. Right. And they're forced to decommission reliable energy that runs at 80 to 90 percent capacity. And then the other thing is the solar doesn't run during peak demand periods, which is the morning when you get up and the evening when you get home. Right. So then you've got to. Yeah. And then you've got to. Yeah. And then you've got to.

fill in with the reliable energy, but we're getting rid of the reliable energy. So that's why we have the problems that we do with the brownouts and blockouts and ones that will come here. Another thing that people don't really hasn't been talked about is Virginia is currently, we import more electric power than any other state. So our electricity customers are subject to, it's a PJM, which we have the grid, 12, it covers 12 states. And recent auctions has shown a market woefully out of balance. And so, you know, we're in the situation where Virginia customers have to rely on electricity available and a price from a 12 state consortium.

that is also quickly abandoning reliable power and charging exorbitant rates. My particular electric bill here in Chesterfield County went up 31% since 2022. That's a lot. And that's, yeah. And that was back in 2022, we had that regional gas, RGGI fee that Governor Yonkin got rid of. So if you had that back in again, then it would be more than 31%. So it's pretty sad.

When they play the games with the numbers the way they are, Andy, and they don't get held to account for it. This is how decisions get made. This is how voters support politicians that are in favor of these things because they think they're doing some service for their community. We're not even getting into what some of these solar fields are like down the road, what disposal of it looks like when they cease to generate electricity 25 years from now, or even the fact that their life cycle is far shorter than a natural gas fired power plant.

How perilous are we? Are we really at a crossroads? People in my industry love to use phrases like, we're at the crossroads. But I feel like if we go back to the administration that we saw in between 2013 and 2021, I don't know how much we can turn back the clock. Well, it's going to take a major effort to turn it around. I know that nationally, that certainly they're trying to do that out of the Department of Energy, et cetera, but this is Chris Wright is head of the DOE now, and he's been all the above and he really understands all the markets. So, but with the case of the VCEA, Virginia Clean Economy Act, there has to be some legislative changes for, uh us to be able to have more uh right now we have more reliable energy right now uh dominion

is um trying to get uh one one old cold plant that's uh it has been decommissioned turn into a natural gas plant and um so the that's before the cc now and um and the DEQ department of environmental quality And I did testify or give comment to both of those, and hopefully those will go through. That would be one more piece of less expensive and reliable energy. And that's one of the points I made the SEC is because because the rates are based on a percentage of the project cost. And that's a guaranteed profit. You know, building something like that is going to give us lower rates as well as the reliability. So go ahead.

Well, and the rates, and I think the average reader and perusal of this work will roll their eyes at the idea of rates coming down in electric generation. but we are in a state where the state corporation commission could start pushing for that if we can get the generation back to where we need it to be. You mentioned the PJM, the grid that covers the 12 states. How much control do they wield over what Virginia does, regardless of who the governor or the members of the General Assembly are? Well, that'll depend on how much of their power we need, and if we needed at peak, because everybody else will need it at peak as well. So if we have growth in power needs because of the data centers, then we'll become more and more reliant on the PGM because we're not building capacity here. So it's very

We would really be just at their You know the whims of what are they going to do? Are they going to continue to do just solar and wind? Or are they going to bring back some reliable energy or not? Is it just a will or are there legislative things beyond just the Virginia Clean Economy Act that are standing in the way? You talked about the subsidies and we're right here in the middle of a federal. government partial shutdown where the argument seems to be that they're not subsidizing the Affordable Care Act at the end of the year if they don't get a deal for that.

So what winds up if these subsidies go away? Who's holding the bag for this money, too, Andy? Yeah, the taxpayer. And think about this, too. if Governor Yomkin, he had to beat over 400 bills that the Democrats passed. One of them, a lot of money, and the worst was to amend the Virginia Clean Economy Act to include a huge amount of utility owned long-term battery storage, which would be made in China, adding $18 to $29 billion of capital costs upon the utility ratepayers. And, of course, they'll get their guaranteed profit from that. You know, if it's, so I expect Spamberger wouldn't veto that.

And so that's another cost that's going to go up, whereas obviously Winston Sears would. And she does have an energy platform that is all the above like Governor Juncker did. And he's said a great example with that. So I think, I'm sorry, go ahead, finish up your thought. I didn't mean to interrupt. I was curious to how competitive would solar be without all the subsidies into the rollout into the creation? Would it still be competitive economically to the other electric generation platforms? It's about six times more expensive than a gas.

Oh, my God. Yeah. That's a reality. getting operating. I don't think people realize. And that's not really, yeah. No, and it's not taken into account to decommissioning. And of course, sometimes some of that six times the expense is being covered by the taxpayer.

So someone was paid by a taxpayer. Right. And some of us paid by the rate payer, which we're both. We do both. Yeah. But I mean, that's it. You know, when the subsidies come and then they say, oh, it'll only cost us X. And they'll say, oh, but look, that's equivalent to the cost of, you know,

a coal fire plant, that's with subsidies and all these other things that are making it look like it's more affordable than it is. Correct. Yeah. So true. Yeah. And I think if you look at, you know, the other part of this, too, is that we've all this, the Chinese Communist Party pushed the climate hoax while they built 100 coal plants per year. Yeah. And they sell us 70 to 80% of the solar and wind equipment. And we don't even make power transformers anymore in this country. They all come from outside of the country, most from China. You know, there's been national security issues involved with that. Sure.

And then, you know, they've talked about kill switches in them. They've talked about them being hacked. You know, the FBI has talked about that. I just don't know. it's a critical supply chain that we should be making here. And luckily, Hitachi, who's just announced they're coming to Virginia, they're going to make power transformers here. But that's going to be a while. Yeah, before they're doing that.

It's so many places we've wound up interwoven into this intrigue, Andy. Is there, is there, I guess, maybe a time frame on how we could? if we started today to unwind some of this, how long do you think it would take to really unwind it for the Virginia ratepayers and taxpayers? I would think probably if we go to natural gas of fossil fuels, then it's probably, you know, I would think around three to five years. It's interesting right now. Example, Florida, right now in Florida, they're building a lot of solar, but for commercial users, they're building gas, and they're not given it to the, for the, for commercial use and the, for the commercial customers, as opposed to the residential customers. So they are starting to build gas again in Florida, but they're doing it for the commercial customers. And, of course, you know, Google, et cetera, they're starting to do nuclear for their own.

But that doesn't help us. Right. It helps them. Well, it at least takes them off of our grid if they're doing their own. I guess there's some to that as well. Andy, well, thank you so much. And I think this is a big issue with just three weeks remaining these general assembly races. many of them come down to this.

And I have not heard a lot of it in the last couple of years, but often you will hear questions raised. And I would suggest my friends go to the Virginia Public Access Project and look and see who Dominion Energy is contributing to. That's not a do-all and all of what their viewpoint will be, because I think Dominion often is the one that's just looking at the state corporation commission saying, just tell us what you need us to do and we'll do it. So I don't think that they're the enemy that often the press likes to make them out to be, but they still should be part of the solution, don't you think? Oh, yeah, for sure. They definitely should.

And I think it's interesting, the Dominion put in a 15-year plan and the SEC, you know, they've acknowledged there's just no way that we can get to where the VCEA is. With the current technology, we just can't get to where the VCEA wants us to go. So I don't know how that helps shakes out. No, well, any changes to the VCEA. And then, go ahead. Well, I do believe that there may be some fines involved. in it and those will be passed

alone to the rate payers as well. Yeah. Yeah. And just in terms of great places to learn more about this, I always follow Steve Hayter. Oh, yes.

The Thomas Jefferson Institute. Yes. C-Fact, the CO2 Coalition, and Heartland, all do a really good job. with this type of these type of issues and then heritage itself. Yes, very much so at the avant guard of it.

Andy, thank you so much, sir, for taking some time and giving us some insight into this. And you have a wonderful day, sir. Thank you, Joe. You too. That'll do it for today's show. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new episodes from The Daily Signal. Every weekday you can catch top news in 10 to keep up with the day's top headlines in just 10 minutes. And every weekday afternoon catch Victor Davis Hansen's thoughtful analysis for The Daily Signal. If you like what you hear on this show, would you take a minute and leave us comment?

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