I'd love to see Virginia embrace stronger regulation on its energy companies, and prevent them from padding out their budgets for capital improvements just to score excess profits that they don't ever end up giving back to ratepayers. At the very least, we need stronger clawback provisions for excess charges; at best, I'd love to see all utility capital improvement proposals tied to rate hike requests independently audited to ensure those costs aren't being inflated for the companies' benefit.

I'd also love to see a stronger push for renewable energy sources including wind and solar; an end to new leases for oil and gas in Virginia; a ban on new pipeline construction; a definite end date for using fossil fuels to generate power in Virginia; economic incentive plans to create green jobs and build alternative energy facilities on the site of closed-down coal mines (those folks deserve our thanks for keeping the lights on for decades, and we shouldn't throw them out of work if we can give them better jobs instead); tax credits and other incentives for homeowners and landlords to install rooftop solar and battery backups; and upgrades to our distribution grid to make it easier for people with solar panels to sell energy back to that grid.