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Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Wednesday signed an executive order creating the cabinet position of chief energy officer and has appointed Josephus Allmond, a Charlottesville-based staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, to the new role.
Allmond has worked as a staff attorney with SELC for over five years and has served on the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation. He was also co-chair of Spanberger’s energy transition team.
Allmond has experience litigating utility policy cases before the State Corporation Commission. He recently represented environmental advocacy group Appalachian Voices in a rate case for Appalachian Power Company and has weighed in on the Dominion Energy shared solar case to allow for more mid-sized solar projects to be connected to the grid without excessive requirements and costs.
“By maximizing the use of our existing grid, making sure high energy use customers are not driving up energy bills for everyone else, and prioritizing the deployment of more homegrown clean energy and battery storage, we will ensure that our energy future remains sustainable, predictable, and — most importantly — affordable for Virginians,” Allmond said in a statement after his appointment.
In Allmond’s new role, he will work with the state secretary of commerce and trade, the Virginia Department Energy, grid operator PJM Interconnection and utility companies to address the sharp rise in energy costs.
Spanberger said his work will directly address Virginians’ concerns and help the state meet its clean energy goals under the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
“Throughout his career, Mr. Allmond has gained extensive experience in Virginia’s energy industry — through litigating numerous regulatory cases and successfully advocating for legislation to bring Virginia into our energy future,” Spanberger said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Mr. Allmond to address rising energy costs and improve reliability across our Commonwealth.”
As Virginia grapples with the rise in energy demands, heavily accelerated by the proliferation of data centers across the state, Allmond will work with PJM on capacity auction reforms to bring down the cost of buying power from other states, which is often passed down to ratepayers. He will also engage with the SCC and the General Assembly on ways to lower utility rates.
Virginia legislators advanced multiple bills aimed at boosting affordability this year.
An expansion of major utilities’ weatherization programs passed, as well as legislation to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that set up the funding avenues for the emissions-capping program. It’s likely Spanberger will sign that measure into law, as she has pledged the state will renew its RGGI participation.
Lawmakers also gave the green light for more costs to be shifted onto high-load users, such as data centers, to take some pressure off of residential customers.
The General Assembly also failed to pass a budget, after debates over if data centers’ existing sales and use tax exemptions should be kept in or axed from the spending plan.
Virginia currently misses out on an estimated $1.6 billion dollars a year from the exemption, lawmakers in the state Senate said. Data center industry representatives emphasized their multi-billion dollar investments across the commonwealth in response, a stance House legislators support. Lawmakers will return to Richmond in April to work out a final deal on the budget.
Allmond is a native of Chico, California and studied law at Duke University School of Law.
