How Virginia Can Meet Its Clean Power Plan Targets

This fact sheet outlines strategies for Virginia to meet and potentially exceed its emission standards under the Clean Power Plan (CPP) by leveraging existing infrastructure, clean energy goals, and market-based mechanisms.

• Virginia's planned coal retirements and clean energy investments are expected to achieve nearly one-third of the required emission reductions between 2012 and 2030. To close the remaining gap and surpass mass-based targets, the state can focus on three areas: meeting a voluntary goal to reduce electricity consumption by 10 percent below 2006 levels by 2022, achieving a voluntary renewable portfolio standard goal of 15 percent of electricity sold from renewable sources by 2025 (relative to 2007 sales), and increasing the utilization of the existing natural gas fleet to 75 percent of capacity.
• The state can maximize economic benefits and cost-effectiveness by adopting a market-based carbon pricing program and increasing energy efficiency investments. A carbon pricing program with interstate emissions allowances priced at $10 per short ton could generate over $100 million in annual average revenue from out-of-state sources between 2022 and 2030. Additionally, the 2014 Energy Plan suggests that robust energy efficiency policy could increase Virginia's GDP by $286 million and add 38,000 jobs by 2030.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). How Virginia Can Meet Its Clean Power Plan Targets. https://www.wri.org/research/how-virginia-can-meet-its-clean-power-plan-targets

Chicago

World Resources Institute. How Virginia Can Meet Its Clean Power Plan Targets. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/how-virginia-can-meet-its-clean-power-plan-targets.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=How Virginia Can Meet Its Clean Power Plan Targets |url=https://www.wri.org/research/how-virginia-can-meet-its-clean-power-plan-targets |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendhow, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{How Virginia Can Meet Its Clean Power Plan Targets}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/how-virginia-can-meet-its-clean-power-plan-targets}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }