The Virginia Way starts out detailing Theresa “Red” Terry’s attempt to keep her family’s land in 2018. It talks about her being up in a tree and being refused food, drawing media attention to not just her but the pipeline issue in general, since she was going to be charged with trespassing on her own land. Pipeline construction was eventually paused in December 2018 when Attorney General Mark Herring SUED Mountain Valley Pipeline for more than 300 alleged environmental pollution violations.
The excerpts on Dominion talk about how Dominion is a monopoly in Virginia, covering 2/3 of the state’s power. They talk about some of the sketchier details of Dominion’s spending, such as their private jets and the fact that the CEO of Dominion, Tom Farrell was the highest paid utility executive in the US despite Dominion being ranked second to last in terms of energy-efficiency. These comments are compared in contrast to other public utilities like water treatment facilities. It’s also mentioned that Dominion somehow didn’t pay ANY federal income taxes in 2018 on about 3 BILLION dollars of profit. The excerpt then goes on to discuss Dominion’s control over government policies and how they are affected by them. The subject then moves to Dominion’s role in elections, and perhaps the most striking part of this reading is the mention of “Dominion’s Virginia Way”, when mentioning Dominion’s attempts to bribe legislators through campaign donations. Anti-Dominion political platforms became popular as a result, as many Virginians are sick of Dominion’s role in pollution across our state. Politicians continued to refuse money from Dominion and former Goldman Sachs executive Michael Bills even contributed money to people who agreed to go up against Dominion with the Clean Virginia Project.
As a result of all the backlash in VA, Dominion simply moved down to South Carolina. But Dominion did a poor job buying the lawmakers, and in a turn of events, a bill was passed in South Carolina to cut rates by 15%. Governor Ralph Northam pledged to put an end to corporate contributions to campaigns if he was elected, and then immediately accepted 50k from Dominion. Dominion introduced a bill that would allow them to double charge consumers, which immediately became everyone’s focus. An amendment was created to avoid this from happening, and Dominion actually lost for once.
In the end Dominion is still a monopoly. But people are starting to realize that the “Virginia Way” is really the Dominion Way.