“Energy and Freedom” — Gov. Youngkin speaks at energy summit

By Sophia Clifton

On Wednesday, Oct. 18, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin spoke at the 2023 Energy Freedom Summit in Tysons, hosted by the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as well as the Maryland Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Youngkin began his speech by addressing what “the future of the energy and power industry is all about. It’s about innovation. And that is at the heart of accelerating to the future.”

“It’s groundbreaking, because when we come together and collectively put ourselves against an objective, we will move mountains.”

The governor then got to the crux of his whole address: “It’s not energy, it’s energy and freedom. It’s energy and freedom. And these two words go together in so many ways.”

Youngkin said he was first using the word freedom to refer to “the entrepreneurial freedom that having reliable and affordable and increasingly clean power presents to Virginians and all Americans.” He then explained his deeper reasoning for using both terms.

“But almost more important today — than the national security interest of having a power and energy sector that fully takes advantage of America’s ability to supply itself — is America’s ability to embrace all aspects of our natural resources and our great innovation.”

“The way we’re going to achieve great things together is through collaboration,” Youngkin said. “We in fact, know that the American Dream is available to everyone. But if we don’t collaborate in opening up opportunities, it’s harder for some versus others.”

Youngkin then began to speak about the Hispanic American community across the nation, citing a couple key statistics in the state.

“The Hispanic community start businesses faster than any other group. On average here we see in Virginia now that we have over 30,000 Hispanic owned businesses, and of course, the Hispanic population is approaching a million Virginians.”

The governor continued. “Exciting things are happening in the Commonwealth of Virginia if you hadn’t noticed. In fact, there’s a lot of people paying attention to what’s going on. We for the first time in 10 years, are seeing every ounce of data point to the fact that the Commonwealth is growing at an unprecedented rate.”

“I had to go buy new scissors because I’ve worn out mine on ribbon cutting so much over the course of the last year,” Youngkin quipped.

“We have more people working in the Commonwealth of Virginia than in the history of the state. More people in our labor force, more labor, higher labor participation in any time in the last now 12 years,” he said.

With all this growth comes a much greater demand for power — “five times” as much, to be exact. But Youngkin assured summit attendees that “Virginia is ready” to rise to the occasion.

“Innovation is in our in our hearts for one of the largest hydroelectric pumped storage facilities in the nation, which is in Bath County to the first commercial nuclear reactor in the nation,” he said. “To our two nuclear facilities now having 80-year licenses, which truly lead the nation.”

“We’re ready to lead. And as the Secretary said just this past Monday, with the award from the Department of Energy for our Jefferson Lab to build a high performance data facility, which will be the world’s most modern super computing and data analytic capability. We are ready to solve big problems, from Northern Virginia to southwest Virginia, to Virginia Beach,” Youngkin said proudly.

“Now as we grow and unleash opportunity families and businesses need to have confidence that when they flip the switch, the lights will come on. That confidence extends to our neonatal units that need to always be functioning … our many seniors who now recognize Virginia’s ranking as the number one place in America to retire. We need the air conditioning to work in their homes in the summer. This is all part of the demand equation, which is stressing the system,” Youngkin stated.

“Three years ago, Virginians were told that the future of powering our homes and harnessing the business aspirations of the future were limited to a single approach that narrowed our options, demanded the retirement of clean burning natural gas facilities and rejected the concept of innovation going forward,” Youngkin said. He explained that such an approach set unrealistic expectations and unleashed increased costs, “putting Virginia’s power future at risk.”

He continued, “But we collectively have a different plan in motion. We believe that we can, with confidence, march towards a future that has reliable, affordable and increasingly clean power and energy.”

“Earlier this year, I was pleased to work alongside our partners at our state utilities … to pass legislation that then I was able to sign that reduces power prices for consumers across Virginia. These legislative actions will reduce the per monthly bills for the typical Virginia family by $14 a month.” 

Youngkin said he also signed 10 additional new bills that “take a giant step towards enabling a power future that is affordable, reliable, and increasingly clean.”

“One of these bills created the Virginia Power Innovation Fund, which will provide support to research and develop innovative energy technologies.”

The new legislation also includes “nuclear hydrogen carbon capture, yes investing in a more advanced battery storage,” Youngkin said. “We have to innovate our way to success as opposed to hoping that it will happen and already taking actions that put the Commonwealth’s power future at risk.”

The governor also highlighted the nuclear education grant fund among the recent legislation, saying it will empower Virginia’s higher education system “to make us the absolute leader in talent development and technological research in order to make sure that nuclear power is at the cornerstone of our power future.”

Youngkin then circled back to the challenge the commonwealth faces in meeting the growing demand for power.

“Last year, the state corporation commission, our regulator here in Virginia, warned in an annual report that the energy reliability in Virginia is in jeopardy. … If states like Virginia continue to turn off power generation without bringing new resources online, the Mid Atlantic may see blackouts and brownouts at a rate never seen before,” Youngkin said.

“This is where we collectively seize an opportunity to run towards this need,” he said. “I pledged and we are working towards reducing 25% of the regulatory burdens in Virginia. But we also know that we have to take major strides in making it easier to do business.”

“Our Department of Environmental Quality has made huge strides in shortening the permitting process for air and water permits. So new opportunities, new manufacturing facilities, new power generating facilities can come to market faster. We’ve rolled out real transparency in the whole process,” Youngkin said.

“Finally, when we grab hold of an opportunity, and treat it like the groundbreaking, fundamentally changing the future opportunity that they can be, we can move mountains.”

Youngkin continued, saying Virginia should “face our own moonshot opportunity” and become “the very first state to operationalize in a commercial fashion, a small modular reactor.”

The governor wrapped up his speech by sharing how he believes Virginia can accomplish this incredible feat.

“You see in Virginia, we’re builders, we’re innovators, we’re doers. And this is just the beginning. This is why this conference matters so much. Energy and freedom.”

He continued, “It is the energy of the Hispanic community that we want to absolutely harness. It is the freedom that we all celebrate at the bedrock of this great nation. It is the partnership that brings together capabilities that when brought together allow us to accomplish amazing things. It is the uniform belief that we all in God’s great image have unlimited opportunity and capability. And when we unleash all of that — hang on folks because Virginia is on the move.”