Regardless of the impact the 2024 presidential election results may have had on the energy industry’s transition to cleaner fuel sources, Robert Blue, CEO with Dominion Energy, emphasizes that his company remains steadfast in its approach as "an all-of-the-above company."
To manage risks that inevitably accompany transition, Blue said reliance on diversification is key.
"We have done that for some time, so our focus will continue to be on investments on behalf of our customers in a time of growing energy demand where some of those large customers are very interested in zero carbon and low emitting sources of electricity," he said. "Our investments are driven by customer need, and to some extent, by state policy. We are not driven by federal tax policy. That’s not what drives the growth at our company."
In a panel discussion on how industry might best navigate the transition to cleaner energy in the coming years during Reuters’ Energy LIVE conference and exhibition in Houston, Blue noted that it was not yet clear how the new administration "will shake out related to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), or taxes, generally."
Blue explained that because Dominion Energy is a regulated business, tax credits flow through to its customers, reducing customer rates.
Dominion, Entergy, Duke leaders emphasize flexibility amid transition challenges
From left are Eliecer Viamontes, president and CEO with Entergy and Brian Savoy, CFO with Duke Energy.
"If those go away or change in some form, there may be some impact," he said. "I don’t know what that may be, but in terms of focusing on the company’s plans for our customers for the future, the driving factors are demand, our reliability and our objective — our mission — for reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy. And that stays constant, regardless of what the federal policy may be, going forward."
Co-panelist Eliecer Viamontes, president and CEO with Entergy, reminded conference attendees that "this is the long game. We need to be here for our customers beyond any one administration, and beyond any one political party. We’ve got to think long term."
Regarding the near term, Viamontes said the only thing he sees impacting Entergy are some policies that "we expect might flip — the LNG pause, for example.
"That is a real indicator in terms of the type of load growth we are counting on, which had a pause on it, but we see it being unleashed with the new administration," Viamontes said. "There is going to be more of a load forecast change for us, more upward than downward, from that standpoint."
Viamontes said he recognizes that regional growth has been driven largely by IRA credits.
"Depending on what gets removed, we know that could have a net down effect," he admitted. "We are following that part closely because it does have real implications as far as the types of loads that we’re seeing in our sector."
Co-panelist Brian Savoy, CFO with Duke Energy, said flexibility and adapting to resource planning helped his company when the EPA’s Clean Air Act Section 111 was published in April 2024, setting final carbon pollution standards for power plants that will protect public health and reduce harmful pollutants.
"Time will tell what happens in the new administration, but as it changes, we have flexibility in our plans to pivot as we need to," Savoy said. "That flexibility is critical because with what we are building today, our known technologies are scalable. Solar, batteries, natural gas — that’s not going to change in the next three or four years. But in five or six years, things might change with the policy changes, and we’re ready to pivot in that scenario.
"I’ll just say, we are excited to work with the new administration and the new Congress as they are appointed," Savoy concluded, "and we will run our business under the law."
