Citizen Portal
Sign In

Senate panel trims membership of distributed energy task force, recommends bill conceptually

Senate of Virginia Subcommittee (Richmond) · February 11, 2026

Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts

Subscribe
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

A subcommittee backed a pared-down distributed energy task force to study how to integrate distributed solar, batteries and other resources; members reduced the panel to 12 and asked staff to explore budget options before finalizing staffing and costs.

Senate subcommittee members voted to amend and report conceptually a bill establishing a distributed energy resources task force, narrowing the panel’s membership and directing staff to work on staffing arrangements.

Sponsor testimony said the task force is intended to bring stakeholders together to maximize distributed energy resources — including urban distributed solar and battery storage — to better use the Commonwealth’s electricity grid and support local decision-making. The bill initially proposed a flexible membership of 25 to 35 people and a potential staff position. Fiscal staff said legislative compensation costs would be minimal but that any added staff could create a fiscal note if placed in the lieutenant governor’s office.

Members debated scaling back the panel. Senator Deeds moved to reduce membership to 12 and retain the lieutenant governor’s office as a listed participant; the motion was seconded and adopted. Committee fiscal staff suggested alternatives for staffing, including assigning work to existing department staff if the extra LG staffer were removed.

After the amendment, the sponsor moved — and the committee voted — to report the bill conceptually as amended so that legislators and budget staff could identify funding or place the panel’s work into the budget. Committee discussion recorded concern about quorum and manageability for very large panels and preferred a smaller, more workable group.