Shareholders voted by over 80% at the 2022 Dominion Energy (the Company) annual meeting for the resolution asking for the Company to prepare a Report on the risk and impacts of natural gas use. The resulting 2023 Dominion A Stranded Risk Assessment was inadequate in addressing the Company’s liability risk.

The April 2024 Congressional Joint Staff Report on Denial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak: Big Oil’s Evolving Efforts To Avoid Accountability For Climate Change revealed the following information:

? “New documents demonstrate that Big Oil companies:

? seek to position natural gas as a “bridge fuel” between coal and cleaner, renewable energy, while enmeshing natural gas in the U.S. energy economy for the long-term;

? seek to portray natural gas as a green, climate-friendly fuel, while internally acknowledging that there is significant scientific evidence that the lifecycle emissions from gas are as bad as coal and are incompatible with scientific emissions reduction targets;...

? privately lobby—either directly or through their trade associations— against pro-climate legislation and regulations that they publicly claimed to support;...

? The fossil fuel industry relies on trade associations to spread confusing and misleading narratives and to lobby against climate action. Fossil fuel companies use trade associations, think tanks, and other nonprofits to influence public policy proposals and messaging…”

In 2023 the Supreme Court ruled that the cases holding fossil fuel companies liable for extreme weather destruction must be heard through the state courts.

Shareholders are concerned that future state court rulings could “lead to a “tidal wave” of new cases, similar to the nationwide push that forced tobacco companies to pay billions under a settlement reached in the 1990s”.

Even though methane accelerates extreme weather events, the Company is continuing to work on building new gas infrastructure and interfering with state legislatures, both activities that increase the Company’s liability risk.

The 2023 Dominion A Stranded Risk Assessment included this statement “We acknowledge the risks associated with natural gas bans in certain jurisdictions, and the company is working with policymakers to maintain customers’ access to natural gas in accordance with their preferences and expectations. Legislation preserving customer choice has already been passed in many of the states in which our gas business operates.”

In South Carolina, Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper are lobbying the state legislature to support a 2,000-megawatt natural gas power plant despite regulatory concerns. Farther north, Dominion also plans new gas generation in Virginia. The Company has supported Power For Tomorrow which was responsible for scaring voters to oppose clean energy legislation.