Virginia Plants Must Surrender Extra Pollution Allowances for 2025
Published Date: 10/1/2026
Rule
Summary
The EPA found that some power plants in Virginia released more nitrogen oxides than allowed in 2025. Because of this, those plants must give up extra pollution allowances to make up for the extra emissions. This update affects Virginia’s power plants and kicks in starting October 1, 2026, ensuring cleaner air and fair trading rules.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 2 costs, 1 mixed.
Virginia exceeded NOX assurance — 160 allowances due
Virginia units in the CSAPR NOX Ozone Season Group 2E Trading Program exceeded the State assurance level by 80 tons for the 2025 control period, triggering a requirement to surrender 160 additional NOX allowances. This obligation applies to the owners and operators of the affected Virginia units.
Who must cover the extra allowances and deadline
EPA’s final calculations allocate the responsibility for the 160 additional allowances primarily to the group of units operated by Hopewell Power Generation, LLC, with smaller shares apportioned to groups operated by Wolf Hills Energy, LLC; Dominion Generation; and Calpine Operating Services Company, Inc. Each identified set of owners and operators must hold the required additional allowances in an assurance account by November 2, 2026.
EPA corrected allocation inputs after objections
After receiving three objections to its preliminary calculations, EPA updated its data by correcting the Designated Representative for Hopewell Power Station, updating Remington Combustion Turbine Station Units 1, 2, and 4 emissions based on an August 2026 resubmittal, and correcting the Operator associated with the Designated Representative Hunt from Wolf Hills Energy, LLC to Tenaska Virginia Partners, LP. EPA applied program procedures to the updated data to produce the final apportionment.
EPA published spreadsheet with final calculations
EPA posted an Excel spreadsheet titled "Final 2025 CSAPR Assurance Provision Calculations--Virginia" showing each affected Virginia unit's reported 2025 NOX emissions, allocated CSAPR allowances (including new unit set-asides), the State total exceedance, and the final per-group calculations for additional allowances. The file is available at the EPA CSAPR assurance-provision NODA web page.
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