Abigail Spanberger won Virginia’s governor race last November by promising to lower electricity costs. This is the same Virginia that hosts the world’s largest concentration of AI data centers - those energy-sucking behemoths that have the state’s biggest utility sweating over an expected power demand surge. So it might seem odd that the Democrat just signed a bill rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a carbon pricing program that makes utilities pay for every ton of CO2 they emit. Yes, the same kind of “cap-and-trade” that typically raises costs, which then get passed to consumers. But supporters say RGGI could actually protect Virginians from shouldering the data center boom’s costs, using pollution permit revenues to lower energy bills and speed up the shift off fossil fuels. The 10 other states in RGGI have reduced emissions twice as fast as the rest of the U.S. since 2009, mostly by swapping coal for natural gas. Virginia’s largest utility, Dominion, previously passed RGGI costs to customers as a $4.50 monthly surcharge. Now that Virginia is rejoining, a Dominion rep told Grist it will seek to reimpose that surcharge. Meanwhile, RGGI permit prices have doubled to $16 per ton, and Virginia’s energy consumption has jumped 15% due to AI data centers, which now guzzle 20% of the state’s electricity - projected to hit 50% by 2030. Before leaving RGGI in 2022 under Republican Glenn Youngkin, Virginia spent about $250 million in RGGI funds on low-income home efficiency upgrades like weatherization and HVAC improvements. Data centers will likely foot a large share of the rejoining bill, as Dominion recently rolled out a rate structure forcing “large load” users to pay most of their power costs. Still, experts disagree on how much RGGI will accelerate Virginia’s fossil fuel phaseout, given the state already mandates Dominion to ditch fossil plants by 2045 - though the utility can keep them open to avoid blackouts. Dominion has brought 2 gigawatts of solar online, plans 16 more gigawatts, and is building the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, but it’s also expanding a gas plant and spending more on gas than solar. The utility said phasing out fossil fuels would cost $270 billion, which environmental groups dispute. “I don’t see a magic wand,” said Shuting Pomerleau of the American Action Forum. But RGGI supporters argue the financial nudge will make solar and batteries look more appealing. “RGGI will be a direct price signal,” said Jamie Dickerson of the Acadia Center.