After Senator Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) abortive Vice Presidential campaign with Hillary Clinton in 2016, many people outside of Virginia likely assumed they would not hear from him again.

After years out of the spotlight, allegations that Kaine is engaging in a pay-for-play operation with an energy developer have surfaced.

Kaine has aggressively pushed for offshore wind projects in Virginia and across the United States, with a proposal prominently featured on his Senate page.

“He supports investing in renewable energy, including offshore wind and solar, which would not only make Virginia a leader in clean energy development and create new jobs that can’t be outsourced but would also reduce pollution and bolster our national security.” A section from his page on the Senate website says.

This week, it was revealed that he may have a financial stake in promoting offshore wind energy as an energy development giant, Dominion Energy, has funneled tens of thousands of dollars in to his re-election campaign.

Already, Dominion’s tens of thousands in political donations to Kaine has earned them the right to develop Virginia’s first offshore wind farm, known as Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).  The farm will take up over 100,000 acres of land and could support up to 205 turbines.

Unsurprisingly, Kaine has been a vocal supporter of the project, even writing a letter to the  Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), asking them to expedite their review process and skip over regulatory hurdles to get the project approved faster.

FOX News Reports–

https://twitter.com/sharonwanless/status/1654846977115389954

A multibillion-dollar energy developer has wired tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine’s campaign in recent years while aggressively pushing a massive offshore wind project.

The Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy’s political action committee (PAC) has funneled $23,000 to Kaine for Virginia since 2011, with the latest, a $1,500 contribution, coming in February. In that same time span, Dominion Energy has given another $44,500 to Common Ground PAC, the leadership PAC affiliated with and chaired by Kaine.

Since 2021, Dominion Energy executives led by CEO Robert Blue and Senior Vice President William Murray have donated $19,600 to Kaine’s campaign. At the same time, lobbyists who Dominion has contracted made payments totaling $3,000 to the campaign.