There are appropriate places to drill for oil and gas offshore, and there are inappropriate places. Virginia is one of those inappropriate places, especially considering the huge risks, the marginal return only realized decades from now, and the very heavy investment involved.
Virginia is, however, absolutely ideal for offshore wind!
Writes Bacon's Rebellion: "Virginia's greatest natural energy endowment is not the coal seams of southwest Virginia but the windy expanse of the continental shelf. The potential for generating electricity through windpower is orders of magnitude greater off the coast than it is inland. And unlike Virginia's coal reserves, which are rapidly depleting, wind is renewable."
As I've written before, modelling at Virginia Tech by the researchers of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium (VCERC) has concluded that a wind farm with a footprint the size of Virginia Beach -- about 3% of Virginia's continental shelf -- could supply the equivalent of 20% of the Commonwealth's current electricity needs.
According to a study by researchers at the University of Delaware and Stanford University, the Middle Atlantic Bight, a region of the Atlantic Ocean that runs from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, turns out to be an ideal setting for wind turbines because it is a large area of shallow water, said Willett Kempton of the University of Delaware. "The energy needs of most of the East Coast could be met, or even surpassed, with the installation of over 160,000 turbines," said Willett Kempton of the University of Delaware.
"The low frequency of calms, the high frequency of wind class 3 and above, the low impact of hurricanes and the shallow of the coastal ocean, make the Virginia coastal ocean a unique place for offshore wind energy development", adds VCERC.
Again from Bacon's Rebellion:
"Wind power could represent a two-fer for Virginia. Not only is wind a non-polluting source of energy, it could form the basis of a major new industry. Who would be better equipped to fabricate the massive wind turbines, which are the size of Boeing 747s, and then install them in 50 feet of water than the steel-benders in the Norfolk/Newport News ship-building/repair sector? If Virginia gets the jump on neighboring states, Hampton Roads could become the center of a vibrant new industry."
So let's paint a picture of two beaches: Rehoboth (DE) and Virginia Beach (VA). 
Finally clearing all legislative hurdles, Delmarva Power last month inked a deal with Blue Water Wind whereby a wind farm will be constructed off Rehoboth Beach. It will generate enough power for 50,000 homes and has the capacity to be greatly increased. Maryland's Governor O'Malley is chomping at the bit to do so.
It is estimated that the lucky folks living in this are will pay an additional $5 a month for their wind power compared to their current electric bills where the source of that electricity is the dirty fossil fuels that are today escalating by leaps and bounds. At the rate we're going now, that $5 a month difference will soon be evaporated. Folks are going to be clamoring for wind power.
Now let's visit the Virginia that Sen. Frank Wagner and Rep. Thelma Drake envision...
Well, by the time we realize a single drop of any piddly amount discovered by drilling off Virginia's coasts, Virginia's manufacturing industry will have long before abandoned use of natural gas. As Delegate Al Pollard stated before Congress in June 2007, "[a]s the former chairman of a small manufacturing company, I can say that industry in this country must retool and find new solutions to rising energy costs before the year 2020 when new energy might - just might - come on line from this proposal."
Meanwhile, every neighboring state was smart and dedicated its energies to developing clean renewable energy resources that brought with it a clean energy economy replete with stable, safe jobs with loads of promotional opportunities, where they easily met GHG emissions reduction standards imposed by President Obama, and where they saved taxpayers $ millions in energy costs. Who knows?! Maybe by the year 2027 when Virginia's offshore drilling finally delivers product to whatever manufacturing still wants it, Dominion's Wise County power plant will have finally figured out how to produce what really is "clean coal". Will they have any customers left by that time?