WASHINGTON — Five Democratic members of Virginia’s U.S. House delegation want state regulators to turn down NextEra Energy’s proposed takeover of Dominion Energy as written. In a letter to the State Corporation Commission, they say the deal could leave Virginia families and small businesses paying higher electric bills for decades.
The letter went in ahead of the commission’s Nov. 12 deadline for public comment, U.S. Rep. James Walkinshaw said in a statement. Walkinshaw signed it along with Reps. Don Beyer, Jennifer McClellan, Suhas Subramanyam and Eugene Vindman.
“As proposed, we do not believe the merger is in the public interest. We believe the proposed transaction fails to satisfy the statutory requirements and because the joint petition lacks the structural protections necessary to prevent material harm, the Commission should deny the merger petition in its current form.”
The Act, the letter notes, lets the commission approve an acquisition only if it finds that “adequate service to the public at just and reasonable rates will not be impaired or jeopardized.” Applicants, the members wrote, “must prove that the transaction causes no harm to captive customers.”
Northern Virginia’s data center boom drives much of the case, the members wrote. NextEra’s investor materials tout the capital spending that growth makes possible, much of it transmission lines whose costs are spread across residential customers. Households, they argued, could pay carrying charges on that bigger rate base for decades.
And if revenue from the big power users does not cover the full cost of the buildout, they warned, the shortfall lands with ratepayers, who could be stuck with stranded assets.
Competition was another concern. A utility of the combined company’s size, the members wrote, could favor its own transmission and generation and shut out rivals, pushing wholesale prices up. The Independent Market Monitor, the letter noted, found that the combined company’s “scale, financial strength, and operational breadth all enhance market power and any economic gains are more likely to accrue to investors rather than customers.”
On rates, the members said the petition offers no moratorium on base rate increases, no cap on escalating rate adjustment clauses and no binding requirement to pass operational savings on to customers. The customer bill credits and EnergyShare funding in the proposal are temporary, they wrote, and Dominion has already asked the commission this year for a $10-a-month increase tied to fuel costs.
Governance Concerns Raised
The letter further questioned NextEra’s corporate governance, pointing to a $150 million settlement resolving what the members described as political interference and dark money schemes, including funding for “ghost candidates” and covert surveillance of an investigative journalist. The company’s federal lobbying against renewable energy incentives, they added, conflicts with the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
At a minimum, the members urged the commission to require the long-term rate protections recommended by its own staff and the substantially larger bill credits recommended by the governor’s office before any merger proceeds. Commission staff have recommended rejecting the petition as written.
Companies Defend the Deal
The companies have defended the deal. In rebuttal testimony filed Nov. 3, NextEra and Dominion said they had accepted 101 of the 117 conditions proposed by commission staff and the attorney general’s consumer counsel, and another 13 with modifications. Their package includes four years of shareholder-funded residential bill credits and an additional $100 million for EnergyShare, and the companies said they remain confident the merger meets Virginia’s legal standard.
The commission’s evidentiary hearing in the case is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Nov. 17. A decision is due by Jan. 11, 2027.