Charm Offensive Flops: Va. Leaders Pile on Dominion/NextEra Merger

So much for the charm offensive. Five weeks after NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy sweetened their $67 billion merger with bigger bill credits, 1,000 new jobs and a shiny new Richmond office tower (see Sweeter Deal: NextEra/Dominion Add Credits, Jobs to Woo Virginia), Virginia's top leaders and the state's own utility regulators are lined up against the deal as it stands. On Monday, staff at Virginia's State Corporation Commission (SCC) recommended rejecting the deal unless the companies accept a long list of new conditions. That same day, Gov. Abigail Spanberger filed expert testimony calling for a six-year freeze on residential base-rate increases and nearly triple the bill credits. On Tuesday, Attorney General Jay Jones and Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi piled on. Is the deal dead? No. Is it in trouble? Yes. And that raises a question MDN readers should think about: what happens if it falls apart?

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