In a letter sent to the State Corporation Commission this week, Ghazala Hashmi urged the commissioners to more closely scrutinize the planned merger of Dominion Energy, the commonwealth’s largest electric utility provider, and Florida-based NextEra Energy.
If the merger materializes, it would create the largest utility company in the nation.
What Dominion and NextEra Energy’s proposed merger means for Virginia customers
Hashmi said that before the companies file their acquisition with state regulators, they should complete a rigorous questionnaire that would shed more light on the deal’s “unprecedented implications” for Virginia ratepayers who have raised concerns over how it could impact “their rising energy costs and daily lives,” the letter stated.
The State Corporation Commission process already includes 28 baseline questions that the companies must answer before the official consideration of the merger begins. But the lieutenant governor said that the magnitude of the merger calls for more transparency to avoid key information being left out of the discovery process once the case begins.
“The existing baseline questions allow the applicants to frame the narrative in their own terms, potentially omitting the details, rigorous data support, and challenging topics necessary for a true public-interest review,” Hashmi wrote.
Hashmi’s missive contained 64 questions that aim to hone in on why NextEra selected Dominion for purchase, seek proof that the combined companies would be able to finance, buy, build, and operate more efficiently and glean a deeper explanation of the proposed bill credits for customers.
The companies shouldn’t be opposed to answering the additional questions, Hashmi wrote, because “both companies share the goal of ensuring that the Commission and the public have full knowledge of all reasons for and possible effects of the transaction.”
Hashmi’s letter follows an op-ed she published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last week in which she proposed commissions extend the merger review process from six months to a year to ensure thorough investigation into its necessity and the potential impacts on residents.
Some Virginia lawmakers flagged concerns about the merger due to NextEra’s past failed attempts to court other utilities in Texas, South Carolina and Hawaii.
Through a House budget amendment, legislators tried to give themselves the ability to weigh in on this process.
Virginia General Assembly approves Spanberger’s budget amendments, ending monthslong impasse
The measure, which didn’t make it into the final version of the spending plan, would have allowed for the governor and Senate and House leaders to formally respond to the State Corporation Commission’s decisions on the sale or purchase by a Phase I or Phase II utility, including Dominion and NextEra.
The budget amendment also would have extended the review process to 270 days, or eight months, with an option to add on an additional 90 days.
Dominion and NextEra have not officially filed their application of acquisition with the State Corporation Commission, which they announced in May. Once they do, the law mandates the State Corporation Commission respond to it within six-months.
