Virginia lieutenant governor opposes NextEra-Dominion merger as hearings open

Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi has come out against NextEra Energy's planned all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy as public hearings on the transaction begin. Her office's report on a listening tour that stopped in Loudoun County, Norfolk, Richmond, Charlottesville and Roanoke found that in Loudoun — home to a high concentration of data center development — most speakers opposed the acquisition or demanded heightened scrutiny, while one commenter supported it on demand growth, innovation, investment capacity and economic competitiveness grounds, according to Utility Dive.

Hashmi's report says the merger would pose a risk to Virginians because NextEra has "thousands of individual project entities, many in businesses far riskier than a regulated utility." It also says NextEra has not provided assurances on limits to future acquisitions or on whether the Virginia State Corporation Commission will have review authority, and offers no assurance that it will not put other ventures ahead of Virginia's needs. The report raises stranded-asset risk if projected demand does not materialize, leaving residential customers "paying for even more of the cost of what NextEra builds."

NextEra announced the all-stock acquisition in May. The companies have said the deal would create the largest regulated utility in the world, with 10 million customers in four states and a 130-GW large load pipeline, and they expect it to close in 12 to 18 months subject to regulatory approval.

NextEra spokesperson Neil Nissan told Utility Dive the company is disappointed by the lieutenant governor's decision and respectfully disagrees with it. He said Dominion Energy Virginia would retain local leadership and remain fully regulated by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and that the companies have pledged to work with Virginia leaders to protect families and small businesses from paying for infrastructure needed to serve data centers.

Dominion Energy spokesperson Rayhan Daudani pointed to the benefits package the two companies announced Sept. 14. He told Utility Dive it expands residential bill relief, strengthens long-term affordability, protects customers from merger costs, expands support for customers in hardship and helps ensure data centers pay their fair share. NextEra chairman, president and CEO John Ketchum said in a release about the package that the companies were reaffirming support for the SCC, governor and General Assembly's efforts to shield residential and small business customers from data center costs.

Hashmi's specific complaint — that NextEra's project entities extend beyond regulated utility risk — is a holdco-structure question, the kind that determines how much parent-level leverage and non-utility exposure sits above a rate-regulated subsidiary. As this publication has argued, collateral, minimum billing demand and exit fees are turning utility rate schedules into the first test every project in the queue has to clear, and Virginia's proceeding is where that test meets a $100bn-plus scale transaction.