Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger filed expert testimony with the State Corporation Commission calling on NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy to freeze residential electricity rates for six years and triple monthly customer bill credits if their proposed $67 billion merger is to be approved.
Spanberger said any merger involving Virginia's primary state-regulated utility "must benefit families, small businesses, and Virginia's workforce — not just the shareholders of these multi-billion-dollar corporations." Without enforceable commitments that protect ratepayers and lower energy costs, she urged the commission to reject the merger.
In August, Spanberger became the first Governor of Virginia to intervene in a case before the State Corporation Commission, filing a Notice of Participation as Respondent. She announced her decision to intervene in a Washington Post opinion article, laying out three priorities: affordable energy bills for Virginians, protecting the utility workforce, and accelerating progress toward affordable, reliable, local, and clean power.
Under the specific commitments sought in her testimony, the companies would implement a six-year freeze on base residential electricity rates, triple monthly ratepayer bill credits to $29 per month for four years, and adopt changes to lower the residential share of costs by 25 percent. The governor also called for improved protections against utility disconnections, stronger investments in energy efficiency and distributed energy resources, and elimination of the cap on the rooftop solar net metering program.
Dr. Richard McCann, a leading expert on energy and environmental policy who has consulted on energy policy since 1985 and testified before regulatory agencies more than 50 times, provided expert testimony on behalf of Spanberger and Chief Energy Officer Josephus Allmond.