Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi is holding her final 'Energy Costs Listening Tour' meeting next week in Roanoke. She has already hosted sessions in Loudoun, Norfolk, Richmond, and Charlottesville.
The tour comes as NextEra Energy seeks to buy Richmond-based Dominion Energy for $67 billion. That would be the largest utility merger in American history. Opponents want to slow the process, which could wrap up as soon as January.
Hashmi asked the State Corporation Commission to press Dominion and NextEra executives for answers to 64 questions before any approval. The commission oversees utilities and must sign off on the deal. It will also hear public witness testimony starting Nov. 5.
This week, the companies offered new terms for Virginia ratepayers. They said the merger would create 1,000 new jobs in the commonwealth, provide a $10 monthly residential bill credit for the first four years, and fund a $100 million workforce development pool.
NextEra President John Ketchum said the package would help Virginia build more clean energy and infrastructure faster. Dominion told investors it supports efforts to protect residential and small business customers from data center costs. The company also said it would 'remain locally led, separately regulated, and accountable to the State Corporation Commission' after the merger.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger said she remains skeptical of the merger's benefits, especially if they come at the expense of affordability, jobs, or homegrown clean energy goals. She said she supports a 'thorough and comprehensive review' but will not recall lawmakers to take it up.
Why it matters: This is about more than one utility deal. It is about who gets the final say over a massive piece of Virginia's power grid. Ratepayers, workers, and state regulators all have real skin in the game.
The bottom line: Big energy mergers always arrive with promises. The question is whether Virginia gets lower bills and more accountability, or just a bigger company with bigger leverage.