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NextEra Moves to Acquire Dominion Energy, Clean Virginia Urges Extreme Caution
NextEra corrupted Florida’s elections and raised its customers’ bills to record levels. If NextEra and Dominion cannot commit to binding reductions in customer bills and an end to political interference, this deal should be dead on arrival.
Richmond, Va. – Clean Virginia today responded to the announcement that NextEra Energy has entered an agreement to acquire Dominion Energy, calling on Governor Spanberger, Attorney General Jones, Virginia lawmakers, national regulators, and the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to subject the proposed merger to the most rigorous scrutiny possible.
“This deal would hand control of Virginia’s electric grid to a company with a deeply troubling track record,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia. “Before Virginia ratepayers are locked into a relationship with NextEra Energy, every policymaker and regulator in the Commonwealth needs to understand what NextEra has done in Florida and ask hard questions about whether Virginians can expect anything different.”
“Virginians don’t choose their electric utility. That’s why the law requires utilities to serve the public interest — and precisely why any merger must be judged by one standard: does it make life better for the people who have no other option?” Gilmore continued.
NextEra, through its principal Florida Power & Light (FPL) subsidiary, has been connected to election manipulation, surveillance of journalists, co-optation of civil rights organizations and the use of dark money networks to capture regulators and defeat energy competition. The company’s former CEO, who was in charge during many of these schemes, resigned abruptly in 2023 amid federal scrutiny. The company also recently settled a securities fraud class action lawsuit.
Meanwhile, FPL customers in Florida are experiencing what opponents have called the largest rate hike in American history. Recent research showed that Florida Power & Light’s profits in 2025 made up a whopping 27.4% of a customer’s electric bill – one of the highest ratios in the country and more than 13 percentage points higher than the national average.
Clean Virginia is particularly alarmed by the structure of the proposed deal. While NextEra is touting $2.25 billion in one-time bill credits to Dominion customers, this headline figure would amount to only a temporary payout, not lasting relief on customers’ monthly bills. At the same time, the company projects 11% annual rate base growth through 2032. Because utilities earn profits on their rate base, rapid growth can drive higher long-term costs for customers unless the utility’s return on equity (ROE) — the utility’s allowed profit rate — is meaningfully reduced. Dominion’s announcement makes no commitment to lowering ROE costs or reducing customer bills over the long term. In fact, both NextEra and Dominion have repeatedly pushed for ROEs well above historical and market-based levels.
“One-time credits are a down payment on political goodwill, not a guarantee of affordability,” Gilmore said. “The question Virginians need answered is simple: What would NextEra charge us to earn its profit, and for how long? That number, return on equity, is absent from everything they’ve said today. Virginians should be extremely skeptical given Next Era’s long history of increasing prices to customers.”
The merger is subject to approval by Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and utility commissions in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
Clean Virginia is calling on the SCC to hold robust public hearings and require full disclosure of NextEra’s history and practices of political influence. The SCC should follow the example of other state regulators: demand binding and enforceable ROE reduction commitments and require safeguards to protect Virginians from paying for outside debt or unwarranted inter-affiliate purchases, among other affordability and service-improvement commitments. Any merger approval must include ironclad commitments to honor Virginia’s Clean Economy Act — the law Virginia’s customers and policymakers fought for and that Dominion is legally bound to deliver. The SCC should also guarantee that consumer advocates have full standing and resources throughout the proceeding. The General Assembly and Governor Spanberger should ensure that the SCC and Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Counsel have the resources to fully review this proposed merger.
Clean Virginia is also calling on members of the Virginia General Assembly to take action to protect the integrity of our elections and political process from interference. NextEra’s proven track record of corruption further demonstrates the need for the General Assembly to ban corporate campaign contributions. Additionally, the legislature should examine additional action to protect ratepayers before this transaction closes.
“Virginia has spent years fighting to reform a utility monopoly that puts shareholders ahead of customers,” said Gilmore. “We cannot allow this merger to make that problem larger, more powerful, and harder to fix. The SCC process is the moment Virginia gets to set the terms. If NextEra cannot commit to binding reductions in customer bills and a clean break from its history of political manipulation, this deal should be dead on arrival.”
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Clean Virginia is a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to removing corporate money from Virginia politics and reforming utility regulation to put customers first. Learn more at cleanvirginia.org.