Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger
Gov. Abigail Spanberger announced Thursday that she will formally intervene in the State Corporation Commission's review of the proposed $67 billion merger between Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra Energy — a step her office says no Virginia governor has taken before in an SCC case.
The announcement came in an op-ed published Thursday in The Washington Post. "As a Virginian, I am deeply skeptical about whether selling our primary, state-regulated utility to an out-of-state company is good for the commonwealth," she wrote. "I have serious questions about what this deal would mean for us. And as governor, I intend to get answers and be a voice for Virginians in the process."
She acknowledged that the move breaks precedent, but argued that so does the transaction. "I know this action is unprecedented by a Virginia governor — but so, too, is the size of this proposed merger and its potential impact on the commonwealth," she wrote, adding that Virginians deserve to know their leaders are focused on making sure their needs are part of the review. The combined company would be the largest regulated electric utility in the world.
Intervening is a legal step, not a rhetorical one. As a party to the case, the Governor's Office can submit discovery requests, file expert testimony, put witnesses on the stand, cross-examine, participate in the evidentiary hearing, file post-hearing briefs, and sit at the table for any settlement talks.
Spanberger was explicit that the step is not an attempt to substitute her judgment for the commission's. "To be clear: Taking this action does not mean I intend to make the SCC's decision for it," she wrote. "Instead, I am seeking to make sure Virginians have a voice in the process." The commissioners will still decide whether to approve, deny or attach conditions to the merger. But their mandate requires them to balance the interests of citizens, businesses and customers — and on a deal this consequential, she wrote, "I will not watch from the sidelines."
Three stated priorities
Spanberger laid out three nonnegotiable priorities that will guide her participation:
Families and small businesses. "If two large corporations stand to benefit financially from this merger, so, too, should the Virginians who pay the bills," she wrote — meaning any deal must produce a more affordable energy bill with sustained, long-term savings.
The utility workforce. She named the linemen who restore power after storms, the grid operators monitoring real-time generation and the engineers who keep projects within environmental law. Those workers, she wrote, "deserve to know that their steady, good-paying jobs are not going anywhere, even if an out-of-state company acquires their employer."
The state's energy future. Any company seeking to own Virginia's largest regulated utility, she wrote, "must have a clear plan to accelerate progress toward producing affordable, reliable, local and clean power — not slow it down or trade it away."
The data center connection
The merger announcement landed one day after a separate SCC decision that bears directly on Northern Virginia ratepayers.
On Wednesday, the commission ordered Dominion to develop a policy assigning the cost of transmission infrastructure directly to data centers and other large-load customers when that infrastructure exists to serve those facilities. The order came in the utility's rider T1 case, which covers the cost of building transmission lines and substations. The Spanberger administration weighed in on that case, arguing that residential customers should not subsidize power infrastructure built solely for data centers.
For Alexandria, that principle is not abstract. The region's server-farm buildout is the single largest driver of new demand on Dominion's grid, and every decision about who pays for that expansion shows up on a residential bill — or doesn't.
Spanberger touched on data centers only briefly in the op-ed, in a list of her administration's actions: tougher environmental standards for their diesel generators and water use, a statewide tax on their energy consumption she called the first of its kind, and what she described as successfully urging regulators to make them cover the cost of the infrastructure they require. Her office has since tied that last item to Wednesday's order.
The same utility, on Alexandria's doorstep
The city is already in a fight with Dominion over exactly the kind of infrastructure at issue in both proceedings.
A Starwood Capital data center is planned for the 34-acre Plaza 500 site on Edsall Road in the Lincolnia area of Fairfax County, immediately west of Alexandria and adjacent to the Bren Mar and Bren Pointe neighborhoods. The buildings themselves can go up by right under existing zoning. The Dominion substation required to power them cannot — Virginia law requires public facilities including electrical substations to clear a Public Facilities 2232 Review, a public hearing process testing whether the use fits Fairfax County's comprehensive plan.
The SCC is already a party to that fight. The commission approved the transmission lines running between the proposed Edsall Road substation and the existing Van Dorn substation — a separate track from the county's land use review, and one that does not override it. The same body now weighing whether an out-of-state company should own Dominion, and ordering Dominion to shift transmission costs onto data centers, has already signed off on part of the infrastructure Alexandria is fighting.
In a letter dated Aug. 3, Mayor Alyia Gaskins wrote to the Fairfax County Planning Commission on behalf of City Council asking it to deny that application, arguing that heavy industrial use this close to a densely populated stretch of Alexandria is incompatible with the neighborhood and poses a threat to residents' health and safety. Land use decisions are made jurisdiction by jurisdiction, Gaskins wrote, but the consequences — noise, environmental impact, energy and water demand, quality of life — cross the line regardless.
Rep. Don Beyer, an Alexandria resident whose district includes Alexandria, has separately urged the county to reject the substation.
The Mason District Land Use Advisory Committee is scheduled to decide Sept. 22 whether to recommend the substation, with the full Planning Commission public hearing and decision set for 7 p.m. Sept. 24 at the Fairfax County Government Center — landing in roughly the same window as the SCC's initial 60-day merger review.
Spanberger also pointed to more than a dozen laws she has signed since taking office in January aimed at easing energy costs for families and small businesses, and to a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative refund created to lower utility bills.
What Dominion says
Dominion Energy Chair, President and CEO Robert M. Blue said the company welcomes the governor's participation in the regulatory process and shares her stated priorities on affordability, Virginia jobs and the state's energy future. The company has said the transaction includes $1.78 billion in NextEra shareholder-funded bill credits for Virginia customers, along with longer-term savings from greater purchasing power and lower borrowing costs.
NextEra has said the deal would bring its clean-energy development experience to bear on Virginia's rising demand, and that the SCC's established, fact-based process is the appropriate venue to evaluate it.
A fast clock
The two companies filed their applications with the SCC last month, starting a review window that critics say is too short for a transaction of this size. State law gives the commission 60 days, with the option to extend by an additional 120 days.
A bipartisan group of legislators has asked Spanberger to convene a special session to pass legislation lengthening the review period. Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi has separately called for regulators to double their usual review time, arguing that Virginia's merger review standards date to the 1940s and were not written for a deal of this kind.
The governor has not called a special session.
