The Slover in Norfolk was Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi’s second stop on her statewide listening tour focused on energy costs. Before the Tuesday evening event, people gathered outside the library to protest the proposed merger between Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra Energy.
“We are sitting at our kitchen tables, trying to make $1 out of 15 cents,” said community organizer Kim Sudderth at the rally. “And now this merger comes along, and it comes to threaten our our bank accounts. It comes to threaten our college funds. It comes to threaten our grocery bills.”
NextEra Energy offered to pay $67 billion to acquire Dominion Energy in May. The deal hasn’t gone through yet, but if it does it would make history as the largest merger in US history and create the largest utility company in the world.
The decision to approve or deny the takeover is up to the Virginia State Corporation Commission. And it has six months to do it, which residents and some leaders, including Hashmi, say isn’t enough time. Gov. Abigail Spanberger and other legislative leaders denied requests to extend the timeline.
The SCC commissioners are not elected by the people; they’re appointed by legislators, noted Melissa Thomas with the Stop NextEra Campaign.
“Tonight we are demanding that our lawmakers sign on to a letter opposing the merger,” she said.
Hashmi said she neither supports nor opposes the merger at this time. She’s still waiting on commissioners to answer her list of more than 60 questions.
“Will this merger actually lower cost or improve service?” Hashmi posed to the crowd of more than 150 people. “It's not about whether we trust Dominion or NextEra to do the right thing. It is about whether they can prove that this takeover is good for Virginia.”
Affordability was a top concern for many in attendance. Terry “Bean” White with Virginia Organizing said his electric bills have already nearly doubled in the last year, and he’s worried the merger will only make things worse. For him, he said electricity is a matter of life and death.
“I done had two heart attacks and two congestive heart failures,” he said at the rally. “We're still here, but I have to use a medical device at night to survive. If they cut the electricity off, I'm gone.”
Shelby Green, a researcher at the Energy and Policy Institute based in Florida, said Virginians should be worried.
“In Florida, their utility company — Florida Power and Light — disconnected over a million households last year,” she said, noting that NextEra operates that utility. “That's almost 20% of their customers.”
Green also pointed out the company made billions in profit the same year.
“If the merger does not advance affordability, it should not go through. Period. Full stop,” said Del. Phil Hernandez (D-Norfolk).
