This week, Dominion Energy announced hundreds of new jobs to sweeten the deal for its proposed merger with Florida-based NextEra.
600 new jobs. That's the projection for a proposed merger between Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra that would create the largest utility in the world. But will that commitment of hundreds of new jobs really pan out? John Provo at Virginia Tech points to a state audit that shows most of these kinds of promises are empty.
"Less than a third of anticipated job investments came to full fruition," Provo says. "And this was across multiple business cycles, multiple governors from multiple parties. And it's just, it's very hard to forecast things like this."
Dominion also says that the merger would also lead to a new office tower in downtown Richmond, although Tyson Slocum at the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen points out that the last time Dominion made assurances to regulators that investments in an office building would be handled by shareholders, it didn't work out that way.
"After they got that regulatory agreement, they lobbied the legislature to shift that financial burden off shareholders and onto ratepayers," says Slocum. "So, any sort of vague promise that they make today in an effort to get this merger approved can be unwound."
Ultimately this decision will be made by the three commissioners of the State Corporation Commission. Their deadline is mid-January.
