The head of Florida’s NextEra Energy responded this week to Governor Abigail Spanberger’s recent testimony, including her recommended changes, in the proposed merger with Dominion Energy.
NextEra chairman John Ketchum made the comments during the company's third quarter earnings call Wednesday. He pointed to the promise of 1,000 new jobs, two years of bill credits and, perhaps targeting Governor Spanberger’s support for the Virginia Clean Economy Act, NextEra’s history of rapidly adding to renewable power generation.
“If we can’t do it, I don’t know who else can when it comes to meeting the requirements of the Clean Economy Act in Virginia," Ketchum said, pointing to the company's claims as the largest operators of renewable and clean energy in the world."
The combined company would become the "second largest in the U.S. when it comes to nuclear," he said. "When you look at the pieces and put them together, there’s just no company better positioned to deliver on Virginia's goals.”
Ketchum noted he was still digesting the governor's testimony, but he also pointed to Spanberger's recently announced energy plan and said NextEra was key to bringing her renewable goals to reality.
"I'll be super disappointed if we can't accelerate the storage builds in Virginia, to help alleviate some of the high import charges they're facing both on the energy and the capacity side," he said. "It's very important we get new generation up and running as quickly as we can but do it in a way that's affordable for our customers, which I think we can."
Ketchum’s comment came after Wolfe Research analyst Steve Fleishman asked about the deal, including Spanberger’s request for an increase in bill credits from $10 a month to $29, and continue them over four years, not two. She also wants a six year rate freeze. Fleishman called them “onerous additions.”
But in a call with reporters Tuesday, Spanberger defended those additions, calling them “aggressive and focused.”
“They are very real requirements that I am putting forward because they have very real, tangible benefits for Virginians,” the Governor said when asked if her proposal was part of negotiations or some kind of a "moonshot."
"The deal in its current form is not nearly good enough," she said.
As for the rebate/rate freeze combo request in her testimony?
“If you are going to raise rates and then give a rebate, that could still be painful for the Virginians who get their electric bill,” she said.
Spanberger also pointed to Ketchum's relationship with Trump, and his alleged donations to President Donald Trump's DC projects: "If you have millions of dollars to donate to President Trump's ballroom, then you have the financial capacity and capability to ensure Virginians are also benefiting from any potential deal of this size and scale."
Les Alexander is a professor at UVA’s Darden School of Business. Whether or not the Governor’s recommendations are onerous, he couldn’t say, but he wasn’t that surprised to see Spanberger raise the deal’s stakes.
“I think what she’s trying to do is say, ‘your deal needs to improve, here’s some of the things we would find attractive. And then that starts the conversation, ‘what can we do?’" Alexander said in an interview with Radio IQ. "Because nobody ever puts their best offer out there anyway.”
"This is probably going to go back and forth a bit," he added. "We'll just have to see if they're willing to have those conversations or not."
State regulators will hold formal hearings on the merger in mid-November with a deadline to approve or nix the deal by mid-January.
