Stop the Dominion–NextEra Merger
Virginia shouldn’t hand its energy future over to the world’s largest regulated electric utility.
What is the Dominion–NextEra Merger?
NextEra Energy is proposing a $67 billion acquisition of Dominion Energy that would create the world’s biggest regulated electric utility.
If approved, the merger would directly affect roughly 10 million customers across Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina — and give NextEra enormous influence over Virginia’s electricity system for decades to come.
Dominion and NextEra say the merger will create efficiencies and benefit customers. But the details tell a different story.
Why Stop the Dominion–NextEra Merger?
Data Centers Are Driving the Deal
NextEra has explicitly pointed to rapidly growing electricity demand from data centers in Dominion territory as a major reason it wants to acquire the company. NextEra projects its “rate base” — the pool of infrastructure investments on which the utility is allowed to earn a guaranteed profit — will grow about 11% annually through 2032, fueled in large part by new infrastructure needed to serve data center growth.
That means the more infrastructure NextEra builds, the more money its shareholders can make.
A monopoly utility’s guaranteed return on equity – the regulator-approved profit margin on infrastructure investments – can incentivize a utility to invest in costly infrastructure that they can recoup the cost on, along with a larger profit. NextEra has said they intend to use natural gas plants – one of the most expensive power sources – to meet skyrocketing data center demand. One cannot help but connect the dots between demand for new infrastructure from data centers, NextEra’s plans to utilize gas, one of the most expensive power sources, and a utility’s guaranteed return on equity for such infrastructure investments. The cost of this investment, if it happens, will be reflected in higher utility bills across the Commonwealth.
At a time when Virginians are already facing rising electricity costs and growing concerns about the impacts of data center expansion, NextEra would have a powerful financial incentive to keep building expensive projects. .
Promised “Efficiencies” May Never Reach Customers
NextEra and Dominion argue that combining their customer bases and generating assets will make the companies more efficient and ultimately lower costs.
History suggests otherwise.
A 2024 study of 31 large electric utilities found that greater merger and acquisition activity was associated with lower operational efficiency. Another found that 60–80% of utility mergers failed to achieve projected efficiency gains.
Bigger does not necessarily mean cheaper — especially for customers of a monopoly utility.
Temporary Benefits Are Tiny Compared to the Risk
The primary immediate benefit NextEra and Dominion have offered Virginia customers is an approximate $4 billion bill credit, distributed among Dominion’s roughly four million customers over four years.
For the average residential customer, that comes to only about $10 per month — and it disappears after four years.
Meanwhile, customers of NextEra subsidiary Florida Power & Light are facing a rate increase of nearly $7 billion, which critics have described as the largest utility rate hike in U.S. history. Food & Water Watch estimates that bills will be about $289 higher annually by January 2028.
There is precedent closer to home, too: less than a year and a half after Dominion acquired South Carolina utility SCANA, it sought an electric rate increase of almost $10 per month for South Carolina customers.
Virginians could get a small temporary discount today only to face much larger bills tomorrow.
NextEra Has a Troubling Record on Customer Bills
NextEra’s Florida utility, Florida Power & Light, has an authorized 10.95% return on equity, among the highest profit rates for a major regulated electric utility in the country.
In 2025, corporate profit accounted for 27.4% of the average FPL customer’s electric bill — one of the highest profit-to-bill ratios nationwide.
Virginia already has weak protections against excessive monopoly utility profits. A NextEra takeover could bring FPL’s aggressive profit model to Virginia and leave customers paying the price.
The Merger Offers No New Clean Energy Commitments
Despite the enormous scale of this deal, NextEra and Dominion have offered no meaningful new commitments to accelerate Virginia’s clean energy transition.
The merger includes:
- No commitment to retire aging and expensive coal plants
- No limit on building new gas-burning power plants
- No commitment to expand energy-efficiency programs
- No commitment to expand the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project
- No new commitment to accelerate affordable clean energy
Virginia customers are being asked to accept an unprecedented utility merger without guarantees that the combined company will deliver cleaner or more affordable electricity.
NextEra has shown, through supporting efforts to weaken bills that would accelerate the transition to cleaner energy but interfere with their sales and by adding roughly 4 GW of new natural gas plants to Florida’s energy grid over the next 10 years, that it is more committed to profit than climate.
NextEra Would Bring Enormous Political Power to Virginia
NextEra’s political footprint is already massive.
Between 2010 and 2025, NextEra reported spending $126 million on political activities — twice Dominion Energy’s $63 million.
NextEra subsidiary Florida Power & Light has also faced allegations that it helped finance spoiler candidates in competitive elections and manipulated media coverage through a network of dark-money organizations. The resulting “ghost candidate” scandal led to a Federal Election Commission complaint and the felony conviction of a former Florida state senator.
NextEra later agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations that it misled investors about its involvement in political interference schemes, although that settlement was subsequently rejected by a federal judge.
The company’s political activities have also extended directly into energy policy. FPL spent millions supporting an effort to hinder third-party solar competition in Florida, while NextEra spent more than $20 million backing a Maine ballot initiative that sought to block a transmission line carrying competing carbon-free hydropower.
We are concerned about NextEra’s compliance with Virginian climate goals, based on their history of interference and use of leverage to utilize loopholes in climate policies.
Combining that political power with control over millions of captive utility customers should concern every Virginian.
Make Your Voice Heard
Virginia’s State Corporation Commission (SCC) will ultimately decide whether this merger moves forward.
That means Virginians have an opportunity right now to tell regulators and state leaders what they think.
Tell Virginia decision-makers: Virginia customers, clean energy, and public interest are more important than corporate profit. Keep NextEra out of VA.
A Statewide Listening Tour
CCAN Action Fund was honored to support Lieutenant Governor Hashmi on her recent Energy Costs Listening Tour, which gave Virginians a chance to speak their opinion on the merger in-person. Climate organizations and constituents across the Commonwealth are thankful to the Lt. Governor for creating this opportunity.
Virginians showed up in droves to voice their concerns on the merger’s threats to just and reasonable rates, climate goals, and the integrity of our politics. CCAN and Clean Virginia partnered to provide court reporter services at each tour stop, which the Lt. Governor is using to compile a final report to be submitted to the State Corporation Commission (SCC).
The events consisted of a panel of local representatives and a merger expert. CCAN was honored to have our Virginia State Director, Virginia Higgins, serve as the merger expert on the panel in Roanoke, Virginia.
After a brief panel introduction, time was set aside for attendees to give comments and have a panel member respond. Following the main event, attendees were given action items, like submitting written comments directly to the SCC, and directed to the grassroots organizations with further ways to take action, like CCAN’s Stop the Merger Petition.
This historic tour was a necessary step for ratepayers to express their position on the merger. For anyone interested in submitting comments in-person, attend the final SCC in-field hearings:
- November 5 at the SCC building in Richmond 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. at the State Corporation Commission building at 1300 E Main St, Richmond, VA 23219
- November 17 in Richmond
Next Steps: Rally With Us!
After the hearings, there’s one last chance to stand against the NextEra-Dominion merger!
Rally in Richmond on Tuesday, November 17!
Schedule
- 9:00 a.m.: Rally outside the SCC, 1300 E. Main St.
- 10:00 a.m.: SCC hearing begins
- 11:15 a.m.: Rally at the Bell Tower
- 12:30 p.m.: Lunch and program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Breakfast, lunch and carpools are provided, but we need to know you’re coming, so please RSVP!
