This Monday, the Virginia House Takes Up Latest Version of “Dominion Bill,” aka “the Latest Ratepayer Ripoff”

If you have followed anything in Richmond this year, you realize that the House of Delegates has moved forward while the Senate has remained stuck, thus far, in the failed politics of yesteryear.

Monday will test that trend, as the House takes up the latest version of SB 966, i.e. the “Dominion Bill” a/k/a “the Latest Ratepayer Ripoff.”

Normally, utility regulation bills work as follows in Richmond:

1.  Dominion authors a sweeping bill to limit the state’s regulatory power and increase its own monopoly profits.

2.  Dominion makes some small concessions, then throws out a “substitute bill” with 99% of the same anti-consumer provisions.

3.  The Richmond establishment embraces the bill as “improved.”

4.  The General Assembly rolls over.  (See 2015 “rate freeze” law)

5.  Rinse and repeat every 2-3 years.

This year, the House of Delegates signaled a new era, when it stripped the “double dipping” provision out of the House’s Dominion bill (HB 1558) and put up 35 “no” votes on final passage — an unprecedented show of courage.

But the same bill is back with all the same anti-consumer elements, including a de facto prohibition on lowering Virginia’s sky-high electric rates, even when Dominion is earning “excess profits” of $400+ million a year.  Um, hello?

Delegate Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) has put forward a bipartisan floor amendment to strip out the over-charges and protect consumers.

Let the House know:  it’s time to “Keep the Big Boys Honest!”

Pass the Floor Sub.  Otherwise, just kill the Dominion bill.