Virginians Face Mounting Energy Costs — a NextEra Merger Could Drive Rates Even Higher

By Bridge2Blue

Utility bills are already taking a bigger bite out of budgets stretched by rising grocery prices, insurance premiums, and gas costs. In Virginia, those rate hikes stem from two connected problems: the massive energy demand driven by data‑center growth and a regulatory system that too often favors utilities over ratepayers. Now the proposed Dominion–NextEra merger threatens to make a bad situation even worse.

NextEra and Dominion have announced a roughly $67 billion all-stock merger that would create the world’s largest regulated electric utility. The deal still faces federal and state scrutiny, including a full review by Virginia regulators.

Virginians should be deeply skeptical of claims that this merger would benefit ratepayers. NextEra, a major Trump donor, brings a track record of steep rate hikes, political and influence-buying controversies, and a business model focused on extracting profits from customers.

What NextEra gets from the proposed merger

For NextEra, Virginia is a new profit center. Dominion Energy Virginia reported $2.33 billion in operating earnings for 2025, up from $2.01 billion in 2024. Yet while many Virginians are struggle to pay their bills, utility CEOs are cashing in. NextEra’s John Ketchum took home about $24.2 million, and Dominion’s Robert Blue roughly $16 million — staggering payouts at a time when families are cutting back on essentials just to keep the lights on.

Dominion, a state‑backed monopoly, provides an essential service — but with guaranteed profits and remarkably little risk for investors. Under Virginia’s current model, utilities can recover their costs and earn guaranteed profits on top, creating a perverse incentive to favor expensive construction projects over cheaper, commonsense alternatives like demand management, energy efficiency, or making better use of the infrastructure we already have. Meanwhile, customers have no real choice. They can’t shop for better prices or service, and they certainly can’t go without electricity.

That leaves Virginians essentially captive at a moment when they are already being asked to absorb the cost of a massive power-system buildout driven in large part by the state’s enormous data-center power consumption. Meeting that demand means more generating capacity, more transmission lines, more substations, and more upgrades across the entire grid — profits for the company and costs that ultimately land on customers.

A Poor Deal for Virginia’s Consumers

NextEra ownership would not be good news for Virginia ratepayers. In 2025, Florida regulators approved a $6.9 billion rate hike for NextEra’s Florida utility — the largest in U.S. history. Yet supporters of the merger will still tout “consumer benefits,” including $2.25 billion in credits for Dominion customers. Virginians should not be fooled. These one‑time credits will do very little for individual households.

NextEra also brings significant political baggage. NextEra has a history of buying influence through political contributions. NextEra has been listed among the donors supporting President Trump’s White House ballroom project, and it was also reported as a major donor to Trump’s inauguration celebrations. Dominion Energy, for its part, is already one of Virginia’s largest political contributors.

NextEra and its Florida utility, FPL, have also been tied to a long‑running scandal involving allegations that money was routed through consultants and political groups to influence elections — including backing a so‑called “ghost” candidate meant to siphon votes. The companies deny the allegations, but a federal appeals court allowed a related securities‑fraud case to proceed, underscoring the seriousness of the claims.

A merger between two companies with this much financial and political muscle would only make strong regulation harder. Virginians have every reason to question whether any of this baggage would benefit them.

The bottom line: the merger is bad for Virginia.

Virginians are already paying for an energy system driven by explosive data‑center growth, costly infrastructure expansion, and a monopoly model that rewards spending. A merger with NextEra would only intensify those pressures, creating a larger, more politically powerful utility with a record of major rate hikes, an aggressive political agenda, and a strategy built around expanding costly infrastructure — and profits — at customers’ expense.

Virginia regulators should reject this merger. Virginians do not need a bigger utility empire. They need a system that puts ratepayers first.