The former senior attorney at NextEra Energy recruited and confirmed by Virginia Democrats to be the chair of the State Corporation Commission is not going to recuse herself from having one of the three votes on the proposed $67 billion NextEra-Dominion merger.
This is a massive own goal on our Richmond Dems here, obviously.
“As has been demonstrated by long-standing historical Commissioner practice, mere work history with a regulated entity has not served as a categorical basis requiring recusal,” Kelsey Bagot, who was elected to the SCC by the General Assembly in 2024, after serving a two-year stint as a senior attorney with NextEra Energy, wrote in a letter to State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell dated Aug. 17.
“As I am sure you recognize, having been appointed to this position, it is my obligation to faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties of a Commissioner unless I am precluded from doing so. Because of that obligation and my respect for the institutional interests of the SCC, I also sought advice from independent counsel on the question of whether any factor under the Canons would prevent me from fulfilling those duties in the pending merger proceeding. Consistent with that counsel, please be advised that I have not found it necessary to issue a notification of recusal,” Bagot concluded her letter.
And, yeah, she’s right – nothing in the state code or the ethical canons requires Bagot to recuse herself in the NextEra-Dominion matter.
Conflicts of interest, from the standpoint of doing things by the book, have to do with money interests.
Bagot, notably, did recuse herself from another matter involving NextEra that came before the SCC, regarding a transmission line the company wanted to build in Frederick County – Bagot had worked on that project in her time at the company, which was her money interest in that case, that she was paid for her work there.
“At the time of my nomination, I represented that, if elected, I would resign my position with NextEra Energy and recuse ‘from participating in any matter before the SCC related to the NextEra transmission line proposal, and any other matter as required by the Virginia Judicial Code of Ethics.’ I have lived up to this commitment and will continue to do so,” Bagot wrote in her letter to Surovell.
It’s not enough, under the law and ethics rules, that her previous and very recent employment with NextEra should force her to agree to step aside on the NextEra-Dominion thing.
The matter of whether she should consider herself to have been forced to agree to step aside is just part of this, of course.
Book ethics is one thing; common sense ethics, quite another.
When she votes yes – and she’s going to – it’s going to look like she did so out of fealty to her very recent former employer.
And, worth noting here, her time at the SCC will eventually come to an end – and where she ends up after that will be something we’ll all want to keep track of.
Bet on it being NextEra or an affiliated entity – that’s how the world of politics and big business works.
The mistake here was our corporatist Democrats in Richmond putting the fox in charge of guarding the henhouse.
Or, was it a mistake?
This merger is starting to feel like it was a done deal before our Richmond Dems just happened to find Kelsey Bagot working at NextEra and put her on the SCC.
ICYMI: NextEra-Dominion merger
- SCC chair, heading up NextEra-Dominion merger review, is a former NextEra attorney
- Spanberger takes step to intervene in Dominion Energy-NextEra Energy merger
- State legislators ask Spanberger to call special session on Dominion-NextEra merger
- NextEra, Dominion file paperwork on proposed merger, getting SCC review clock ticking
- NextEra Energy wants to buy Dominion Energy: This one’s about data centers, AI
- Word for the good guys who oppose the Next Era-Dominion merger: Good luck
- Virginia groups pushing for changes to laws governing utility mergers
- Ghazala Hashmi takes leadership role on state review of proposed NextEra-Dominion merger
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Chris Graham
