Hashmi calls for detailed review of Next Era Energy-Dominion Energy merger

You never hear much about the lieutenant governor, but ours, Ghazala Hashmi, is setting herself up as an alternative to our disappointing governor, Abigail Spanberger, with her stand on a key business-related issue – the proposed merger of Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy.

We can’t seem to get through to Spanberger, based on her selling us out on data centers, that she represents us, not the multibillion-dollar companies who put money into her campaign that helped her team convince us to vote for her.

But then we have Hashmi, who, in an op-ed in The Times-Dispatch published on Friday, is straight up telling NextEra Energy, which announced its plans to purchase Dominion Energy for $66.8 billion last month, Pump the brakes.

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“Virginia’s regulatory process should protect families already struggling to pay their electric bills,” Hashmi wrote in the op-ed. “Six months is simply not enough time to evaluate a $67 billion merger that would reshape Virginia’s electric utility landscape, affect millions of families, and impact the thousands of Virginians employed by Dominion Energy. Additionally, Virginia’s current legal standard for the merger’s approval is insufficient.”

This position, incidentally, mirrors that of a coalition of 36 organizations representing consumer protection, environmental advocacy and industry groups who sent a letter to Gov. Abigail Spanberger and State Senate and House of Delegates leadership on Monday.

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• Virginia groups pushing for changes to laws governing utility mergers

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The letter warns that the current framework for the State Corporation Commission to review utility mergers is not built for something this big – the combined company would have a market cap at $249 billion, which would make it the largest regulated electric utility on the planet, and overall, the third-largest company in the energy sector, behind fossil fuel giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

The groups, in their letter, called on the governor and state legislators to extend the SCC’s review period to no less than 12 months for covered transactions of this scale, and to clarify the existing review standard to ensure it serves the public interest.

Hashmi, who was a state senator before being elected to statewide office last year, is on the same page, writing in her op-ed that “other states have taken a full year to assess similar deals. Virginia should, too.”

“Additionally, this compressed timeline is made worse by an approval standard that has not been updated in 80 years,” Hashmi wrote. “Under current law, Virginia does not require these companies to show that the merger is actually good for Virginians. It does not even require Dominion Energy and NextEra to show that the merger will not raise rates. The current approval standard is a low bar, and it is the wrong one.”