State Corporation Commission Orders Three In-Person Hearings on NextEra-Dominion Merger

RICHMOND — Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has ordered three in-person public hearings on the proposed $67 billion NextEra Energy–Dominion Energy merger, an unusual step for a statewide utility case that commissioners say is driven by the deal’s sheer scale and the intensity of public interest.

Commissioner Samuel Towell’s order adds evening and regional witness opportunities on top of three already scheduled telephonic testimony days. The first in-person session is set for the evening of November 5 inside the SCC courtroom in Richmond. Dates and locations for the other two in-person hearings have not yet been announced, but the commission said they will be placed across Dominion’s Virginia service territory so customers outside the capital can speak face to face.

Telephonic public testimony remains on the calendar for the morning of November 5 and on November 9 and 10. Because airtime is limited, the commission is encouraging written comments by November 9. Towell emphasized that in-person statements will not automatically carry more weight than phone or written comments — the unusual venue is about access, not a new evidentiary hierarchy.

Under normal practice, the SCC reserves remote in-person hearings for transmission-line or compressor-station cases that hit one locality hardest. Towell wrote that this merger is different: there is no single remote locus uniquely altered by approval or denial, and the physical character of any one community does not change the way a new substation would. “This is not a case that, under normal circumstances, would warrant remote, in-person hearings. But this is not a normal case,” the order said.

The proposed combination would create what supporters and critics alike describe as the largest regulated utility enterprise of its kind, folding Dominion’s Virginia customer base into NextEra’s broader footprint. Ratepayer groups, environmental intervenors, and local governments have flooded the docket with questions about bills, data-center load, nuclear and renewable portfolios, and whether Florida-based ownership would change how Richmond regulators can protect Virginia households.

Political scrutiny has kept pace. Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi launched a statewide listening tour with stops planned in Loudoun, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Roanoke to explain how residents can testify. House Speaker Don Scott, a Portsmouth Democrat, sent a letter to SCC Chair Kelsey Bagot — a former NextEra attorney who has declined to recuse herself — laying out concerns and process suggestions. Lawmakers asked Gov. Abigail Spanberger to call a special session to lengthen the statutory six-month review; Spanberger declined, noting she had already taken the unusual step of intervening in the case.

That political backdrop helps explain why commissioners are opening more physical doors even while insisting every format counts equally. Public attendance at SCC dockets surged after the July filing, and stakeholder meetings since then pushed the companies to amend commitments. Expanding in-person chances is a visibility move as much as a due-process one — a signal that the commission hears the volume of opposition and support.

Business groups argue the merger could stabilize capital for grid upgrades that Northern Virginia’s data-center corridor and statewide electrification will demand. Consumer advocates counter that larger holding-company structures historically shift risk onto captive ratepayers and that bill credits advertised in marketing materials need hard tariff language. Local governments along proposed transmission corridors want assurance that merger approval will not steamroll siting fights already underway in Prince William, Loudoun, and farther south.

The procedural calendar now runs on two tracks: the evidentiary case among formal parties, and the public-comment windows that November will multiply. Written testimony filed by November 9 will sit beside phone and in-person statements when commissioners deliberate toward a decision currently aimed near mid-January under the original 180-day clock — unless separate motions to reset that clock succeed.

For households that cannot travel to Richmond on a workday morning, the promised regional hearings may be the first realistic chance to speak on the record. County libraries and civic groups are already circulating sign-up instructions. All Virginia News will publish the two additional venues when the SCC names them, and will continue covering how Hashmi’s tour, Scott’s letter, and Spanberger’s intervention shape the politics around a merger that would remake Virginia’s largest electric utility.

Email the Richmond City Council:
Andrew Breton, andrew.breton@rva.gov,
Katherine Jordan, katherine.jordan@rva.gov,
Kenya Gibson, kenya.gibson@rva.gov,
Sarah Abubaker, sarah.abubaker@rva.gov,
Stephanie Lynch, stephanie.lynch@rva.gov,
Ellen Robertson, ellen.robertson@rva.gov,
Cynthia Newbille, cynthia.newbille@rva.gov,
Reva Trammell, reva.trammell@rva.gov,
Nicole Jones, nicole.jones@rva.gov,

Email the Richmond School Board:
Matthew Percival, mpercival@rvaschools.net,
Kathryn Ricard, kricard@rvaschools.net,
Ali Faruk, afaruk@rvaschools.net,
Wesley Hedgepeth, whedgepeth@rvaschools.net,
Stephanie Rizzi, srizzi@rvaschools.net,
Anne Holton, aholton@rvaschools.net,
Cheryl Burke, cburke2@rvaschools.net,
Emmett Jafari, ejafari@rvaschools.net,
Shavonda Fernandez, sdixon@rvaschools.net,