VA Democrats Stun Dominion Energy With Rejection Of Efforts To Double-Charge Ratepayers For Upgrades
Dominion Energy, the utility monopoly in Virginia, suffered a rare loss on the floor of the state House of Delegates late Monday night, when their ability to double-charge ratepayers for infrastructure improvements was stripped out of a controversial bill.
The bill, which sailed through the Senate and is expected to pass the House of Delegates on Tuesday, would let Dominion and other utilities in the state use excess profits to pay for the upgrades, like modernization of the energy grid or renewable generation. Because Dominion could also use those upgrades as a rationale to increase its base power rates, critics charged that utilities could get ratepayers to pay twice for the same infrastructure. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission and the state Office of the Attorney General agreed. Senate populists tried to put a restriction on the double-dipping in their version of the bill, but lost. But the House of Delegates, with all 49 Democrats joining six Republicans, were successful in passing such an amendment in the 100-member chamber.
The move is a major victory for Virginia’s large freshman class of Democratic legislators, many of whom campaigned against Dominion in their races and refused to take campaign contributions from them. It’s an act of defiance against the state’s most powerful corporate donor, as well as the Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, who endorsed the overall bill. While the legislation still has problems — Delegate Lee Carter called it “a steaming pile of garbage” to The Intercept yesterday — Dominion losing a vote of any kind in the Virginia legislature, even an amendment vote, is a political earthquake.
“I’ve never seen Dominion lobbyists look so sad,” a senior Democratic lobbyist told The Huffington Post, which earlier reported the news.
EDIT
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/13/virginia-dominion-energy-bill/
