Washington, D.C. — In response to news that NextEra Energy will acquire Dominion Energy in a $66.8 billion all-stock deal — the largest power-sector merger on record, creating the largest electric utility in the country serving roughly 10 million utility customers across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina — the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement on the mega-merger from Senior Fellow Marissa P. Gillett, former Chairman of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.

“Utility monopolies are raking in money through returns on equity that they have guaranteed will be well above any other Wall Street investment. But that’s not enough for them. They want to combine to create the world’s largest regulated electric utility capable of extracting even greater profits from Americans. We already know that bigger utilities don’t mean lower bills. They mean more leverage to get guaranteed returns from captive ratepayers, less accountability to regulators, and more cost-shifting onto households to subsidize data center build-outs.”

“In their joint statement today NextEra and Dominion promise to lower costs for Americans, ‘in the long run’ through ‘smart investments.’ But as we’ve seen time and again, these ‘smart investments’ are code for reduction in labor, laser focus on returns to shareholders, and higher prices for customers. A promise of ‘affordability in the long term’ after years of decisions that have done the opposite is not in the public’s interest.”

“Anticipating anger and fear from customers, the companies are promising $2.25 billion in temporary credits. They think a big number is going to trick people into complacency, but do the math: it works out to a mere $9.40 per month in bill credits over just two years. This is all going to happen while the data center buildout continues to raise prices across the board.”

“State utility commissions and FERC should reject this deal unless they show they will lower costs for people who actually pay the bills.”

Read Marissa’s issue brief “How Congress and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Can Lower Electric Utility Bills.”

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.