Political pushback to the NextEra-Dominion deal has spread to New England

A $67-billion deal to merge NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy into the world's largest regulated utility is facing growing political pushback, now spreading beyond Virginia into New England. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has formally intervened in the case before the state's utility regulator, citing concerns about rate increases, jobs, and the state's renewable energy plans. Virginia GOP lawmakers want a special legislative session to give regulators more time to review the deal.

Six New England states, through a regional group called NESCOE, have also raised alarms, though only five governors (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont) signed a joint statement; New Hampshire did not. Their worry: NextEra and Dominion would jointly own the region's only two operating nuclear plants — Seabrook in New Hampshire and Millstone in Connecticut — giving one company outsized control over the region's power supply. The governors also pointed to NextEra's past effort to block a major Maine transmission line carrying Canadian hydropower, including funding opposition campaigns that an ethics commission later found were partly hidden.

For homeowners, none of this changes bills or programs right now. The New England states have no formal power over the merger's outcome — they're urging federal regulators to scrutinize it closely, but haven't intervened the way Virginia has. Some analysts think the region's nuclear-contract concerns could be resolved through new long-term power deals for Millstone and Seabrook, separate from the merger fight itself. The deal still needs approval from federal regulators and utility commissions in Virginia and the Carolinas.