Gov. Janet Mills joined officials from four other New England states in opposing a major acquisition in the electricity industry that the governors suggest could impact rates and infrastructure improvements.
The proposed merger of Florida-based NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy, which is headquartered in Virginia, would reportedly create the world’s largest regulated electric utility.
The proposal is being reviewed by federal regulators.
But in a joint statement released Tuesday, the governors of Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Rhode Island said the deal would “concentrate an unprecedented amount of leverage in NextEra,” with potential ramifications for ratepayers.
The governors accused NextEra of attempting to disrupt or delay electricity infrastructure improvements in New England. In particular, they pointed to NextEra spending $20 million to try to block the controversial New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line project through Maine that will funnel additional electricity from Hydro-Quebec into the regional grid.
“The states’ concern that these companies will act to disrupt and delay infrastructure development is not hypothetical,” reads the joint statement released by the New England States Committee on Electricity. “NextEra has chosen to spend its considerable resources to disrupt needed infrastructure development in New England while Dominion has used its resources to lobby for out-of-market payments under the threat of retirement, which could have had dramatic impacts on the region’s resource adequacy.”
The two companies already own the region’s two still-operating nuclear power plants, Seabrook Station in New Hampshire and Millstone Power Station in Connecticut.
In a separate statement released by her office, Mills said the proposal would “concentrate too many energy generation and transmission assets in a company that has worked aggressively to suppress competition in Maine and block state priorities that would reduce energy costs.”
“This ill-advised proposal would give one company sole control of several critical energy generating assets in New England, further limit competition, and make it harder to bring energy costs down,” Mills said. “This deal may be good for NextEra’s shareholders, but it’s a bad deal for Maine people.”
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.