Talking Points

Bill sponsors: Sally Hudson (D-HD57) and Lee Ware (R-HD65)

In the 2021 Dominion Energy Rate Case, SCC staff found that Dominion charged its customers for energy which significantly exceeded the monopoly's costs & authorized profit every year and owed customers $212M in rate reduction. But because Virginia's laws severely curtail the SCC's ability to set fair energy prices, Virginians will only get a $50M rate decrease.

Virginians currently pay the 8th highest energy bills in the country which are unaffordable for 75% of households. Republican well-messaged attacks on RGGI and the VA Clean Economy Act claim to tie the high costs of electricity bills with clean energy mandates and use this to justify repealing those laws. But high bills do not result from clean energy law but because the SCC has been deprived of authority to effectively regulate Dominion rates.

This bill allows the SCC to set rates based on future costs, regardless of past overcharges, which is the normal practice in all other regulated energy markets. Specifically, it would sever the link between past overcharges and future rates and allow the SCC to set rates based on the real cost.

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