The Virginia State Corporation Commission will allow documents detailing an internal investigation into NextEra Energy’s failed attempt to acquire Jacksonville, Florida’s public utility to be included in deliberations of the company’s $67 billion proposed merger with Dominion Energy.
“I find the requested information is discoverable in the instant case, although the Commission will ultimately decide the admissibility of any information offered into the record as evidence,” Chief Hearing Examiner Mathias Roussey Jr. wrote Oct. 2, adding that the utility must furnish the requested information within four days.
The order comes after energy policy advocacy group Clean Virginia, an intervenor in the merger case, argued that NextEra’s alleged political ties and attempts to take over other utilities should be examined during the case’s discovery process.
Before the evidentiary hearings – where attorneys take the stand to question witnesses, present evidence and present their key arguments on either side of the case — lawyers are sifting through documents and other information to help build their case and submit it to the SCC.
Clean Virginia and the two groups said NextEra’s previous actions and that of its former leadership — including the $150 million settlement NextEra agreed to pay in June to resolve a dispute over whether the company lied about its involvement in political interference schemes in Florida — should be allowed to be mentioned in this case.
Clean Virginia pressed for the energy company to reveal several other items from its past dealings, as well, and called for further clarifications on enforcement mechanisms for the merger conditions.
“A public utility and any entity that controls it is more than the people who keep the lights on, and the responsibilities of its management and board are far broader,” said Clean Virginia Executive Director Brennan Gilmore.
“How NextEra’s leadership responded to serious allegations about Florida Power & Light’s use of corporate resources to influence elections and target officials goes directly to how it would govern Dominion,” Gilmore added.
Clean Virginia’s lawyer also argued in a Sept. hearing that a major part of the merger filing hinges on NextEra’s track record, core values, and corporate governance – which the group said included the political activities.
While Dominion’s lawyer Joe Reid argued in a September hearing that NextEra’s actions under the company under previous leadership weren’t relevant due to a large turnover in staffing in recent years, on Friday the SCC granted part of Clean Virginia’s motion to bring some of these items to light.
‘A different deal on the table’: AG Jay Jones asks SCC to reset the clock on Dominion-NextEra merger
Roussey denied other requests by Clean Virginia, including a call for a half decade’s worth of the company’s spending on public opinion campaigns.
The SCC is also weighing Attorney General Jay Jones’ request to reset the clock on the merger timeline due to the latest amendment to the proposal from NextEra and Dominion in mid-September.
The amendment expanded portions of the proposal, including extending the customer bill credit from two years to four and building an office building in downtown Richmond. If the motion is approved, the merger case would stretch into the spring.
Presently, regulators must approve or reject the merger by Jan. 11.
