Dominion-NextEra merger may cost Virginia its offshore wind

Energy analysts at IEEFA reported this Thursday. Dominion Energy and NextEra updated their roughly $67 billion merger agreement. The new version no longer includes an offshore wind project. The two companies announced their merger — the largest ever in the U.S. power industry — back in May. Virginia's State Corporation Commission held its first public hearing on the deal the same day.

Offshore wind mattered because it was one of the only renewable-energy commitments in the original deal. Virginia's electricity demand is exploding right now. One analysis ties much of that growth to power-hungry AI data centers that need power around the clock. Dominion has tried to offset the loss elsewhere. It's offering new short-term bill credits. It's also promising to keep the merged company's headquarters in Richmond. Opponents, including the advocacy group Clean Virginia, say those sweeteners came too late. The real concern is different: can Virginia's clean-energy goals survive a merger built around a much bigger company's priorities?

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Will Virginia's regulators actually block or reshape this deal, or just extract concessions and let it through? That's the real fight now that hearings have started. The merger is supposed to close in the second half of 2027. That gives opponents over a year to keep pushing. But this merger pairs a local utility with the country's biggest clean-energy company. Deals that size rarely get unwound, especially once state regulators start approving pieces of it.