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Va. Senate committee votes down bills to regulate electricity rates

Advocates of a package of bills saw this legislative session as the best chance in years to beef up the power of the SCC to lower rates and order customer refunds.

RICHMOND, Va. — A group of Virginia lawmakers wants to give the State Corporation Commission more regulation power over utility giant Dominion Energy, but that effort may be tabled for now.

Advocates of a package of bills had seen this legislative session as the best chance in years to beef up the power of the SCC to lower rates and order customer refunds.

Politically powerful Dominion Energy Virginia, the state’s largest electric utility, has routinely pushed through legislation that minimized the chances that it would have to lower its rates.

That's despite regulators having routinely found that the electric monopoly’s rates provide excessive profit, including a report last year that found Dominion earned $503 million above authorized levels in 2017 through 2019.

While the Senate Committee voted to “Pass by Indefinitely” on all of the bills, it essentially means they will not advance this year. 

The Senate Committee did, however, vote to package the bills together and send them to the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation for further review.

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