From this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch:
A reduction in Dominion Energy bills is on the way after a compromise on a new approach to regulate the company made it through the General Assembly on the last day of the session….
The compromise on electric bills — in legislation that passed nearly unanimously — would bring an immediate $6 to $7 cut in a benchmark 1,000 kilowatt-hour monthly bill, which now stands at $137.
Now there is a firm prediction, a promise even, that we can track. The reductions will be immediate, right? So, look for them on your next monthly bill? Or should we be honest that the bill, if signed as is, doesn’t go into effect until July 1. Will your bill immediately go down on July 2? September 1? The newspaper predicts it will be lower even though as the year progresses, Dominion begins to charge even more for the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, the upgrades at its four nuclear reactors, and puts the tax to pay for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative back onto your monthly bills. Oh, and the new legislation increases Dominion’s authorized profit margin, which customers will start to pay in the near future.
Pick a date in the future, maybe just before Election Day 2023, and we’ll see then what 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity costs a Dominion customer. The RTD is promising $131.
A deeper analysis of the final conference report substitute on Dominion’s proposed regulatory will likely appear later today. But that ridiculous claim that your bills will actually go down “immediately” needs to be highlighted and filed away for future reference. And once again the newspaper has to be dismissed as a serious, independent news outlet when it writes propaganda ledes to please one of its largest advertisers.
— Steve Haner
