Corporate Greed Is Raising Electric Bills - Lawmakers Must Act
If our elected leaders want to deliver on cutting costs for Virginians and centering affordability, they need to keep the Commonwealth on the path to an affordable, reliably clean energy future.
By Luke Forbes
GUEST WRITER
Methane gas is expensive, and our utility bills are about to get disastrously high.
It’s a problem utility companies, like Dominion Energy, don’t want you to know about. With prices about to double, and stay high for years, Virginians are staring down an energy affordability crisis that will only deepen unless we act decisively.
Extreme weather and increasing demand from artificial intelligence have collided with an aging electric grid and an attack from the Trump Administration on clean energy. In conjunction with outdated policies to export more methane overseas, these are the drivers of our increasing utility bills.
The solution is clear: if our elected leaders want to deliver on cutting costs for Virginians and centering affordability, they need to keep the Commonwealth on the path to an affordable, reliably clean energy future that puts our neighbors, not the shareholders of utility monopolies, first.
Despite federal setbacks, renewable energy has never been cheaper to build and faster to deploy, and neither the sun nor wind come with long-term cost volatility. The only thing that is inevitable is that as long as we allow utility monopolies like Dominion to operate without accountability, they will continue to prioritize their executives’ paychecks over people—which means continuing investment in harmful, expensive fossil fuels.
In the third quarter of 2025, Dominion Energy raked in $1 billion in profits, and state regulators just approved their request to raise electric rates by about 9% over the next two years.
Regulators also approved Dominion’s plans to build a multi-billion dollar methane peaker plant outside Richmond; costs will begin showing up on Virginians’ bills in 2026, and because we have laws on the books to get to 100% clean energy by 2045, chances are we’ll continue paying off this project even while it sits idle.
I’ve seen the effects of this crisis in my work as a housing case manager. Emergency utility assistance is one of the most frequent forms of help my clients ask about. Families are being forced to choose between buying their children holiday gifts or keeping the lights on. Now, churches, non-profits, and charitable organizations are being stretched thin or running out of funding entirely trying to make up the difference, at the same time federal cuts are making their lives harder.
That’s not good-faith energy policy; it’s corporate greed. Rate increases are more than numbers on a bill; there’s a real emotional toll. Seniors struggling to keep their homes warm, young parents working several jobs just to keep the lights on – this is our reality.
These companies behave this way because they can. Unlike with cellular service providers or internet service, you can’t shop around when your electric bill doubles. Dominion works hard to keep it that way as they throw their weight behind blocking reforms, and use ratepayer money to lobby against consumer interests.
The utilities themselves are the biggest existing barrier to clean energy progress and affordability as they work to block clean-energy standards, weaken efficiency programs, and expand fossil-fuel infrastructure. Their priority isn’t affordability or reliability, and it certainly isn’t public health. It’s building on their already enormous profits.
The consequences of this rigged system are frightening, and it plays out everywhere. In 2024, utilities nationwide secured $8.9 billion in authorized rate increases, and electricity prices are rising twice as fast as inflation. These heightened bill payments are being used to influence politicians’ votes and shape the laws that determine how much you pay.
Our newly-elected leaders ran on affordability, so let’s make sure they choose a new path built on competition, consumer protection, and clean energy that can help meet demands and lower costs. Renewable clean energy like wind, solar, and battery storage are the cheapest sources of power. Virginians deserve clean air, energy they can count on in weather disasters, and bills they can afford to pay.
To make this a reality we must stop letting utility companies stay in the driver’s seat. Corruption and greed are the drivers of the affordability crisis, and Virginians are fighting back, but they’re counting on lawmakers to crack down.
Luke Forbes is the President of the Greater Fredericksburg Young Democrats, and in his day job works as a housing case manager at a local non-profit. His views are his own and do not reflect that of his employer. Contact him at luktherpendragon@gmail.com.
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We certainly have an energy problem, and an energy funding problem, but part of this essay isn't quite right. Dominion Energy is a (monopoly) utility company, subject to Virginia law regarding public service corporations. As such, its profits are highly regulated. Just in November, the SCC reduced Dominion's proposed profit of a 10.4% return on equity in its latest rate plan to a maximum 9.8%.
Of course, Pres. Biden's energy policies that sent costs soaring, had nothing to do with Virginia's higher rates. And the offshore wind turbines cost being tacked onto the bills is just creative financing. Wait until the bill comes for the maintenance on those windmills and then the bill for disposing of them in 20 years, if they last that long. Curious how the author doesn't hold Germany's windmills up as an example of success. They had to go back to coal.
Methane is cheap and renewable. The article's author is either ignorant or purposely spreading propaganda.