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 In conjunction with outdated policies to export more methane overseas, these are the drivers of our increasing utility bills.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.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”
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%.
The connection between utility monopolies and affordability is something more people need to understand. When I look at the numbers - $1 billion in profits while families are choosing between heating and groceries - it really puts the issue in perspective. The point about renewable infrastructure sitting idle while we still pay for it is particularly frustrating. Seems like we need more transparency in how these rate increases are structured and justified.