Four types of scandals utility companies get into with money from your electric bills – By Patrick Wilson (Richmond Times-Dispatch) / Oct 10 2020
This article was produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter.
Across the country, electric utilities have worked the levers of power to win favorable treatment from state policymakers.
This week, a Richmond Times-Dispatch and ProPublica investigation found that Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest public utility, successfully lobbied to reshape a major climate bill to cover its massive offshore wind project. The move shifted risk from the company’s shareholders to its ratepayers. As a result of the legislation, a typical residential customer’s bill is projected to increase by nearly $30 per month over the next decade.
Dominion says its wind project is necessary to meet the state’s new renewable energy goals. The utility’s lobbying success underscores its ability to work through the legislative process in Richmond, where special interests have taken on outsized roles in policymaking.
Elsewhere, utilities have gone much further, crossing the line into potentially criminal behavior.
