blueridgeleader.com · pamowens · September 7, 2026
Hashmi Hears Loudoun: Who Will Pay for Virginia’s Energy Future? - Blue Ridge Leader
# Hashmi Hears Loudoun: Who Will Pay for Virginia’s Energy Future?
September 7, 2026
By Valerie Cury
On Sept. 2, Loudoun residents and others from across Northern Virginia stepped to a microphone with concerns that went far beyond a proposed $67 billion corporate merger.
They talked about electric bills they are struggling to pay, transmission lines threatening farms and homes, data centers consuming enormous amounts of power, diesel generators operating near communities, pollution, property rights and a growing fear that ordinary Virginians are being asked to shoulder the costs of an energy system increasingly driven by some of the world’s wealthiest companies.
Approximately 200 people attended Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi’s launch of her Energy Costs Listening Tour in Sterling, the first in a series of community conversations across Virginia focused on rising energy costs and NextEra Energy’s proposed acquisition of Dominion Energy.
Hashmi was joined by Sen. Russet Perry (D-31), Sen. Danica Roem (D-30) and Del. John McAuliff (D-30), along with energy policy researcher Shelby Green.
Hashmi told the crowd that questions surrounding energy affordability and reliability, the rapid growth of data centers, transmission lines and eminent domain, and the proposed Dominion takeover are not separate issues.
“These questions are all interconnected,” Hashmi said.
The proposed acquisition would place Virginia’s largest electric utility under Florida-based NextEra and create what Hashmi’s office describes as the largest utility merger in U.S. history.
Hashmi has called for extending the State Corporation Commission’s review of the transaction beyond the six months provided under current law and submitted 64 questions she wants answered as part of the review.
“The proposed Dominion Energy-NextEra merger is not simply a corporate deal to be hammered out in boardrooms,” Hashmi told the audience. “It’s a decision that will affect the electric bills, jobs, communities and energy future of millions of Virginians.”
She said Virginians deserve straightforward answers about whether the acquisition would lower costs or improve service, what protections customers would have against future rate increases, what would happen to Virginia jobs and who would bear the financial risks.
But some of the evening’s most personal testimony came from residents themselves.
A Cascades resident said she lives across the street from “Data Center Alley” and had compared her Dominion account with the previous year’s usage.
“In these past three months, I have already spent $1,000 on electricity,” she said. “Last year, Dominion shows me on the website that I didn’t even crack $1,000 in four months.”
What troubled her even more, she said, was that the utility’s own information showed she had consumed less electricity.
“They have a little chart that shows me that I’ve used less electricity this year, but I’ve paid more,” she said.
For her, the debate over energy demand and data centers was no longer theoretical.
“We are struggling to pay our bills,” she said.
Another Ashburn resident asked whether Virginia had adequately studied the effect of data center development on residential utility bills before allowing so many projects to move forward.
Hashmi acknowledged that Virginia has been “a little bit delayed” in assessing data centers’ impacts on electric usage and the environment, but said legislation approved this year begins addressing regulation, data collection and the need for comprehensive statewide planning.
McAuliff said residents are already bearing much of the cost associated with the transmission and generation infrastructure needed to serve growing demand.
“We have to get those under control,” he said.
For Perry and McAuliff, the Sterling gathering came a few days after they listened to residents in Lovettsville describe the potential effects of proposed 765-kilovolt transmission lines across western Loudoun.
Perry told Wednesday’s audience that what she heard there was “brutal.”
“The people of my district—they’re done,” she said, recalling residents describing transmission lines crossing farms and properties and a single mother speaking about the potential loss of her livelihood.
“I will do everything in my personal power to fight for you, to fight the merger, to get a moratorium on data centers, and to stand with each and every one of you, shoulder by shoulder, arm in arm,” Perry said.
Perry said communities miles away from Data Center Alley are increasingly confronting infrastructure being proposed to serve its enormous electricity demand.
She said she no longer sees a path under which she could support the NextEra-Dominion transaction.
“I don’t foresee a way that a $67 billion merger could possibly be in the best interest of the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Perry said.
McAuliff likewise drew a direct connection between data center growth, new transmission infrastructure and the proposed acquisition.
“That is why they’re interested in coming up here to Virginia and taking over the utility that has served us here for a long time,” he said, pointing to the long queue of data centers seeking connections to the electric grid.
McAuliff said data centers should bear the costs of the new generation and transmission infrastructure their demand requires rather than shifting those costs onto residential customers.
“Anything that proceeds in any form has to lower energy costs,” he said.
Roem was equally forceful, arguing that the enormous financial interests behind data centers and the proposed merger should not outweigh the interests of the people who ultimately pay the bills.
“A $67 billion merger to create the world’s largest electric utility does not happen with you in mind,” Roem said. “It happens so that corporate greed runs further amok, and the richest people in America make even more money off of your back, and it’s got to stop.”
She urged residents to remain engaged with their elected representatives.
“Remember, they are supposed to answer to you, not to the corporations,” Roem said.
Residents also raised concerns about air pollution from data center backup generators.
One speaker warned about diesel and natural gas generators operating near communities and cited concerns about potential health effects. McAuliff said lawmakers approved legislation this year requiring cleaner generators but intend to return to Richmond seeking limits on how long backup generators may operate.
“Right now there are data centers that are using them year-round in some places,” McAuliff said. “We have to stop that for the sake of those communities.”
The proposed merger itself drew another concern—who would ultimately control Virginia’s energy future.
Western Loudoun resident Thomas Donahue described learning three years ago that a proposed 500-kilovolt transmission line could cross his land and said communities are increasingly being forced to accommodate infrastructure serving interests outside their boundaries.
“Control of our energy future should remain in Virginia,” Donahue said. “Accountability for our energy future should remain in Virginia.”
Green, an expert on utility law and energy policy serving as the tour’s energy policy researcher for Loudoun, urged residents to scrutinize whether NextEra can demonstrate that its acquisition would benefit Virginia customers.
She pointed to Hawaii’s rejection a decade ago of NextEra’s proposed acquisition of Hawaiian Electric as evidence that regulators can reject a major utility transaction when the company fails to meet its burden.
“If NextEra cannot prove that their takeover of Dominion will not harm, impair or jeopardize customers, then they should not be allowed to own Virginia’s grid,” Green said.
Roem said she supports giving the SCC more time to consider the transaction, including calling the General Assem