NH silent as neighboring governors sound the alarm on proposed utility merger

Gov. Kelly Ayotte was absent from a joint letter released on Tuesday by the other five New England governors containing strongly worded opposition to a proposed merger between the utilities NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy.

The proposed union would create the largest regulated utility in the world, according to NextEra, and bring New England’s two remaining active nuclear power plants under the same ownership. This includes New Hampshire’s Seabrook Station, which is owned by NextEra Energy subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources.

New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Don Kreis said he was “extremely skeptical” about the proposed merger. But his office has not yet taken a stance, either, he said, adding, “I can’t argue with the governor’s decision to think more about it, as well.”

In fact, consumer advocates from across New England are still studying the merger, Kreis said, and are in the process of requesting a deadline extension for the comment period before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

But the governors of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut were clear in their stance, writing that the union would concentrate an “unprecedented amount of leverage” in NextEra, which they said had exhibited “anticompetitive” behavior in its past dealings in the region.

“The states’ concern that these companies will act to disrupt and delay infrastructure development is not hypothetical,” reads the statement issued by the New England States Committee on Electricity. 

NextEra Energy is headquartered in Florida. Dominion Energy, an electric utility based in Virginia, is smaller than NextEra but still a sprawling company, including ownership and operation of Connecticut’s Millstone Power Station.

In the statement, the five governors said NextEra had exerted its significant influence already to disrupt needed infrastructure projects in New England. 

They cited NextEra’s opposition to the New England Clean Energy Connect project, a transmission corridor completed early this year that brings hydropower from Quebec through Maine and into Massachusetts.

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Acting through community groups and campaign donations, NextEra was involved in an attempt to derail the project, according to reporting by MainePublic. The utility also resisted making updates to its own infrastructure that were necessary to move the project forward, according to the New England governors’ letter. The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ultimately forced NextEra to complete that work, ruling the resistance was “anticompetitive,” according to the statement.

And the utility has “demonstrated disregard for consumers and affordability” in previous infrastructure project proposals, they said.

NextEra did not respond to a request for comment.

The joint letter was issued by the New England States Committee on Electricity, a not-for-profit entity that represents the interests of New England’s governors in regional electricity matters. Ayotte also did not respond to a question about the decision not to join the letter.

Each state’s executive branch is represented on the committee by designees; New Hampshire’s representatives are Department of Energy Commissioner Jared Chicoine and Regional Policy Director Dan Phelan. 

More research by the states’ consumer advocates will illuminate whether consolidating ownership of the two nuclear plants will have a significant impact on energy prices in New England, Kreis said.

The offices are in the process of asking FERC to extend the comment deadline by 2 months, into November, he said. 

The five governors’ letter was “very strongly worded,” Kreis said. But, he added, NextEra does “assert themselves very aggressively.”