A $67 billion deal that would create the largest power company in the United States is drawing fire from lawmakers in both parties, who warn it could jack up electric bills for millions of households from Virginia to Florida.

NextEra Energy announced it would acquire Dominion Energy in the roughly $67 billion transaction, combining two of the country's biggest utility giants into a single company with an enormous geographic footprint — one that would stretch along most of the East Coast's power corridor and include Dominion's heavy concentration of customers in data-center-dense Northern Virginia.

"Almost the Entire Energy System... in One Set of Hands"

That scale is exactly what has lawmakers worried. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he has concerns "about antitrust, about competition, about putting almost the entire energy system from Virginia to Florida in one set of hands." Capitol Hill Democrats have said they intend to closely scrutinize the deal to determine whether it is anti-competitive or could drive up utility bills for millions of consumers who would have no alternative provider to turn to.

"ALMOST THE ENTIRE ENERGY SYSTEM... IN ONE SET OF HANDS." — SEN. JACK REED

The criticism isn't confined to one party. Rep. Eugene Vindman has called on state regulators to reject the merger outright, arguing it would hike electricity bills and erode Virginians' trust in their utility. Part of the skepticism stems from NextEra's own recent track record: the company implemented what is widely regarded as the largest residential electricity rate increase in U.S. history at the end of 2025, a fact critics say undercuts its pitch that the merger will ultimately help ratepayers.

NextEra has tried to get ahead of the backlash with a financial sweetener. The company is promising Dominion's roughly 4 million customers a combined $2.25 billion in electricity bill credits over the two years following the deal's close — working out to about $562 per customer on average. Whether that offer will be enough to satisfy skeptical lawmakers and state regulators remains an open question.

The merger still has a long road ahead before it can close, requiring sign-off from multiple state utility regulators and likely federal antitrust review given the companies' combined size and overlapping service territories along the Eastern Seaboard. That review is expected to stretch well into next year, giving opponents time to organize and giving NextEra time to make its case directly to the ratepayers it says will benefit.

What's next: expect formal regulatory filings and public comment periods in the states both companies serve, along with continued pressure from Capitol Hill for hearings on the deal's competitive implications — a process that will unfold against the backdrop of a separate, ongoing fight in Congress over who should pay for the electricity demands of the AI data center boom that has made utilities like these more valuable than ever.