Lawmakers are wrestling with the details of how electric regulation should work and what kind of profit the utility providers should make.
The House and Senate are moving in opposite directions about how much money Dominion Energy should be able to rake in every year, a calculation known as the rate of equity. The Senate has a proposal introduced by Majority Leader Dick Saslaw that would allow Dominion to make more money.
"My bill would give all of the ratepayers in Virginia an average, a cut starting in July, of $7 a month," Saslaw says. "If a version of my bill doesn’t pass, they all get a minimum of $17 a month increase."
The House of Delegates doesn't like the approach in Saslaw's bill, which uses a pool of other similar utilities in other states to help determine how much money Dominion should be able to make in Virginia.
Delegate Rip Sullivan is a Democrat from Arlington
"What Dominion wants to do is have decisions about what Dominion's Virginia rates ought to be outsourced to seven other utility commissions in seven other states and then do a mathematical calculation that a fourth grader could do," Sullivan explains. "There's no discretion at all to the SCC to look at any other factors, and in a lot of people's view, including mine, that's not the way we should be going."
For now, the two sides are expected to work out their differences in a secret closed-door conference committee.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
