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Data Centers and the Sale of Dominion Energy

My inclination when learning about the proposed mega-utility company that would be created when NextEra Energy acquires Dominion Energy—and yes, that is what is proposed—was that this is the predictable growing distance from the consumer of companies that expand and merge and acquire in order to keep up with a federal regulating body that is way ahead of them.

However, I try to talk to people who know a thing or two regarding issues like this, and so I reached out to Dr. Bonner Cohen.

Dr. Cohen is a senior policy analyst with the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), where he concentrates on energy, natural resources, and international relations. He also serves as a senior policy adviser with the Heartland Institute, senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, and as adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

He earned his B.A. from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D.—summa cum laude—from the University of Munich and is the author of two books, “The Green Wave: Environmentalism and Its Consequences” and “Marshall, Mao and Chiang: The American Mediations Effort in the Chinese Civil War,” and he takes my calls frequently.

Attached is an MP3 of the conversation we had, which is transcribed here. It has been lightly edited for clarity:

JOE THOMAS: Talk about the peril of a megalithic company. Their explanation is, oh, we have to merge because data centers. I’m getting a little weary of everything that happens in electricity these days being the fault of, or caused by, data centers. Am I wrong?

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BONNER COHEN: Data centers certainly provide an excuse in some cases, a reasonable explanation for some of what is going on. But what we have here, of course, is, as you pointed out, a mega-merger.

Two very large utilities—Florida-based NextEra being even larger than Dominion—want to merge. If they’re allowed to do so, and, by the way, that’s not a done deal, this thing has to pass regulatory muster in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Florida.

You can count on lawsuits—primarily from environmental groups—also being launched against this because even though NextEra and Dominion have paid proper homage to so-called green energy, both also have very strong commitments to natural gas.

That is something that the environmental groups obviously oppose. They will take this to court. This........

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