releases: https://goodlander.house.gov/media/press-releases/no-utility-giant-should-get-a-blank-check-goodlander-fights-mega-merger-that-would-hand-one-company-all-of-new-englands-nuclear-power-including-seabrook/
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://goodlander.house.gov/media/press-releases/no-utility-giant-should-get-a-blank-check-goodlander-fights-mega-merger-that-would-hand-one-company-all-of-new-englands-nuclear-power-including-seabrook/ | “No Utility Giant Should Get a Blank Check”: Goodlander Fights Mega-Merger That Would Hand One Company All of New England’s Nuclear Power, Including Seabrook | 2026-09-30 | 2026 | 2026-09 | Democrat | House | NH | Maggie Goodlander | G000604 | goodlander.house.gov | goodlander | https://goodlander.house.gov/media/press-releases/ | scraper | As Granite Staters face a more than 16% jump in electricity rates, Goodlander and 11 colleagues urge FERC to reject the $66.8 billion NextEra-Dominion deal unless the companies prove it won’t raise costs Concord, N.H. — Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (NH-02), a former top antitrust official at the Justice Department, and a coalition of 11 of her congressional colleagues pressed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) this week to block the NextEra-Dominion merger unless the companies can prove it won’t drive up costs for families. The deal would create the world’s largest regulated electric utility and hand a single corporation control of Seabrook Station and New England’s only other nuclear power plant. For New Hampshire, the stakes could not be higher. The merger would put Seabrook and Connecticut’s Millstone plant under common ownership, giving one company control over roughly a quarter of New England’s electricity. In the lawmakers’ words, that would mean “considerable negotiating leverage over states and the ability to demand abusive terms at the expense of households.” And because neither company is a regulated utility in New Hampshire, the state’s Public Utilities Commission gets no say. FERC is the only regulator standing between Granite State families and a nuclear monopoly. Meanwhile, the $2.25 billion in bill credits NextEra is offering to win approval would go only to Dominion customers in Virginia and the Carolinas. Not one dollar would go to New Hampshire, which would shoulder the risk and get none of the reward. Granite Staters can’t afford it. Residential electricity rates in New Hampshire jumped more than 16% over the past year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s July data. Goodlander’s advocacy comes as governors from five New England states have sounded the alarm and called for “the highest level of scrutiny” of the deal. “Granite Staters are already getting crushed by the cost of energy, and no utility giant should get a blank check to get even bigger on their backs,” said Congresswoman Goodlander. “This deal would put Seabrook and every other nuclear plant in New England under one corporate roof, and New Hampshire wouldn’t get a single vote on it. That’s too much power in too few hands. Federal regulators must look under every rock, test every promise, and block this deal if it would do what so many corporate mergers have done before: stick families with higher bills. I spent years taking on corporate monopolies at the Justice Department. I know a bad deal when I see one, and I will keep fighting to put New Hampshire ratepayers ahead of utility profits.” The $66.8 billion deal would be the fourth-largest merger of all time, creating a company worth $420 billion. “Our fundamental concern is that this new entity will be both a gigantic power generator and a gigantic power-providing utility,” the lawmakers wrote. They warn that combining two major regulated utility businesses with extensive electricity-generation assets could allow the merged company to favor affiliates, shift costs to captive ratepayers, weaken competition in power markets, and discourage transmission investments that would bring lower-cost power into New England and other regions. Under Section 203 of the Federal Power Act, FERC may approve the transaction only if it is consistent with the public interest and does not pose a risk of harmful cross-subsidization. The letter calls on the Commission to evaluate the merger’s effects on competition, rates, regulation, transmission development, and regulated utility assets across all affected regions, including ISO New England. The lawmakers urge FERC to deny the application unless NextEra and Dominion demonstrate that the deal will have no adverse effect – now or in the future – on competition, rates, or regulation, and to remain skeptical of alleged mitigating conditions that have historically failed to protect consumers in past acquisitions. “If the present record is insufficient to make those findings,” they wrote, “the Commission should deny the application.” NextEra has already shown New Hampshire how far it will go to protect its profits, and it did so from Seabrook. In their joint statement, the five New England states pointed to NextEra’s “history of using its already considerable resources to obstruct new transmission infrastructure projects that New England needs.” The New England Clean Energy Connect transmission project was designed to deliver low-cost Quebec hydropower to ISO New England, and NextEra’s Seabrook nuclear plant and oil-fired generation stood to lose significant revenue as a result. NextEra subsequently spent more than $20 million in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to block the project, in order to deny a competing low-cost resource access to the market. When the company delayed upgrades at Seabrook needed to connect the line, FERC ordered it to act, and a federal appeals court upheld that order in 2024. “This isn’t a merger. It’s NextEra buying control of a state-granted monopoly and paying a multibillion-dollar premium for the privilege, and ratepayers shouldn’t be stuck with that bill,” said Marissa P. Gillett, Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and former Chair of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. “NextEra has promised customer protections to win approval before, in Hawaii and Texas, and regulators rejected both deals. The law puts the burden on the companies to prove this deal won’t raise rates or weaken competition. Bill credits and paper commitments don’t meet that burden. Congresswoman Goodlander and her colleagues are right to hold FERC to that standard.” A copy of the letter is available HERE. ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: Goodlander has made lowering energy and utility costs a central part of her work in Congress: Taking on utility rate hikes and monopoly power: Goodlander filed a petition to intervene in Liberty Utilities’ pending rate case, called on the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission to reconsider Eversource’s 43.4 percent rate increase, and helped introduce the Lowering Utility Bills Act to rein in excessive profits by investor-owned utilities. Expanding affordable, reliable power: Goodlander introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to accelerate hydropower production and lower energy costs and has championed bipartisan legislation to support upgrades at existing hydroelectric facilities, strengthen grid reliability, and lower costs. Demanding utility accountability: Goodlander pressed Liberty Utilities for answers after the company refused new gas connections in the Lakes Region and has urged FERC to crack down on utilities’ attempts to overcharge customers. Bringing antitrust experience to Congress: Before Congress, Goodlander served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where she took on corporate monopolies driving up costs for families and small businesses. ### | 1 | 2026-10-01T11:23:28Z | 2026-10-01T11:25:15Z |