Man, even the Pope doesn’t like data centers.

In his new encyclical on artificial intelligence, Pope Leo XIV laid out the dangers of the mad rush to replace humans with AI. In among the concerns for the dignity and future of humanity, he took a moment to mention the environmental damage involved:

Current AI systems require enormous amounts of energy and water, significantly influencing carbon dioxide emissions, and place heavy demands on natural resources. As their complexity increases, especially in the case of large language models, the need for computing power and storage capacity grows too, which requires an extensive network of machines, cables, data centers and energy-intensive infrastructure. 

Judging from public polling, most Americans share the Pope’s concerns. But guess who does like data centers? Big energy companies. And unlike the Pope, these corporations are not troubled by the moral implications of their activities. The fact that AI systems require enormous amounts of energy is not a problem, but an opportunity. 

Data centers are why utility giant NextEra wants to buy Dominion Energy. Northern Virginia is home to the largest concentration of data centers on the planet, and most of it is in an area where Dominion holds a monopoly on providing power. 

NextEra is already the largest utility in the U.S. by market capitalization. Acquiring Dominion would make it the third-largest U.S. energy company overall, behind only Exxon and Chevron. The two companies apparently think this level of scale confers an advantage when dealing with equally large and powerful tech companies. NextEra’s CEO, John Ketchum, reportedly told stock analysts that the combined company “can become the go-to partner for large load customers.”

Set aside for a moment the fact that most corporate mergers fail to achieve their objectives. That’s (mostly) their problem, not ours. The question for us is whether anyone other than tech companies – like, you know, us humans – would benefit. 

In announcing the merger deal, the companies stressed the advantages for Virginia ratepayers, which would include $2.25 billion in bill credits over the first two years. Although that sounds promising, recall that Dominion recently filed to recover from its customers over a billion dollars in excess fuel costs, which would cut into any windfall from the merger. Beyond that, whether Virginia customers would see lower bills over the longer term remains to be seen. 

It’s also worth noting that this could be just the start of industry consolidation in Virginia driven by data center demand. As recently as November, Dominion was in talks to buy the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), the utility serving the second-most number of data centers in the state. There’s been no further news about the deal since last fall, perhaps indicating when Dominion’s conversation with NextEra began. But a deal with NOVEC may still happen once the NextEra merger is resolved. 

The case for NextEra

Supporters of the deal include Jigar Shah, a solar energy entrepreneur and former U.S. Energy Department official in the Biden administration who remains a hero to many in the clean energy world. In a LinkedIn post, Shah said Dominion “may be the worst-run utility in America,” one that “has been a fixer-upper for years.” He added, “Virginia’s legislature got so fed up waiting for [Dominion Energy CEO] Bob Blue to modernize the grid that it stepped in and mandated it — grid utilization, batteries, VPPs.”

In Shah’s view, NextEra brings “competence,” plus a heck of a lot of battery storage to power data centers quickly. And of course, Dominion brings the data centers.

While Shah is most impressed with the company’s batteries, other observers have pointed out that NextEra, through its subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources, is the nation’s largest owner of solar and wind projects. As of June 2025, solar and (onshore) wind made up 28 GW of a 40 GW portfolio, with another 29 GW of renewables in “backlog.” 

It also appears to be a true believer in the economic case for renewable energy. In March of 2025, NextEra executives told attendees at a Houston conference, “Renewables can provide the generation needed to meet demand at the lowest cost possible now, making them an essential near-term solution for avoiding a power affordability crisis across the U.S.” But, they also added, “Meeting near- and long-term demand and capacity needs at the lowest cost possible will require ‘all of the above’ energy solutions that include renewables, battery energy storage, natural gas and nuclear energy.”

Even this year, most of the company’s planned projects are renewable. NextEra’s Q1 shareholder call detailed 4 GW worth of contracts signed that quarter, including 2.2 GW of solar, 1.3 GW of battery storage and .5 GW of wind generation. 

Not so fast? 

The impressive clean energy portfolio notwithstanding, a NewEra takeover doesn’t portend an end to Dominion’s infatuation with fossil gas. On the same Q1 shareholder call, executives bragged that “the U.S. Department of Commerce selected Energy Resources to build 9.5 gigawatts of new gas-fired generation to serve large load” in Texas and Pennsylvania. 

Moreover, the company’s 2035 goal is to reach 30 GW by 2035, including a plan to restart a mothballed nuclear plant in Iowa and the potential for as much as 6 GW of small modular reactors, assuming “the right commercial terms and conditions with appropriate risk sharing mechanisms that limit our ultimate exposure.” Beyond that, 50% of the planned generation buildout is planned to come from gas-fired generation.

The fossil fuel investments don’t stop there. NextEra has another subsidiary that owns over 1,000 miles of gas pipelines. The company also owns gas supply companies, “making us one of the largest and most active gas suppliers serving wholesale, retail and industrial customers nationwide.” This stands in contrast to Dominion, which got out of the gas transmission and supply business several years ago when the company seemed to be pivoting to embrace the transition to zero-carbon energy. 

NextEra is also no friend to rooftop solar. Its regulated utility, Florida Power and Light, wrote and lobbied for legislation to gut net metering in the state. That doesn’t make it worse than Dominion, which has repeatedly tried to hamstring third-party solar investments in Virginia, but it does mean that solar customers can’t expect a friendlier reception if the merger goes through.

Finally, it’s not clear what will happen to Virginia’s offshore wind ambitions. Dominion is completing construction of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project this year, and has – or had – ambitions to build out additional lease areas. The company also invested in the first purpose-built offshore wind installation vessel in the U.S., part of a plan to make itself a major player in an emerging east coast industry. 

All that, of course, happened before rising interest rates led to the cancellation of offshore wind projects in several northeastern states, followed by Trump bringing the industry to a screeching halt through executive orders and a campaign of harassment. 

Nonetheless, Virginia has a history of supporting offshore wind development through both Republican and Democratic administrations. Nor is it giving up now, as shown by the General Assembly’s bipartisan passage this year of legislationfurthering the development of an offshore wind workforce. 

NextEra has a reputation for offshore wind skepticism, raising suspicions that the other lease areas Dominion bought won’t get developed if the merger goes through. 

Are we ready for this? 

The merger plan has other detractors. The Energy and Policy Institute, a frequent critic of energy companies, cautionedthat “A megamonopoly of this size, with the kind of money to buy political influence that NextEra will have, will be nearly impossible to regulate.” 

Clean Virginia, an organization formed to counter the influence of Dominion, also warned that handing monopoly power to NextEra is risky for Virginians, given the Florida company’s record of corporate malfeasance. 

Indeed, NextEra’s brand of hard-ball politics makes Dominion’s power plays look tame. NextEra has starred in a number of corruption scandals, including allegations of spying on journalists, offering jobs to public officials as a way to buy influence, and funding so-called ghost candidates to run as spoilers in hopes of defeating political candidates the utility saw as unfriendly to its interests. 

According to Clean Virginia, NextEra even filed a defamation suit against a woman for posting a video that changed the company’s name to “NextError” and “NextTerror.” 

(Okay, that was a rookie mistake on the woman’s part: she should have chosen one or the other and then plastered it everywhere. Had she done her research on effective parody, she might have found the work of Blue Virginia’s Lowell Feld, who altered Dominion’s logo to include a smokestack and added the tagline, “Global Warming Starts Here.” Dominion had the good sense not to make an issue of it in public, though I’m sure that if you went through their files you would find a memo from a top executive demanding a lawsuit and a response from a company lawyer patiently explaining the First Amendment.)

Here in Virginia, Dominion’s outsized role in policy making has been made possible by its ability to rain cash on lawmakers. In Florida, NextEra has been at least somewhat constrained by state campaign finance laws, which cap contributions at $3,000 per candidate. 

The company will absolutely love Virginia’s laws allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions. According to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), Dominion made over $28 million in campaign contributions in 2025 alone. What might Virginia candidates be able to collect from a company three times Dominion’s size?

Virginia also permits its lawmakers to hold a financial interest in the companies they govern, and several legislators do own shares in Dominion. The current leader is Republican senator Bill DeSteph, whose latest conflict of interest disclosure shows he owns at least $250,000 in Dominion stock (the top reporting category). NextEra’s purchase of Dominion comes with a bonus in stock value for Dominion shareholders. 

Decisions, decisions

So is this a company we want throwing its weight around in Richmond? 

Fortunately, NextEra and Dominion aren’t the only ones who get a say. The merger will have to be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (easy-peasy in this administration), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (ditto) and regulators in the affected states, including Virginia’s State Corporation Commission. 

Virginia’s Attorney General, Jay Jones, will represent the interests of ratepayers in the SCC proceedings. Jones refused to accept campaign donations from Dominion in last year’s election, so he carries some credibility as an unbiased advocate. So far, Jones has promised to “scrutinize” the deal, but hasn’t said whether he supports or opposes it. 

Complicating matters, one of the SCC’s three commissioners, Kelsey Bagot, formerly worked for NextEra. When Bagot was appointed in 2024, it was with the understanding that she would recuse herself from matters involving NextEra. Given how much of the SCC’s work involves Dominion, the merger with NextEra would make Bagot’s recusal promise hard to live up to.

Although the governor and General Assembly don’t have a formal role here, it will be hard for the merger to go through if serious opposition arises from these quarters. Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, confirmed to me in a text that the General Assembly’s Energy Commission (formerly known as the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation) will hold hearings in June.  

Is this merger good or bad for residential customers?

One thing is abundantly clear: NextEra and Dominion are focused on data centers, not residential ratepayers. We are little insects under the feet of hyenas stalking wildebeest. NextEra makes the right noises about embracing large-load tariffs to ensure data centers “pay their fair share,” because that’s what political leaders want to hear. But what they care about is all those gigawatts of power they will build and make money from. 

Being ignored can sometimes be a good thing. Better yet would be a result where residents are treated as part of the solution to the energy crunch. That’s the direction Virginia’s General Assembly is trying to go with many of the bills passed this year that expand opportunities for residents and businesses to invest in solar and storage, buy the output of shared solar projects and participate in virtual power plants. 

It would also be nice if the energy giants committed to doing their part to further Virginia’s carbon-cutting mandate. We’ve seen nothing so far to reassure us on this point. As far as I can tell, NextEra’s record of building renewable energy and storage didn’t result from any moral commitment to confront the climate crisis, but from a judgment about how to build the most gigawatts fastest and at least cost, in order to make the highest profits. 

We’ve seen nothing so far to reassure us that the energy giants are committed to doing their part to further Virginia’s carbon-cutting mandate. Regulated utilities enjoy monopolies, after all. In return, they are expected to serve the public good. 

That’s a point Dominion often misses. The question on the minds of Virginians now is whether we can expect better from NextEra.