Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine gave a state commission more authority in legislation that seeks to impose new regulations on electric utilities doing business in the commonwealth.
The bill ends Virginia’s failed experiment with removing regulations from the electricity industry. Legislators hoped removing regulations would encourage power companies to vie for Virginia consumers, but the competition never arrived. Without new regulations, consumers would be faced with enormous increases in their power bills after state-imposed rate caps expired in 2010.
Kaine’s amendments, which require legislative approval, increase the State Corporation Commission’s power to limit utilities’ rate increases. The limits on rate hikes would be tied to utilities’ profits. If utilities are earning too much, they would be ordered to cut the rates they charge customers.
“Every two years, every utility in Virginia has to go back to the SCC to justifytheir rates,” Kaine said Tuesday during his monthly appearance on WTOP radio. “The SCC gets to decide if the rates are fair and what the rate of return should be.”
Dominion Power, the state’s largest utility and chief proponent of the bill, supports the governor’s amendments, spokesman David Botkins said.
“It sets in place a good, long-term energy policy to keep Virginia’s economy humming while at the same time laying out specific plans for energy conservation and encouraging new sources of renewable generation,” Botkins said of Kaine’s proposal.
In other action on legislation announced Tuesday, Kaine vetoed three bills. One measure would have exempted billboards from local zoning ordinance and another would have stripped the SCC’s power to regulate transactions involving telephone companies. The third would have exempted private religious schools from paying building inspection fees.
“There is no reason to single out any specific subset of schools and exempt them from paying this fee,” Kaine said. “It is constitutionally questionable to offer preferential financial treatment to schools simply because they are religious.”
The governor did sign legislation into law that permits private schools to rent or borrow buses from local school boards. School boards would have the option of allowing the private schools to use the buses and can charge rental fees.
