Regulated monopolies would build pyramids if our regulators would let them.”

The SCANA corporate elite knew what they were doing when they started courting Dominion Energy.
They needed a buyer with deep pockets willing to bail them out so they could retire with millions from ratepayers.
Now we are learning what kind of buyers they found.
The Sierra Club, an environmental watchdog group charges that Dominion Energy:
• Profits by exaggerating future energy demand.
• Games several states’ regulatory systems.
• Builds unnecessary gas pipelines and power plants.
• Charges ratepayers for unneeded construction.
As energy expert Jim Clarkson observed, companies such as Dominion would build pyramids if regulators would let them do it.
Asked for comment on these charges, Eric Boomhower of Lexington County-based Dominion said his company is committed to a clean energy future.
“We have dramatically overhauled our energy portfolio to include more low- and no-carbon sources through large investments in renewables such as solar, wind and nuclear.” 
The Sierra Club’s Tom Clements said Dominion has a history of predatory rate hikes, accidents, environmental disasters and use of dirty fossil fuels.
Its influence on politics jeopardizes public health, he said, and spends heavily to influence political decisions that help it increase its profits. 
Since 1996, Dominion spent almost twice as much on political campaigns as the next leading corporation in Virginia.
The Sierra Club also charged:
• Virginia, one of Dominion’s main markets, had the 8th highest residential electric bills by state in 2016. And in 2017 ranked last in energy efficiency. 
• Dominion has racked up the 7th most environmental violation penalties of all US companies since 2000.
• Dominion has 11 coal ash dumps and 6 coal ash landfills, many leaking toxic radium and arsenic, forcing families to buy and drink bottled water.
Thank our regulators for this.