West Virginia PSC Keeps NextEra MARL Hearing on Schedule, Overruling Own Legal Staff
The ruling locks in October hearings on the 107.5-mile transmission line as NextEra's $249 billion Dominion merger faces growing opposition at FERC.
West Virginia's Public Service Commission on Friday (2026-09-04) denied requests from its own legal staff to postpone evidentiary proceedings on NextEra Energy Transmission's MidAtlantic Resiliency Link, keeping intact a hearing schedule running Oct. 26 through Nov. 2, 2026.5
The refusal is notable because the delay request came from inside the commission itself, not from project opponents, suggesting the legal staff had concerns about the completeness of its own review. The PSC overruled them and the clock keeps running.5
The decision lands as NextEra manages a much larger regulatory contest. The company and Dominion Energy announced an all-stock merger on Monday (2026-05-18), valued at approximately $249 billion based on NextEra's $195 billion market cap combined with Dominion's $54 billion valuation. The deal remains subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission review.1
If completed, the merged entity would rank as the world's largest regulated electric utility by market capitalization, with roughly 10 million utility accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The companies proposed $2.25 billion in electric bill credits over two years for Dominion customers in those three states.1
That proposal has not quieted opposition. Sen. Angus King, independent of Maine, has urged FERC to reject the deal, citing what he described as anticompetitive behavior by NextEra in New England markets that harmed consumers. The combination, he argued, would produce the largest electric utility in the country.3
Critics in Virginia and Florida have raised overlapping objections. State legislators in at least one affected jurisdiction have moved to require regulators to consider affordability when evaluating rate changes. The size NextEra and Dominion describe as a competitive advantage is precisely what critics argue will make the combined entity harder to discipline on pricing.2
The MARL proceeding is separate from the merger review. But NextEra Energy Transmission is the developer, and the PSC's refusal to grant a delay means the company now runs concurrent regulatory timelines (the West Virginia evidentiary hearings and the federal merger process) in a period when its market position is under scrutiny across multiple jurisdictions.5
Across PJM territory, which covers much of the mid-Atlantic region where MARL would operate, the broader challenge has been turning approved capacity into constructed infrastructure. PJM has cleared a large volume of new clean power interconnection agreements, but construction has lagged, with state permitting efforts described as producing more policy pronouncements than practical results, Canary Media reported. Cost allocation for required grid upgrades is among the specific obstacles developers face after winning interconnection rights.4
Deloitte analysts have noted that scale has become more important for utilities seeking capital access and the ability to execute large transactions efficiently. Before state commissions focused on near-term rate trajectories, that argument has limits, particularly when the consumer protection on offer is a two-year credit rather than a durable constraint on future rates.1
The Oct. 26 hearings will put specific evidence on record: project costs, routing, and the necessity case for the line. Those findings could either reinforce NextEra's regulatory standing or sharpen the opposition FERC must weigh alongside Sen. King's challenge and the antitrust questions the Dominion acquisition has already placed before federal reviewers.5,3