Former Gov. Jim Gilmore and Dominion Energy Deal

All right, it's 834 this morning on News Radio, WRVA. Good morning. Thanks for joining us, everybody. On Thursdays, we have the honor and the privilege of being joined by our former governor, former Attorney General, and U.S. ambassador. Three different hats that he's worn in service of this Commonwealth, and he joins us on Thursday, Governor Jim Gilmore. joins us right now on News Radio, WRVA. Good morning, sir. Good morning, Rich. Glad to be back. I need you to get your Attorney General's hat for just a moment, and maybe your governor's hat. I wanted to get your reaction to a story that's now popping up. Abigail Spanberger is going to step in and ask the Corporation Commission to look into the proposed Dominion Energy merger with the bigger energy company. and what it means for Virginia. And there's a lot of folks that are lining up saying, wait a minute, we need to think big about this. From a legal standpoint and an executive standpoint, what are your thoughts? Well, last week I issued a press release calling on the general assembly. Sir, hold on second. I'm going to ask you to move just a little bit because we're now one dead. How about that? How about that? Oh, much better. A little bit more. A little bit more. Okay, how about that? Okay, good. How about that? Yeah. Okay, sorry about that. Yeah, last week I used to press release calling on the General Assembly to, or calling on the Governor actually to meet, to meet, and pass a rule to extend the time for review of this agreement. I haven't made a decision myself about how I feel of whether it makes any difference or not. I have it opined about whether it's a good deal or not. That would think that there's more time necessary to review this. And the reason I did that is because really respect, Dominion is such a central player in Virginia's business community and, frankly, our public community. It's been central for years. It's a regulated monopoly. They can sponsor everything. They're everywhere. They're essential to the Virginia. So it seems to be like we just need more time to review that than the short time that the law is going to give. But I don't know whether a decision has been made to call back and buy more time or whether the governor is simply going to look into the deal. I think looking into the deal is a good thing to do. So that's just showing prudence. Okay, let's make sure when you have somebody as important as Dominion Energy and we see what they're responsible for. Because honestly, as I look at this, sir, my big question is, How do we get more plentiful, reliable energy for this Commonwealth? Because I think the lifeblood of this Commonwealth is going to be, will we have plentiful, affordable, reliable electricity? And if we don't have that, the Commonwealth takes huge steps backwards. Some years ago... Virginia did not do anything to intervene and change their laws to make banking more possible and more favorable in Virginia, and we lost the entire banking industry. They went to Charlotte, North Carolina. Based on that experience, you simply want to be cautious about an organization, but a company is central to Virginia's dominion. Just simply want to be cautious about it. Now, to your point...

You're absolutely right. We have to make sure that there's a plentiful supply of electricity. Dominion might say that this is exactly what they're planning to do. But the thing to be worried about here is that if they're going to lose control and they would be in this merger, in this merger, there would be 25%. The Florida company would be 75%. You just want to be careful about whether or not if you could actually make this electricity supply come from someplace else. And maybe it could be put into a position where some other place like Florida might become the future of data center development, for example, and then, of course, control the development of artificial intelligence AI. If that's going to develop, we want to make sure that happens in Virginia. That's why I'm simply saying, let's take some time and be careful about this. The other thought, of course, is that... When the time comes to really get around to doing data centers and AI, we want to make sure that the consumers aren't paying higher electrical bills because of data center creation. And I think there's a move at this point to make sure that the law and the rules put the data centers in a position where they have to pay the bulk of the increase because of their usage. We're talking to Jim Gilmore right now on News Radio, WRV. The other part of this I also go back to is... If I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure this next gen had been, boy, I'll go back to when I lived in Florida. I think originally it was Progress Energy. Then it became Duke. Then it became something else. Then it became next gen. So as we see some consolidation within the electric companies, who knows what happens if these two get together, then does that morph into something else five years down the line, 10 years down the line? And you don't remember progress energy back in little old Florida because it's been gobbled up by bigger, bigger entities. There have been some moves to consolidate that this company, next year energy, has failed to get some other states' electrical groups that they were trying to acquire that they have not succeeded. I think we ought to be very careful about why that has not happened, why it has been rejected in some other places. Look, electricity is a natural monopoly. You just have one company that has the wiring to supply energy. There are other companies that supply energy in different parts of the state of Virginia, for example, but Dominion is the big player. And that's because you only have the ability to transmit the wire into one home. So, in consequence, it's a natural monopoly. That's why it's regulated. That's why this merger. It doesn't just go on and go the way that merger years they do without any government intervention. You actually have to have the State Corporation Commission look at it and approve it. And they will. And let's make sure that they have enough time to fully consider the not just the technical implications and make sure we're doing this correctly. Governor Jim Gilmore joining us right now on News Radio, WRVA.

Wanted to get your reaction, sir. Primary season is over, and now we know who will run in the general. And I've been talking about that this morning that on the other side of the aisle, the Democratic Party has opened up their tent, and they've opened it up big. And the Democratic Socialists that we see that are going to be running as Democrats, I asked this morning, if you're a Democrat, do you ask yourself, or are you upset that I'm asking? Do you associate with these people that want to get rid of the Senate, to want to get rid of the Supreme Court, that want to get rid of the Electoral College, they want to open up the prisons and get rid of them, want to fund the police? To me, I know we want to be inclusive. We want to have a big tent. I would never want that in the Republican Party, even if they bring me a bunch of votes and I get a bunch of extra seats in Congress to bring people in that want to destroy our Constitution. And I think if you're a Democrat, you have to ask yourself that question. I wanted to get your reaction. These people are being elected in isolated places, very urban places with very centralized locations. You know, there's a lot of people in the United States Central Representatives, I believe it's 420, and, you know, four or five of these people are going to have an outsized public attention because they are radical, and so they get a lot of attention, but they're not that many people. I have faith in the American people that they're going to like their system. They're going to want to keep the checks and balances in place. They're going to want to continue to develop, make sure that they maintain their liberties. Radical left-wing people are not for that, but they're also not going to get very far. Actually, I think the Democratic Party has made some of this parize against them. But it is true that Bernie Sanders is a leader of the Democratic Party at this point. There's no doubt about it. Years ago, when I was in politics every day, Bernie Sanders was considered a crackpot. Today, he's much more mainstream in the Democratic Party, and that's troubling. But these people that are being elected right now go far beyond anything he's asked for. But I think they're going to have limited influence because the United States of America is just so big. It is amazing to me, though, that Bernie Sanders, who, you know, a couple presidential runs were thwarted by superdelegates and where he is today. He's not a member of the Democratic Party. He's independent. He will tell you he's not a member of the Democratic Party, but he casts such a large shadow over one of our two major political parties. Well, he's really a Democrat. He can call himself an independent, but he quotes copuses with the Democrats. He participates in the Democratic Party in terms of his public policy and what leadership that he wants to provide. He sure ain't a Republican. So, you know, so just you have to watch him, but these new people are going to say things. But, you know, already.

I read yesterday that this radical mayor in New York City, for example, and New York is very key to the health of this nation, that he's put forward a proposal for universal child care in New York, and that sounds lovely, except for the fact it's going to cost New York $5 billion, and they don't have it. They don't have the money. So now what are you going to do? Well, the answer, of course, is he wants to put extra tax on rich people. And that's, of course, not very American to distinguish between rich and poor races or ethnicity in terms of tax differences. We like to treat back people the same, except for progressive taxation. But the point is that he's going to try to tax the rich in order to do his program. The richest is they're going to move. They're just going to leave, and that's the way that the game works. And so you have to balance out your capacity to take care of the entire community, and socialists do that. But they understand. Socialism never has work. It's not going to work here. And as Margaret Thatcher famously said, socialism is great until you rent of other people's money. All right, coming up, we'll talk more with Governor Gilmore because I do want to get his thoughts. We haven't seen much movement in what's going on in the Middle East with Iran. We'll talk about that coming up at 903. I'm Rich Scherer. Thanks for joining us, everybody. This is News Radio, W.RVA, today's program brought you apart by my career financial group.com. What kind of partner do you have? What kind of partner do you have when it comes to your retirement? Planning, savings, strategy, how you execute that strategy, the tactics that you use. Do you have a partner for all of that, or do you just have a financial advisor that says, hey, Rich, it would be great if we bought this mutual fund and I'll talk to you next year. Maybe that's what you want. That's great. For me, I want somebody who's going to be in the battle with me that's going to protect my money when things are lean and help grow my money. So when I get ready to retire, I've got all my questions. I'm buttoned up. I'm ready to go because I don't get a do-over. There is no big time machine. Mr. Sherman and Peabody aren't going to take me in the way back machine. If I make a mistake, I need a partner to help me get ready. That's what Michael Greer is. Call him right now, 804, 427-7784. Even if you have somebody you've been working with forever, that's great. I just want to make sure that I'm buttoned up. And I, you sit down with Michael Greer. He'll answer so many questions. He'll ask you things you might not have thought of. You'll make sure that you're ready to go. 804-4-277884. Find them online, Greerfinancialgroup.com.