I'm empathetic to those impacted by preferential and redacted rate negotiations, but not to my fellow Virginian complaining about rate hikes. The community wan

I'm empathetic to those impacted by preferential and redacted rate negotiations, but not to my fellow Virginian complaining about rate hikes. The community wanted it buried at a higher cost? Well, Dominion has a right as a regulated utility to negotiate rates for the following year to match infrastructure and other costs. This is so they can recoup / respond to storms and other issues. It's a part of utilities regulation. Now, if they get a sweetheart deal on top that's certainly a different story, but the infrastructure cost passed on to the consumer thing has been part of the deal for a long time. It would likely only be higher for that following year, and then rates would return higher but closer to normal as the buried pipe went into O&M mode.