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Two years ago, state lawmakers passed a bill to freeze base rates for the commonwealth’s principal electric utilities, Dominion and Appalachian Power. The rationale for the measure at the time was the federal Clean Power Plan, a heavy-handed regulatory scheme to reduce climate-change emissions. If the CPP took effect and Dominion had to shut down coal-fired plants, the argument went, ratepayers would be on the hook to cover the resulting big bills. A rate freeze would protect them from such financial shocks.

Critics of the legislation called it a giveaway to the utilities. Although it would prevent rate hikes, the legislation also would lock in rates that otherwise might go down, and prevent the sort of rebates the power companies had been obliged to make in the past.

As it turned out, the fears about the Clean Power Plan were unfounded. The Supreme Court put the CPP on hold. Then Donald Trump won the presidency and put it in the trashcan.