NextEra Energy lands in Houston the week of its Dominion merger push

NextEra Energy flew from Lea County Regional Airport in Hobbs, New Mexico to Houston's William P. Hobby Airport on June 10, a 1-hour-23-minute hop in its Embraer Praetor 600 (tail N47MW). The trip came just hours after a brief stop in the Permian Basin — likely a project site visit — and a week after flying from its Juno Beach headquarters to Houston on June 8.

The same week, the company is pressing forward with its proposed $67 billion all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy, a deal announced in May that would create the world's largest regulated electric utility, per reporting from Power Magazine and Energy Digital. Houston is a key operational hub for NextEra's combined energy and trading functions; CEO John Ketchum and Dominion CEO Bob Blue have been in active discussions with regulators and investors across multiple states. The flight lands at Hobby as the companies seek approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and state utility commissions in Virginia and the Carolinas — a process expected to take 12 to 18 months, according to filings with the SEC.

This Houston leg fits a pattern: NextEra Energy's aircraft have shuttled between Florida and Texas repeatedly this month, often ahead of data-center power deals and regulatory milestones. The company has repositioned under Ketchum toward an "all-forms-of-energy" strategy to meet surging AI-driven electricity demand, as the Dominion merger is meant to deliver the scale needed to supply that boom affordably.