State Passes Dominion-Backed Overhaul

Under the new rules, the State Corporation Commission will retain the right to regulate Dominion but will be required to make sure the company earns a return on its investments equal to that of similar power companies across the South. If company profits exceed the levels expected, the company will keep 40 percent of that excess.

But the SCC will also put limits on the amount that can be added to bills this summer, when adjustments are made to compensate the company for the cost of fuel, which is used to generate electricity at its plants.

The Senate's vote requiring restaurants to display smoking signs doesn't rule out the possibility of a total ban this year. The sign requirement is on its way to Kaine, and health-care advocates are urging him to amend the measure to ban smoking entirely in restaurants across Virginia. A Kaine spokesman said the governor will look closely at the bill.

The battle to restrict smoking in public places has been protracted this year. Advocates for outright bans viewed the sign bill as the least meaningful of the various proposals being considered, and they urged lawmakers to oppose it in favor of more sweeping regulations that would have prohibited smoking in most workplaces and public spaces.

But Philip Morris USA and other powerful tobacco companies opposed the bans. Even the sign requirement was a difficult sell in the conservative House of Delegates, where lawmakers tend to oppose regulations on businesses. But once it emerged from the House, advocates for a ban saw an opportunity to quietly support the bill with the hope that Kaine would strengthen it when it got to him.

"It is my strong expectation that the governor will review this bill carefully and possibly amend it," said Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington).

It is unclear whether such amendments would survive in the House. House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), who sponsored the sign bill, said he might support a ban in restaurants, but he promised his colleagues in the House that he would oppose any attempts to change his bill. It was the condition he offered in exchange for getting the bill out of the conservative House General Laws Committee.

"Would I support it? I'd have to think about that," Griffith said. "Would I support it as an amendment to my bill that I pledged I wouldn't allow it on? I can't, because I gave my word of honor."