Dominion Resources Inc. won the HYPE Young Professional Workplace Award last night for fostering a dynamic work environment for young professionals. The company was recognized in a ceremony at the Robinson Theater Community Art Center in Richmond. The award, in its second year, recognizes firms that attract young professionals and promote their development and leadership through career opportunities and volunteerism while encouraging work-life balance.

Virginia’s attorney general is urging the State Corporation Commission to either cut Dominion Virginia Power’s electric rates this year or have the company give customers a refund for over-earning last year. Experts for Attorney General Bill Mims’ office told the SCC that Dominion Virginia Power’s rates should be reduced by $238 million or customers should receive a refund of $153 million.

Sharp drops in the price of natural gas and other fuels boosted Dominion Resources Inc.‘s profit for the third quarter.

The Richmond Ballet’s “Nutcracker” will make a grand jeté to the new Carpenter Theatre this year with help from Dominion Resources. The energy company has donated $85,000 to the ballet as exclusive title sponsor for the 2009 production of “The Nutcracker” in Richmond’s CenterStage facility on Dec. 11-23 and Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall on Dec. 4-6.

Thanks to decreasing fuel costs, Dominion Virginia Power customers could be in for a break on their electricity bills. Dominion Virginia Power has asked the State Corporation Commission for permission to roll back its fuel charges by $2.19 a month for a typical residential customer starting Oct. 1. The proposed decrease, and a $3.64-a-month reduction in the fuel rate put in place July 1, should take much of the sting out of other rate increases that took effect Tuesday.

A typical Dominion Virginia Power residential customer’s bill will go up by $2.98 a month in January to cover the cost of building two power plants, under a tentative agreement between the utility and state regulators. Dominion Virginia Power subscribers will see the additional costs to construct the Virginia City power station in Wise County and the Bear Garden plant in Buckingham County in their bills starting Jan. 1.

Eleven months ago, Marley Green dangled in a climber’s harness from a pedestrian bridge in downtown Richmond to protest the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Wise County. Yesterday, Green walked out of a Richmond courtroom with no charges on his record from the protest after completing 225 hours of community service here, including helping another environmental group battle another proposed power plant, this time in Surry County.

James Woody found the perfect metaphor for a $15,000 check to the quartet of health-care centers he operates for people with little or no insurance in the Richmond area. “It’s a shot in the arm,“ said Woody, chief operating officer of the Capital Area Health Network. The network, based in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood, was among 40 clinics and medical centers in Virginia to receive more than $500,000 in donations yesterday from Dominion Resources Inc. and its employees. The company gave up an annual company-sponsored outing at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg to help nonprofit medical providers that provide free or reduced-cost care.

At Richmond’s Fan Free Clinic, Dominion Resources Inc. announces it is making grants to 100 clinics in the 14 states in which the energy company operates.

Hours before lawmakers returned to the state Capitol for their spring session, Dick Saslaw welcomed deep-pocketed visitors: the head of giant payday lender Advance America, the company’s chief lobbyist and its fixer in Richmond. The trio told the Senate Democratic boss that the company had found a legal way to—and would—bypass profit-cutting restrictions Saslaw won last winter, perhaps as penance for his status as an industry defender and major beneficiary of its campaign cash.

In what Fortune magazine called the worst year ever for companies on its Fortune 500 list, the Richmond area held its own, though with some major footnotes. Seven companies are on the list, down from eight.

Efficient operations in challenging markets were credited with higher fourth-quarter earnings, net and operating, for Richmond-based Dominion Resources Inc. Net income for the three months that ended Dec. 31 was $348 million, or 60 cents a share, compared with $299 million net and operating income, or 52 cents a share, for the same period in 2007. Operating profit was $422 million, or 72 cents per share, in the 2008 quarter, attributable in part to lower outage costs.

The Dominion Foundation announced a $1.1 million donation yesterday to help feed the growing number of struggling families in 14 states.

Nuclear engineering studies is making a comeback in Virginia. Some of the state’s universities have added programs, are planning to do so or are considering it because of renewed interest in the nuclear industry.