Rule of Law is simply the principle that we cannot apply legal concepts discriminately: https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-a...

Nobody is above the law, not the meek nor the mighty.

Someone should go tell that to existing utility companies so they can argue they can't be more highly regulated than other companies.

aka, we already have precedence for this sort of thing.

This is an idiosyncratic understanding of "rule of law." Laws in America routinely discriminate between small and large entities. For example, the FMLA only applies to companies with 50 or more employees.