Author: Peter Galuszka
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Dominion’s Clever Legerdemain
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Health Care, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka You may have read thousands of words on this blog arguing about the proposed federal Clean Power Plan, its impact on Dominion Virginia Power and a new law passed by the 2015 General Assembly that freezes the utility’s base rates and exempts it from rate reviews for five years. All of this…
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Time For a Fossil Fuel Reality Check
By Peter Galuszka Let’s pause for a moment, catch our breath and realize what is really going on in the world of fossil fuel and climate change. We’ve heard tons of loosely-based opinion from climate change deniers and drum beaters for the “War on Coal” crowd. Here are two recent news items: Coal baron Robert…
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More Sharks Found in N.C. Sound
By Peter Galuszka The Pamlico Sound in North Carolina has long been a bellwether of environmental changes. Different temperatures and salinity levels can affect everything from marsh grass to shrimp catches to fish kills. Now scientists are finding that more potentially deadly sharks are in this shallow, broad estuary that separates the mainland from the…
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Film Rips Climate Change Deniers
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka A just-released documentary “Merchants of Doubt” seems tailor-made for the readers of Bacons Rebellion. The film by Robert Kenner explores the profession of doubting climate change in which the energy industry quietly hires “scientists” to debunk the idea that carbon dioxide emissions are creating global warming that could have catastrophic consequences. The…
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Why Clean Energy Will Be Cheaper
By Peter Galuszka The Sturm und Drang to which utility executives, coal companies and politicians have subjected Virginians as they oppose President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions has always been a deliberate distraction from what’s really happening. According to them and their confederates at the State Corporation Commission and the state…
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Why Sweet Briar Is Shutting Down
By Peter Galuszka Sweet Briar College, the all-female college sprawling on more than 3,000 acres of former plantation land north of Lynchburg, will be closing after 114 years. The news March 4 stunned students and faculty alike. Forbidding trends, however, had been in place long before. Demographics, declining enrollment and funding quagmires are besetting colleges…
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Another Russian Reformer Murdered
By Peter Galuszka It was a personal shocker to read of the murder in Moscow of Russian reformer Boris Nemtsov, the latest in a long string of killings related to the tragic fight for change in that country. Nemtsov was gunned down Friday in a drive-by shooting as he walked across Moskvoretsky Bridge a short…
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Closely Watched Trains?
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka The small town of Pembroke in southwest Virginia is used to seeing endlessly long unit trains of coal cars rumbling past. But last week, it got an unexpected surprise – trains of similar length hauling crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken fields started going by. According to Reuters, Pembroke is one of…
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The McDonnell Saga Is Far From Over
By Peter Galuszka Former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell has been sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison, but the GiftGate saga is far from over. She will appeal as has her husband, former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, who was sentenced to two years in prison last month. The now estranged couple was…
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Propping Up Coal at the Taxpayers’ Expense
By Peter Galuszka It’s always curious when big business and their bankrolled politicians complain about how the government and its regulations stymie the “magic of the free market.” Then they turn around and keep protectionist policies that give certain industries big favors such as tax credits. That’s what the General Assembly has done with a…
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Why Hide Details of Lethal Injection?
By Peter Galuszka It has to be one of the creepiest bills ever considered by the General Assembly. Senate Bill 1393, sponsored by Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax), would drop a veil of secrecy over how Virginia executes prisoners by lethal injection. Its backers, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, are pushing it against a backdrop of global…
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In Politics: “Cherchez la femme?”
By Peter Galuszka The two governors couldn’t seem more different. One is a popular progressive who dressed in an “urban cowboy” style of boots, jeans and down jacket and ran a state as green as a rain forest. The other favored Joseph A. Banks suits and helmet hair-dos while pushing a “God, Mom and Apple…
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Coal Giant Won’t Pay Blankenship Legal Bill
By Peter Galuszka The the man described by Rolling Stone as the “The Dark Lord of the Coal Fields” is suing coal giant Alpha Natural Resources of Bristol for refusing to pay his legal bills as he approaches his criminal trial April 20 related to the worst coal-mine disaster in 40 years. Donald L. Blankenship,…
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Dominion Resources Is on a Tear
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Dominion Resources has been on a tear recently. It’s been muscling through a dubious law in the General Assembly that would allow it to avoid State Corporation Commission rate audits for six years. And, it has been throwing its weight around in less populated sections of the state. It is suing to…
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Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
By Peter Galuszka The World Wide Web is a wonderful thing. It can provide useful, nearly instantaneous information, build communities and topple dictators. It has also wreaked havoc on how journalists and commentators gather and disseminate original content. Tens of thousands of journalists have lost their jobs because the old business model that paid them…