Author: Steve Haner
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Virginia Job Growth Trails U.S. Averages
by A. Fletcher Mangum Virginia’s employment growth has been underperforming the national economy for quite some time. As shown in Figure 1, soon after the recovery from the Great Recession began in earnest in 2011 Virginia’s year-over-year growth in total employment uncharacteristically fell behind the national economy and even briefly went negative in 2014. Then…
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More Ignored News: Bag Tax Coming to Richmond
by Steve Haner The plastic bag tax recently approved in Roanoke and several Northern Virginia localities, created by the General Assembly in 2020 as a local option, is also coming to the City of Richmond. It was promised in the same September 13 Richmond City Council “climate crisis” resolution that implied a future closure of…
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Henrico, Chesterfield Users of Richmond Gas Unprotected by SCC, State Law
by Steve Haner Sec. 13.10. No sale or lease of utilities except when approved by referendum. There shall be no sale or lease of the water, wastewater, gas or electric utilities unless the proposal for such sale or lease shall first be submitted to the qualified voters of the city at a general election and…
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SCC Staff: Dominion Should Refund $312M, Cut Rates, Due to $1.14B Excess Profits
by Steve Haner Customers of Dominion Energy Virginia are due a refund of $312 million and the company’s future base rates should be reduced by another $50 million annually, the utility accounting staff at the State Corporation Commission concluded in testimony filed September 17. Patrick W. Carr, deputy director of the division of utility accounting…
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Richmond Wants to Kill Its Gas Utility, Also Ending Service in Henrico, Chesterfield
by Steve Haner BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the (Richmond) Council hereby commits to working with the City’s Administration on an equitable plan to phase out reliance on gas and shift to accelerated investment in City-owned renewable energy and hereby recognizes that the continued operation of the City’s gas utility is an obstacle to the…
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Conference Explores VA Rush to Copy CA Energy
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by Steve Haner Californians were again this week under an electricity “flex alert,” a conservation order required because of its reliance on unreliable solar and wind energy. They often cannot keep up with demand on the hotter days. Is this Virginia’s future? The government is telling Californians: Set your thermostat at 78° or higher Avoid…
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Virginia Has a Rising Sea Problem, Relatively
by Steve Haner and Kip Hansen When discussing sea level rise, on Virginia’s coast or anywhere else, watch the terms being used very carefully. Absolute sea level is the height of the ocean compared to the center of the Earth. Relative sea level is the height of the ocean compared to a specific point on…
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The Other Side of the “Intensifying Rain” Claim
by Steve Haner and Kip Hansen With the rainy remnants of another hurricane heading for Virginia from battered Louisiana, the stories of a coming Climate Armageddon will again ramp up. A couple of good examples of what to expect recently appeared in Virginia Mercury, the main one quoting numerous sources claiming Virginia is seeing more…
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Nantucket Wind Suit May Have Virginia Echoes
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. A group of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts residents have filed suit challenging the pre-construction environmental review on a massive offshore wind complex planned off its shores. The issues raised may have a direct impact on the similar wind energy project planned off…
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Correction: Vaccination Advantage Exaggerated
by Steve Haner Twenty to one? Where did that math challenged fellow get that? Oh, wait, I am the math challenged fellow and I have to offer a big correction to my post from yesterday. Yes, the advantage to being vaccinated is evident in that new data set on the Virginia Department of Health dashboard,…
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VDH Data: Vaccinated Improve Odds by 20 to 1
According to the Virginia Department of Health’s count, just more than 400 fully-vaccinated patients have ended up in a Virginia hospital with a case of COVID-19, and 83 have died. This was the count for the period of January 17 to August 14 and represented five percent or less of the total hospital cases and…
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An Energy Reform Agenda for Virginia
By Steve Haner What should Virginia’s energy policy be? What should the next Governor and General Assembly do? What should candidates be promising? Based on what has now been my 15 years of close observation and direct involvement, here is the policy outline I would suggest to any candidate who asks (not that the phone…
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Solar Industry Poll Favors (Surprise) Solar Industry
by Steve Haner You will never find a better example of blatant question bias in a poll: “Do you agree or disagree that solar farms are better than other types of development because they do not pollute the environment and help lower the cost of electricity for homes and businesses?” They “do not pollute” and…
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Kendi Blames Capitalism, Prescribes Discrimination
By Steve Haner The book was one the local librarian chose to display on the new acquisitions shelf, my curiosity was high, and by all accounts some leaders in Virginia’s educational establishment are taken with and listening to the author. So I read Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist.” I will largely let…
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DMV Still Hiding Full Gas Tax Amounts
by Steve Haner The Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles is now hiding only 22% of the state’s existing motor fuels tax with misleading website data, not the 26% it was hiding when I wrote about this last year. In the chart you first find searching DMV on motor fuel tax rates, set out below, there…