Author: Steve Haner
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Employer COVID Mandates Might Outlive Pandemic
by Steve Haner Virginia’s emergency temporary workplace standards on COVID-19 are one step closer to becoming permanent, over the continuing loud objections from employers that they are duplicative, expensive, and not making anybody any safer than existing health and safety protections already do. UPDATE: The text of the final permanent standard approved Wednesday was finally…
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How Texas Gets Standing Next Time: NPV
By Steve Haner When Texas went to the United States Supreme Court last month complaining about the election processes in four other states, the case was dismissed on the issue of standing. The Court correctly replied Texas had no right to complain about how the Electoral College votes were determined in other states but could…
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Virginia’s COVID Federal Grants Now At $5.8 Billion
By Steve Haner Having received and mostly spent $3.1 billion in federal COVID-19 “relief” funding already, Virginia’s state and local governments now will have another $2.7 billion in the fourth and latest (but likely not last) federal spending bill tied to the ongoing pandemic and unemployment crisis. The word relief is in apostrophes because Virginia’s state budget,…
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“Short Short” Doesn’t Work With Legislatures
By Steve Haner From our “Be Careful What You Ask for Department,” I give you the General Assembly “short session” that opens Wednesday, which is supposed to last only 30 calendar days instead of the usual 46. The Republican effort to limit the session’s possible output and impact is being answered by Democrats seeking to…
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SCC: “Independence, Honesty, Commitment to Law”
On Monday, Mark Christie took the oath of office to become a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and simultaneously vacated his seat on the Virginia State Corporation Commission. He did it sitting in one of the SCC courtrooms downtown. The following is an excerpt from remarks (in full here) he made from the…
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CO2 Taxes, Gas Rationing Poll Badly With Voters
By Steve Haner The Transportation and Climate Initiative plan to tax and ration motor fuels suffered a major setback just before Christmas, when eight of the eleven states considering it decided not to move forward in 2021. Less than two weeks earlier, advocates had released polling that claimed to show overwhelming popularity for the idea.
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2020 Was To Be Year of Climate Doom
By Steve Haner So, let’s take another trip down Climate Catastrophe Memory Lane. Maybe 2020 was not such a bad year after all. It was certainly better than it was supposed to be. The pandemic might have been just a footnote to Climate Doom. In 1987, the official Jeremiah of the movement, NASA’s James Hansen,…
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Virginia and Other States Pass on Carbon Tax Pact
by Steve Haner The organizers of the Transportation and Climate Initiative announced Monday that only four of the twelve jurisdictions involved have agreed to move forward and implement the carbon tax on motor fuels, and Virginia is not one of them. Not yet. The 2021 Virginia General Assembly could consider legislation to join the interstate…
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Tufts Study Projects Major TCI Carbon Taxes
By Steve Haner Monday the organizers of the Transportation and Climate Initiative, a carbon tax and rationing regime for Virginia motor fuels, will be announcing details of the underlying interstate compact, according to media reports. The media in Virginia has been disinterested in the issue, but the debate is raging in New England. The Boston…
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Northam Would Save Most of Virginia’s New Cash
By Steve Haner Other states are in trouble these days, but Virginia suddenly has about $1.5 billion in free cash flow to use over the next 18 months, Governor Ralph Northam announced Wednesday. About half of it ($750 million) will be placed into reserves or used to improve the financial health of the Virginia Retirement…
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With Chase Vs. Cox, The Field Looks Complete
By Steve Haner Give credit where it is due: Chesterfield Senator Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, had the wisdom and courage to reverse a bad decision. Virginia’s Republicans may be back in the game for 2021. Both Senator Chase and Delegate Kirk Cox had expressed a preference for their party to choose a nominee for governor by…
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Utilities Face Paperwork Blizzard to Provide Relief
by Steve Haner Virginia utility customers who are behind on their bills in the COVID-19 recession are closer to receiving government payments toward their debts, but there is one more paperwork hurdle that may trip some of them. A few days ago, the Virginia State Corporation Commission completed a preliminary allocation of the $100 million…
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EPA: PM 2.5 At Current Levels is No Threat
By Steve Haner “Everything is a poison, nothing is a poison. It is the dose that makes the poison” – Paracelsus (1493-1541 AD) A micron is a tiny thing. A grain of beach sand is about 90 microns, and a human hair 50 to 70 microns in diameter. In the coming session of the General…
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Does a $9 Billion Carbon Tax Get Your Attention?
by Steve Haner The 2021 General Assembly is now six weeks away, with the holidays in between. We know no more about the coming Northam Administration proposal to impose a carbon tax and rationing scheme on our motor fuels than we did months ago. Keeping you uninformed may be part of the plan. All we…
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Carbon Tax Advocates Who Lost in November
Editor’s Note: A cautionary tale as the 2021 Virginia General Assembly prepares to debate another major carbon tax? By Paul D. Craney One of the most overlooked stories on Election Day was the defeat of pro-carbon tax politicians across the nation and here in New England. The most notable carbon tax proponent to seek office in…