Author: Steve Haner
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Transportation Carbon Tax Debate Starts Again
First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. By Steve Haner Having imposed a carbon tax on Virginia electricity generation in 2020, the General Assembly starting in January 2021 will consider adding a similar tax on every gallon of gasoline and diesel sold for vehicle use. The Transportation and Climate Initiative,…
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Dominion Green Energy Costs Continue to Grow
by Steve Haner As sobering as they were, the initial estimates of how a green energy conversion will explode Dominion Energy Virginia rates have now been revised up. The State Corporation Commission staff now sees it costing an additional $800 per year for a residential customer to purchase 1,000 kWh per month by 2030, an…
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All Leader Saslaw Cares About: Is Dominion OK?
By Steve Haner Every now and then you can actually see the strings, see the puppet master that is Dominion Energy Virginia calling the shots at the Virginia General Assembly. Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, provided a glimpse of its power during a floor debate Thursday. Republican senators were in revolt. Two days after…
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Absentee Tracking System Already Breaking Down?
Okay, so where is my absentee ballot? The Virginia Board of Elections tracking system is falling down. This does not inspire confidence and needs to be fixed. I had the application in well in advance. The ballot was mailed on the first day, a Friday, and our local Postal Service delivery lady worked long hours…
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Dominion ❤ New Utility Bill Payment Plan
By Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia loves the General Assembly’s most recent proposal on how to deal with mounting unpaid utility bills in the COVID-19 recession. You might not. The state’s dominant utility has activated its network of grassroots lobbyists (including company retirees and stockholders) to express their personal support to their hometown delegate and…
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House Offers $330 Million Utility, Unemployment Aid
By Steve Haner Virginia’s House of Delegates has proposed spending $120 million from federal COVID-19 relief funds to help at least some Virginia families catch up on their utility bills and wants to pump $210 million from the same source into the state’s unemployment insurance program. Both ideas surfaced when the House Appropriations Committee approved…
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Permanent COVID Reg Called “The Fifth Dragon”
By Steve Haner Most Virginia employers probably have not read, let alone fully complied with, the emergency temporary standard on protecting their employees from COVID-19 adopted back in July. Yet the public comment period on the permanent version of the rules, which can carry major sanctions, closes this Friday. Only twenty comments had been filed…
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Special Interests Behind the Anti-Interest Candidate
By Steve Haner Welcome to the current state of politics, where an incumbent preens as being free from special interest funding and their sworn enemy, all while the special interests spend millions seeking to tear down the challenger. House Bill 827, approved by the 2020 General Assembly, did not really provide additional employment protection for…
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Assembly May Add Unpaid Power Bills to Yours
By Steve Haner The General Assembly is moving toward a second method of transferring money from electricity customers who can pay their bills to those who cannot. A Senate bill up today will allow Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Power to simply add yet another “rider” to everybody’s monthly bill for their uncollected accounts receivable.…
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“Quarantine Leave” Bill Exempts State Employees
By Steve Haner Employees caught in this pandemic with no paid time off for health issues have been in a deep bind, and many of those with reasonable leave available have probably burned it all. It is one of several problems exacerbated by this government-led economic crash. Congress, in a bipartisan response supported by President…
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Job Recovery Is Not the Special Session’s Focus
By Steve Haner With the Virginia General Assembly’s “Cops and COVID” special session moving into its third week, it seems likely to impede rather than assist the state’s economic recovery from the pandemic. It may also greatly expand COVID-19’s financial burdens in the years to come. The highly publicized issues of unpaid rents and utility…
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It Matters Where You Seek COVID Data
By Steve Haner Even when there is no intent to twist the data, it still matters where you look if you want to see Virginia’s status in dealing with Our Permanent Pandemic. The chart on the daily death count, for example, looks dramatically different on the Virginia Department of Health’s website when compared to the…
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Told You: You Will Cover Those Unpaid Power Bills.
By Steve Haner If the Virginia General Assembly orders Dominion Energy Virginia to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in “excess profits” to cover unpaid family utility bills, who is really paying? We all are, of course. Don’t say you were not warned. That apparently is the latest approach to help folks behind on…
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Voters Oppose Contracts That Protect Bad Cops
By Steve Haner As yet another bitter conflict over a police officer’s use of deadly force divides America, this time a case in Wisconsin, Virginia’s General Assembly forges ahead with opening up the state to the police unions that usually rush to protect their members from discipline or dismissal. The Kenosha Professional Police Association was…
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The Trash Tax Returns; Energy Price Hikes Ignored
By Steve Haner Proving once again how rare are the new ideas, Governor Ralph Northam’s proposed Special Session budget amendments resurrect a possible state-collected solid waste tipping fee, which crashed and burned in 2002 after being successfully tagged a “trash tax.” The proposal calls for a study to be completed by November 1, laying the…