Author: Steve Haner
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Sine Die Tomorrow? Bills in Conference
Somehow I don’t think this is done by Saturday…From the Legislative Information System (LIS) this morning, here are the bills still in conference committees. Some are known to have resolutions, but still must come to the floor:
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Dominion’s Base Rates Like Cable You Can’t Cancel
By Steve Haner The 2020 effort to bring Dominion Energy Virginia back under full State Corporation Commission regulation failed because too many of the loudest advocates are two-faced hypocrites. If they truly cared about ratepayers and the proper balance in utility regulation, they wouldn’t be pushing that other bill, the one that further guts the…
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The Ohio Energy Bill Subsidy Virginia Would Copy
by Steve Haner Both the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate have voted to increase the price of electricity to most Virginians in order to subsidize the bills of low-income utility customers. How much? They have no idea. But the program in Ohio being copied adds from $1 to $3.66 to the price of 1,000…
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Virginia’s Top Employment Cop Adds Enforcers
By Steve Haner The final state budget is still in negotiation, but it could add as many as five new enforcement staff to the Office of the Attorney General to seek out and prosecute discrimination in Virginia’s workplaces, using old and new definitions of what is prohibited. The price tag looks to be about $600,000…
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SCC Raises Estimate of Clean Energy Bill Costs
By Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission staff popped up in a House of Delegates Committee Tuesday to provide another unwelcome lecture, with revised estimates on the likely cost to Dominion Energy Virginia customers of the pending omnibus clean energy legislation. The numbers it provided to the House Labor and Commerce Committee Tuesday afternoon were…
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With Friends Like These, Ratepayers in Big Trouble
By Steve Haner If your main concern is that people pay a fair price for electricity, the best outcome of Monday’s Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting would be approval of the bill changing the rules on Dominion Energy Virginia’s 2021 rate review, followed by defeat or delay of the highly touted Virginia Clean Energy…
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Moderation? Senate Holds Back House On Issues
By Steve Haner With two weeks remaining in the 2020 General Assembly session, the tendency to procrastinate (and perhaps some buyer’s remorse) has several key issues still pending. Here is an update on some previously discussed on Bacon’s Rebellion. The moderating impact of the narrow 21-19 split in the Virginia Senate, with several of those…
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A Series of Hidden Tax Hikes In the Bag
By Steve Haner Politicians hate taxes that voters pay by check and love taxes that are buried deep on invoices or fully invisible. The 2020 General Assembly is raising taxes right and left (mostly left) but focused on that second method. These will be tax increases most people will never spot. Governor Ralph Northam’s record…
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Energy Omnibus III: Race, Poverty and Justice
By Steve Haner Unfortunately, there is nothing new about the Virginia General Assembly passing an energy development bill which overrides the authority of the State Corporation Commission or usurps its role in planning utility resources. Where Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation breaks ground is its immersion into questions of race, poverty and…
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Energy Omnibus II: It Doesn’t Shut Gas Plants
By Steve Haner Will all of Virginia’s existing fossil fuel electric power plants be closed under Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation? As we continue our detailed examination of House Bill 1526 (with line references), the answers may surprise some. Not many of them. Not the natural gas plants. Dominion Energy Virginia has…
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Energy Omnibus: What it Does, How it Costs You
By Steve Haner The General Assembly adopted Governor Ralph Northam’s clean energy package Tuesday, with party-line votes in both the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate. Two House Democrats joined the Republicans in opposing the House version. House Bill 1526 and Senate Bill 851 appear identical but amendments were being adopted at the last minute.…
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VA to Examine Company Payrolls, Hunting Bias
By Steve Haner How bad is the climate for business in Virginia now? Just how much does this New Blue General Assembly detest and distrust evil capitalists? Let’s look at one little bill first noticed Monday in the long string of bills rushing toward Tuesday’s deadline for action. House Bill 624 won’t be the worst…
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SCC: Clean Energy Conversion’s Customer Cost
By Steve Haner In the first ten years, Governor Ralph Northam’s signature zero carbon electricity legislation will add almost 20%, about $280 per year, to typical Dominion Energy Virginia residential bills. That was the low-ball estimate Sunday from a State Corporation Commission expert who quickly discovered that shooting the messenger is the normal General Assembly…
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Cabinet Officers: Assembly Decides on Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner Thanks to the persistence of Del. Charles Poindexter, two members of Governor Ralph Northam’s cabinet are now on record stating the General Assembly will decide whether Virginia joins the carbon tax regime called the Transportation and Climate Initiative. In 2018 both of them had signed a letter endorsing the interstate compact to…
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A PIPP of an Idea: Electricity Transfer Payments
By Steve Haner Green energy advocates never tire of telling us that accomplishing their zero-carbon electricity supply will lower our costs. If so, why does their dream bill include a new income transfer entitlement program for low-income customers? It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program with a handy acronym PIPP. It first appeared…