Author: Steve Haner
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Northam Appointee Opposes DEV’s Green Tariff
By Steve Haner Is Governor Ralph Northam now on both sides of the electricity retail choice issue? Having sent a strong signal weeks ago that he would oppose 2020 legislation creating competition for all customers, his administration has now intervened in a regulatory dispute asking to protect competitive choice for 100% renewable electricity. You are…
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Will VA Now Help Kill the Electoral College?
By Steve Haner Add this to the pile of really bad ideas that now have a chance to pass in New Blue Virginia: Allowing California and New York to decide how to cast Virginia’s electoral votes. Since millions who slept through government class were stunned to learn in 2016 that the popular vote doesn’t pick…
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This Says It All: In Just Four Years
This says it all – from J. Miles Coleman, at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. I saw it this morning on The Bull Elephant, which focuses on Loudoun. Would Virginia Beach and Henrico look the same? If you have any doubts the Trump era has produced a true realignment, dispel them. SDH
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There Was No Republican Message. None.
By Steve Haner You know Virginia has changed when being labeled a socialist by your opponent is less damaging than being labeled a Republican. That’s the opening line for my short essay on what happened November 5, which as far as I can tell has already been analyzed 345 other times in various publications, including…
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What Will Clean Virginia Be Asking For?
By Steve Haner “Do you actively support efforts to reduce corruption in government?” Of course, any candidate presented with that question will reply yes. What do you expect? “No, I’m quite passive about corruption in government. Live and let live.” That was one of the softball questions on the Clean Virginia candidate survey form,…
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Orsted Drops Projected OSW Capacity Factors
By Steve Haner The company that will partner with Dominion Energy Virginia to build a massive offshore wind farm off our coast has just cut the energy production forecasts for its own facilities, sufficient to lower its profit margins and drop its stock values. “Our models weren’t sophisticated enough,” Orsted’s chief financial officer is quoted…
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The Radioactive Donors In 2019? Healthcare
By Steve Haner The following is one of my “revise and extend” follow-up posts, this one adding detail to an exploration of the raging attacks on Republican efforts to offer alternative health insurance plans. You can read the original post on the Jefferson Policy Journal. Not many months ago, it was a safe bet…
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Northam Opposes Coming Retail Choice Bill?
By Steve Haner Governor Ralph Northam is quoted in a Standard and Poor’s Market Intelligence news article Friday as opposing any efforts to change Virginia’s electricity regulations, which presumably would include the 2020 retail choice proposal gathering steam in the background. Reporter Michael Copley wrote about Friday’s state solar and wind power purchase agreements and…
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JLARC: Medicaid Jumps 19% In Expansion Year
By Steve Haner Every year, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission issues a report looking at ten years of state spending, sliced and diced various ways. In recent years, the headline results have largely been surprisingly consistent and the 2019 report issued Monday fit the pattern. As seen before: Medicaid program costs lead the…
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Dems & Dom, RGGI Grows, Medicaid & Work
By Steve Haner What Was Lost Is Found Again. Couldn’t they wait at least another few weeks? Anybody foolish enough to believe that Dominion Energy Virginia and the Virginia Democratic Party establishment have really parted ways (as Jim Bacon seemed to think a while back), take note of this from today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch: Governor Ralph…
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Will These Insurance Ads Also Sway VA Voters?
By Steve Haner As the state campaign debate rages about health insurance plan which are short term or less comprehensive than the Affordable Care Act, two on-going national ad campaigns may cross-pollinate the debate. They are bolstering the Republican position nicely. The first are the spots with people saying they are worried about the various…
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Carbon Tax for Your Car, SUV Takes Shape at TCI
By Steve Haner In this politically sensitive moment, they don’t call it “cap and tax” but instead “cap and invest.” Yet, the recently released draft Transportation and Climate Initiative proposal fits a Bacon’s Rebellion prediction in March that next they would be coming to tax your SUV. Reducing CO2 emissions from electric power plants…
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Happy Birthday, Mr. President
By Steve Haner I love this photo, for some reason. The lieutenant in the background is President Carter, 95 today. Our last WWII vet president, but I very much hope not our last military veteran president. There are veterans in the Democratic field. This is an AP photo now appearing on the Richmond Times-Dispatch webpage, …
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Lobbying Entertainment Data Still Deceptive
By Steve Haner ‘Our friends at the Virginia Public Access Project are a bit later this year with their data and visuals on Virginia’s embarrassingly weak and intentionally vague lobbyist entertainment reporting. It is still nothing but a sham, exactly how the legislators and lobbyists want it. The 2018 VPAP coverage was subject of a…
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Don’t Abandon Medicaid Work Requirement
By Steve Haner To Republicans who supported the 2018 decision to expand Medicaid services to more Virginians – and encouraged yes votes from reluctant colleagues — the promise to couple those benefits with pathways toward gainful employment was a key reason. The compromise has worked in other states as well.