Author: Steve Haner
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If Assembly Wants SMR Bill, Then Fix It
By Steve Haner This is progress. Only twenty members of the Virginia Senate voted Tuesday to ignore a key tenet of utility ratemaking and put utility stockholders and profits ahead of consumer protection. Usually when the utilities persuade the General Assembly to do that to Virginia consumers, they get a bigger vote margin than 20-16.*…
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Analog Tax Policy is Harmful in a Digital World
By Chris Braunlich To many, testifying before a government committee conjures visions of the drama surrounding the McCarthy, Watergate, or Zuckerberg hearings. In Virginia, not so much. Faced with processing more than 2,600 bills in 60 days, the legislature conducts hearings that are often more of a kabuki dance, while backstage choreographers figure out the…
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Will Dominion Fool Us Again with SMR Cost Bill?
By Steve Haner Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. A utility-backed bill to stick electricity ratepayers with the high-risk costs of developing small (modular) nuclear reactors, approved by a Senate committee Friday, is a “fool me twice” example. Shame on the General Assembly if it falls for it.
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Only Tax Increases Still Pending at Assembly
By Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin’s package of proposed tax changes is now stalled in both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates. A House subcommittee spiked it Feb. 5 and then dashed other bills imposing major tax increases on higher income Virginians. A full Senate committee refused his bill on Feb. 6. Of…
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Stratford Hall Tax Exempt Status Preserved
The real and personal property tax exemptions for the historic colonial plantation Stratford Hall, the ancestral home of the Lees of Virginia, have been spared by the Virginia Senate. It once again amended a bill stripping tax exemptions from other organizations with connections to the Southern Confederacy, removing the popular tourist attraction that was home…
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Rare SCC Deadlock Sinks Dominion’s Energy Plan
By Steve Haner The year long debate over Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed integrated resource plan, which threw climate catastrophe activists into a frenzy because it added a new natural gas plant, is ending with no decision. Two State Corporation Commission judges split on whether to approve it, basically a win for the anti-fossil fuel forces.…
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Mea Culpa, Bills Targeting UDC Should Fail
By Steve Haner Racial animus and revenge are always bad policies. It is now very clear those are the motivations for the bills advancing to strip tax exemptions from legitimate historical and charitable institutions, simply because of connections to the Southern Confederacy. They should die. The beeping sound you hear is me backing up my…
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NJ Greenmailed Into Massive Wind Energy Costs
By Steve Haner New Jersey just agreed to two ocean wind projects with astronomical guaranteed power prices. The price demanded and received by independent competitive suppliers shows there is at least some upside to the utility-owned, captive ratepayer-financed model behind Dominion Energy Virginia’s massive offshore wind facility. In late 2023 the news was full of…
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The Aggressive Progressive Democratic Agenda
By Steve Haner The Democrats now running Virginia’s General Assembly are not just more progressive, but far more ambitious than their predecessors. To fully understand how ambitious you must compile the entire list of progressive bills advancing in the 2024 session and consider their total impact on the cost of living and cost of doing…
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Great Judges Can’t Fix Bad Energy Laws
By Steve Haner The General Assembly has now filled the two open seats at the State Corporation Commission (SCC), ending two years of gridlock. Unfortunately, the same legislators, on both sides of the aisle, are still working overtime to dictate and micromanage the state’s energy policy, reducing the discretion and authority of the independent, non-partisan…
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Two Excellent Nominees Emerge for SCC
By Steve Haner The new Democratic majority in the Virginia General Assembly is moving rapidly to fill the two State Corporation Commission vacancies with excellent, qualified choices. One is well known in Virginia and the second is new to our hallowed Capitol, but with a decade of energy law experience on the federal level. Former…
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Serious Tax Reform Addressing a Serious Problem
By Chris Braunlich The American linguist Yogi Berra once said of a New York City restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” Overcrowding, however, isn’t what motivates a move to a state (or from a state). Those decisions are inspired by robust economic activity, jobs for residents, and a pathway for each generation to…
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Index Minimum Wage? Do the Tax Code, Too.
By Steve Haner One bill that certainly is heading for Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk is the increase in the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour as of two years from now. Both versions, House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, raise it to $13.50 for next year, with the $15 level kicking in a…
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Will Democrats Revisit Virginia Net Zero Laws?
By Steve Haner For the third year in a row, Democrats in the Virginia Senate have shot down an effort to divorce Virginia’s auto dealers from California’s impending mandates on electric vehicle sales. But before the predetermined vote went down, the new chair of the committee made a surprise announcement that he and his colleagues…
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Thank Coal, Gas for Your Warm House Today
By Steve Haner Good morning, Virginia. Your lights and heat are on, and you can thank coal and natural gas. Here are the 8 a.m. charts from PJM’s website, which you can check periodically today as the winter weather closes in. Those fuels were providing more than 66% of our electricity, with nuclear providing almost…