Category: Economic development
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Time For a Fossil Fuel Reality Check
By Peter Galuszka Let’s pause for a moment, catch our breath and realize what is really going on in the world of fossil fuel and climate change. We’ve heard tons of loosely-based opinion from climate change deniers and drum beaters for the “War on Coal” crowd. Here are two recent news items: Coal baron Robert…
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More Sharks Found in N.C. Sound
By Peter Galuszka The Pamlico Sound in North Carolina has long been a bellwether of environmental changes. Different temperatures and salinity levels can affect everything from marsh grass to shrimp catches to fish kills. Now scientists are finding that more potentially deadly sharks are in this shallow, broad estuary that separates the mainland from the…
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Roanoke Gets Serious about Competing for Young Professionals
by James A. Bacon Roanokers know they have a challenge stemming the drain of educated young people, just like every other small metropolitan area in the United States. At least they’re asking the right questions: What does it take to recruit and retain young professionals? The Roanoke Regional Chamber is hosting an event later this month,…
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Economic Un-Development
I was planning to blog today about the sad fate of Tarek Hezam, a New Yorker who moved to the Richmond region and opened a convenience store in the Oak Grove neighborhood of the city in 2013. After neighbors complained that the store became a magnet for trash and crime, the City of Richmond revoked his…
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Why Clean Energy Will Be Cheaper
By Peter Galuszka The Sturm und Drang to which utility executives, coal companies and politicians have subjected Virginians as they oppose President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions has always been a deliberate distraction from what’s really happening. According to them and their confederates at the State Corporation Commission and the state…
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Another Russian Reformer Murdered
By Peter Galuszka It was a personal shocker to read of the murder in Moscow of Russian reformer Boris Nemtsov, the latest in a long string of killings related to the tragic fight for change in that country. Nemtsov was gunned down Friday in a drive-by shooting as he walked across Moskvoretsky Bridge a short…
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You Must Be Joking
The RTD reports today that the city of Richmond will PAY the Redskins about $250,000 for having summer camp in the city. Is this true or did the newspaper publish the April Fools edition a month early? — Les Schreiber
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Government Fragmentation and Economic Growth
by James A. Bacon What are the secrets of successful metropolitan regions? According to conventional economic-development thinking here in Virginia, success hinges upon the ability to maintain a positive business climate, a concept that encompasses everything from tax rates to the tort system, the transportation network to the education level of the workforce. But a…
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Closely Watched Trains?
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka The small town of Pembroke in southwest Virginia is used to seeing endlessly long unit trains of coal cars rumbling past. But last week, it got an unexpected surprise – trains of similar length hauling crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken fields started going by. According to Reuters, Pembroke is one of…
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Land, Density and Resilience
One more takeaway from the Resilient Virginia launch conference yesterday: All other things being equal, more compact communities are more resilient communities. Like Bacon’s Rebellion, Cooper Martin, program director of the Sustainable Cities Institute, is a big fan of Joe Minicozzi and his maps and graphics showing how dramatically land value-per-acre varies between core urban…
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The Non Global-Warmist’s Case for Resiliency Planning
by James A. Bacon The key to building a strong resiliency movement — making communities more adaptable in the face of natural and man-made disasters — is finding common ground. So argued Steven McNulty, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southeast Regional Climate Hub, in addressing the launch event of Resilient Virginia this morning. Fear of…
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Propping Up Coal at the Taxpayers’ Expense
By Peter Galuszka It’s always curious when big business and their bankrolled politicians complain about how the government and its regulations stymie the “magic of the free market.” Then they turn around and keep protectionist policies that give certain industries big favors such as tax credits. That’s what the General Assembly has done with a…
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Coal Giant Won’t Pay Blankenship Legal Bill
By Peter Galuszka The the man described by Rolling Stone as the “The Dark Lord of the Coal Fields” is suing coal giant Alpha Natural Resources of Bristol for refusing to pay his legal bills as he approaches his criminal trial April 20 related to the worst coal-mine disaster in 40 years. Donald L. Blankenship,…
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How Hospitals Can Take the Lead in Economic Development
by James A. Bacon As budgetary pressures continue to squeeze federal spending in the Washington metropolitan area, who will assume the mantle of economic growth in the region? An unlikely champion has emerged — Inova Health Systems, Northern Virginia’s dominant health system. The company announced yesterday its intention to lease and ultimately purchase Exxon Mobil’s 117-acre campus to…
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Dominion Resources Is on a Tear
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Dominion Resources has been on a tear recently. It’s been muscling through a dubious law in the General Assembly that would allow it to avoid State Corporation Commission rate audits for six years. And, it has been throwing its weight around in less populated sections of the state. It is suing to…