Category: Business and Economy
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Secret Wind Case Documents Are Key to Appeal
by Steve Haner Now comes applicant Dominion Energy Virginia, petitioning the Virginia State Corporation Commission to reverse its recent decision to impose actual financial risk on the company and its stockholders. If a hurricane blows down its planned offshore wind farm in a few years, the related costs should be imposed 100% on its captive…
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A Chance for Petersburg
by James C. Sherlock The Youngkin administration is doing an unalloyed good thing the exact right way. In partnership with two Democrats. The Governor, in an extraordinary joint presentation with his cabinet secretaries and Democratic Mayor Samuel Parham, laid out a plan for broad state help to Petersburg. Standing on the stage with Democratic State Senator…
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Wall Street Journal: Wind Approved “Under Duress”
by Steve Haner With an editorial published yesterday, The Wall Street Journal has now given its readers more insight into the risks inherent in Dominion Energy Virginia’s coming wind project than any Virginia newspaper or broadcast outlet has. It is not the kind of national spotlight Virginia should crave.
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What Surplus? Virginia Doesn’t Allow Surpluses!
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Does last week’s glowing report on Virginia’s state tax collections presage additional tax relief for struggling families? The first question is, was the news really glowing?
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Pixilated Public Policy
by Jim McCarthy The citizenry relies upon its government agencies to deliver cogent services and determinations consistent with the welfare of the commonwealth. It’s not always an easy task and, sometimes, the outcomes of those representative institutions are, well, confusing, or pixilated. On August 3, 2022, the State Corporation Commission (SCC) issued a Final Order…
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Wind: SCC Rejects Deal Signed By Its Staff
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Rejecting an agreement that its own staff reached with Dominion Energy Virginia, the State Corporation Commission has imposed at least some level of financial risk on the utility’s shareholders should its $10 billion offshore wind project fail to match the…
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School Discipline Issues Meet Unshakeable Progressive Dogma
by James C. Sherlock Moral panic has been defined as a: …widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. Virginia’s progressive community is in moral panic over the refusal of school discipline outcomes to bend to their prescriptions…
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Delayed Fuel Costs May Include Interest Now
by Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia wants its customers, not its shareholders, to pay an interest penalty for the privilege of taking three years to pay off the recent explosion in its fuel costs. The company is paying about $1 billion more for fuel than it planned when the fuel portion of bills was set…
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Salvation for the Mountain Valley Pipeline?
by Steve Haner And now, from our “I’ll believe it when I see it” department, comes the expectation that passage of President Joe Biden’s new corporate tax hike and green energy incentives package will be followed by a smooth path to completion for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for natural gas. The topic is everywhere…
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Virginia Needs Better Information Sharing to Provide Mandated Public Services to Illegals Efficiently and Effectively
by James C. Sherlock I am on record as a persistent advocate of improving the quality of both schools and medical services for poor and minority citizens. It has been the main focus of my work for years. In a directly related matter, we read, with different reactions depending upon our politics, of the struggles…
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Status of Public Employee Collective Bargaining
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Mercury has performed a service by compiling a list of the status of public employee bargaining in the Commonwealth. So far, eight jurisdictions have adopted ordinances authorizing collective bargaining agreements. There is activity in another six localities. “Activity” is defined as campaigns advocating collective bargaining agreements or local government officials…
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Bad News for Governor Youngkin
by James C. Sherlock The New York Post has a story by Dana Kennedy that has put Governor Youngkin in a tough spot. It recounts nasty business transactions by Carlyle Group Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman David Rubenstein. The story links Mr. Rubenstein to the trashing of two founding fathers by tour guides at Monticello and Montpelier,…
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Virginia Republican Congressmen Do It Again
Virginia’s Republican representatives in Congress have again embarrassed the Commonwealth. The House of Representatives recently approved a resolution supporting the applications of Sweden and Finland to join NATO. The vote was 394-18. Three of those 18 “no” votes were from Virginia Republicans: Morgan Griffith (9th District), Ben Cline (6th District); and Bob Good (5th District). …
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Wojick on Whales III: The Noisy Driving of Piles
by David Wojick The Virginia wind-versus-whales story has taken a turn for the worse. Worse for the severely endangered Right Whales that is. My research has found what may be some really bad news. Meet Tethys. Not the real Tethys, the mythical Greek Titan of the sea, but the U.S. Department of Energy’s center for…
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Bill to Bury Fauquier Powerline Comes to You
by Steve Haner One of the key skills in politics is to make your constituents happy with money provided from those far, far away. It is happening again as Fauquier County’s leaders want the General Assembly to force all Dominion Energy Virginia’s ratepayers to pay to bury a 230-kv power line out of sight from…