Category: Utilities
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Charlottesville Gas Study Not Pointing To Elimination. Yet.
By Steve Haner Charlottesville is one of three Virginia municipal governments that still owns and operates a natural gas distribution utility. With the current political hostility to all forms of hydrocarbon energy, the future of that utility is under debate and its customers will soon have a chance to speak up. The listening sessions follow other…
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VCEA Fans and Foes Both See Failure Looming
By Steve Haner There is a growing recognition that the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) as written is going to fail. Both those who strongly believe in its goal of ending the use of hydrocarbon fuels, and those who consider that idea nothing but fool’s gold, see major problems on the horizon. There is also…
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Clean Economy Act: A Refresher on What it Does
By Steve Haner A senior Democratic state senator is leading an effort to review and possibly revise the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which orders the future elimination of hydrocarbon fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) used in making electricity. His goal is to conduct a stakeholder process and bring legislation to the 2025…
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Now Fix the Clean Economy Act, Governor
By Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin recently flew to Louisiana to join with other Republican governors in criticizing President Joe Biden’s energy policy, especially the president’s hostility to hydrocarbon fuels. Youngkin and the rest gathered at an oil refinery to make their point that oil and gas should not go away in the decades to…
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Injunction to Stop Wind Project Denied
A federal judge in Washington has declined to prevent Dominion Energy Virginia from constructing its offshore wind turbines, but presumably the underlying legal challenge to the federal permitting process will grind on through the court process. Virginia Mercury reports the basics this morning. Installation of the first monopiles actually started while the judge was still…
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Investor in Dominion Wind Buys $150M Island
By Steve Haner One of the leaders of investment firm Stonepeak, which is buying a 50% share in Dominion Energy’s Virginia Virginia Beach wind project, just bought a private island. The story is reported by the New York Post, which mentions his role in the major investment firm but doesn’t make the connection to the…
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Challenging the Fact-Free Narrative on RGGI
By Steve Haner The numerous falsehoods in a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch story about the carbon tax so loved by Virginia Democrats start right with the headline. It states that Virginia’s decision to withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative “is costing millions.” The figure of $150 million per year is then mentioned, apparently simply quoting…
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Utilities Will Gamble on Nukes With Your $$$
By Steve Haner Standing firm against raising taxes is a fine thing, but it would help if Virginia’s leaders also stopped using people’s electricity bills to fund rent-seeking energy speculations. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has tweaked, but not vetoed, pending bills that allow both of Virginia’s investor-owned utilities to charge ratepayers for power plants that…
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Fighting Over the Check at the Green Power Cafe
By Steve Haner New power plants are pretty useless unless they are connected by new power lines. The debate over who pays for those tall towers and miles of cable can be just as divisive as the fight over who pays for a proposed nuclear plant or offshore wind turbines. Bottom line, of course, the…
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Will Consumers Come First in VCEA Review?
By Steve Haner “If we always keep as our focus what is best for consumers, in getting them reliable power for the least cost, then I think that’s the main guidepost we ought to follow.” That was Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie’s opening quote on a PBS broadcast on energy issues due to air…
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Dominion Program to Bury Lines Halfway to Goal
By Steve Haner Just over a decade ago, Dominion Energy Virginia announced plans to spend about $1.75 billion of its ratepayers’ dollars on a program to bury about 4,000 miles of its residential service lines underground. As of the end of last year, the tally was just over 2,000 miles buried at a total cost…
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Wind Project Sued Over Claimed Threat to Whales
By Steve Haner A coalition of public interest groups has now filed its expected lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore wind facility off Virginia Beach. Its key complaint is the federal permits were issued without a full and fair evaluation of the potential impact of the turbines on the shrinking North…
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See, Hear, Speak No Evil on Four Whale Deaths
Another whale has turned up dead on a beach, the fourth found on Virginia or North Carolina beaches within one week, several within sight of Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore turbine project. This one was identified as a juvenile sperm whale and is the furthest from the project site. In all the news coverage so far,…
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Is Dominion-Stonepeak Deal a Partnership Flip?
By Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia insists that its decision to sell a half-interest in the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project “won’t impact ratepayers.” The problem is, perhaps it should. Perhaps Dominion is creating additional value for its shareholders that instead should benefit ratepayers.
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EPA Told CVOW Wake Has Air Quality Impacts
By David Wojick In formal comments, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the adverse impact of the giant Virginia offshore wind project on air and water quality. The issue is far-reaching because all big offshore wind facilities could have these adverse effects.