Category: Utilities
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Energy Outcome Cloudy as Adjournment Looms
by Steve Haner With adjournment less than a week away, the 2023 General Assembly is a mixed bag for electricity consumers, with the Assembly seeming to release control to regulators in some areas but continuing to assert its tight control in others. Dominion Energy Virginia’s legislation to sweeten its authorized profit margin, which will not…
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Strange Bedfellows Unite Against Dominion Bill
by Steve Haner Battles over utility ratemaking can produce some “strange bedfellow” coalitions. Check out the list of advocacy organizations which have banded together to oppose Dominion Energy Virginia’s pending bill to mandate a higher profit margin. The list appeared in a full page advertisement in the Sunday Richmond Times-Dispatch and can also be found…
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Dominion’s Ads Deceive About Ratepayer Impact
by Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia has launched a major advertising campaign advocating legislation to increase its allowed profit margin, with ads focused on a deceptive message that the bill will actually lower costs for consumers. It will not. The print version of the campaign, which can be seen in a full page ad in…
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Youngkin Thwarts Dominion Push for Higher Profit
by Steve Haner A Virginia House of Delegates committee has rebuffed Dominion Energy Virginia’s bid to change the rules on how much profit it can earn, setting up a confrontation with the utility and its allies in the Virginia Senate. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) reportedly encouraged the delegates to take the step and sent a…
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Now We Will Enrich Dominion’s Creditors, Too
by Steve Haner Facing the prospect of a jaw-dropping jump in electricity prices because of fuel price hikes last year, the State Corporation Commission approved Dominion Energy Virginia’s request to defer most of those costs for future collection. The unpaid bill for fuel already burned is now about $1.5 billion, apparently, and Dominion has a…
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Dominion Seeks Return of RGGI Tax to Its Bills
by Steve Haner The on again, off again, direct tax on Dominion Energy Virginia bills to pay for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) may be on again. If you feel like you are watching a shell game and just cannot find the pea, that is intentional. In its sales pitch for its latest effort…
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“Strong Words” In Bills Give SCC Power On Rates
By Steve Haner One sentence, if it is the right sentence, can upset the machinations of the powerful. Two bills pending in the 2023 Virginia General Assembly contain such a sentence, and it could upset the plans of Dominion Energy Virginia. Here is the sentence at the heart of both bills: …if the (State Corporation)…
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Is Unnamed Partner on Wind Project Driving This New Dominion Regulation Rewrite?
By Steve Haner Without fanfare and without awakening the drowsy Capitol press corps, Dominion Energy Virginia dropped in legislation last week to set up a partnership on its most massive capital investment, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Just who that partner might be, what if any benefits that provides to Dominion’s 2.6 million Virginia…
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Consumers Be Wary When Energy Elephants Dance
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The Virginia House of Delegates is expected to vote this week to exempt certain Virginia manufacturers, which ones to be determined later, from the coming wave of energy costs created by Virginia’s rapid transition to unreliable forms of power generation.
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Dominion Wants To Rewrite Its Own Rules Again
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The headlines in the coming General Assembly may be captured by fights over abortion and taxes, but the deepest reach into your pockets will involve your energy bills. The state’s dominant electric utility appears to once again be seeking to amend…
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The Big Christmas Chill Was a Wakeup Call
by Bill O’Keefe As temperatures dropped dramatically over the Christmas weekend, Dominion Energy’s advice to its customers — those who still had power — was to turn down their thermostats. Virginia was not alone. PJM, the regional grid management organization covering 13 states and the District of Columbia, made the same request because its gas…
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SCC Drops Wind Energy Performance Standard
by Steve Haner The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has abandoned its push for an offshore wind performance standard fiercely opposed by Dominion Energy Virginia. It agreed instead to some capital cost limitations for its project that the utility has endorsed . In a decision released today, the two commissioners accepted in full a stipulation put…
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RGGI Tax, On Path to Repeal, Reaches $524 Million
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The tax on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted by Virginia electricity plants dropped to below $13 a ton in the most recent sale of CO2 allowances conducted by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). That meant Virginia collected only…
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Why Does Dominion Fear a Wind Output Promise?
By Steve Haner While we await a decision by the State Corporation Commission on competing approaches for protecting consumers from unexpected offshore wind costs, some additional relevant information is worthy of notice. Two items call into question Dominion Energy Virginia’s refusal to assume financial risk for poor turbine performance.