Category: Energy
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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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Venture Global: Virginia’s Unknown Energy Giant
by James A. Bacon An Arlington-based company that most Virginians have never heard of could well alter the global energy balance of power — if the Biden administration doesn’t get in the way. In 2023 and 2024 alone Venture Global LNG., Inc., has announced long-term deals to supply 3 million tons of LNG to the…
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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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Mountain Valley Pipeline To Start Moving Gas
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved the full operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Gas from West Virginia will now flow. Environmentalist heads are exploding, but this is the best news for Western Virginia’s economy in a long while, and an encouraging sign of hope for energy sanity. A decade ago both this 303-mile,…
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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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An Alternative Interpretation of the EV Statute
by Dick Hall-Sizemore This is a follow-up to Steve Haner’s article on Gov. Youngkin’s announcement that Virginia will not be bound by California regulations on electric vehicles after this year. The Governor’s announcement is a lawyer’s dream. There are different ways to interpret the laws and regulations involved and, so, off to court we go.…
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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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EVs More Likely to Kill Pedestrians, Damage Roads and Bridges
by Hans Bader “A recent study published by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids are twice as likely to hit pedestrians compared to those driving traditional gas-powered cars, potentially leading to more fatal accidents. This conclusion came from a review of British road accidents. The study…
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Data Centers Are Good for Virginia. Predictably, Opposition Is Mounting.
by James A. Bacon Data centers have become such big business in Virginia that the industry has formed its own trade association, the Data Center Coalition, Unsurprisingly, that group is headquartered in Leesburg, smack dab in the middle of the largest cluster of data centers in the United States if not the world. You know…
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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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Four Years In, Energy Subsidy Helping Very Few
By Steve Haner Four years after approval, a state program to provide lower electricity costs to low income families is still struggling to get going. Administrative costs have far exceeded any actual benefits to utility customers to date. It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program (PIPP) and was created by the 2020 General…
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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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Views on Tobacco Disqualify Defender of Whales?
By Steve Haner It was disappointing to the see the Richmond Times-Dispatch stoop to a weak ad hominem argument on its front page on May 6, seeking to discredit a legal challenge to the Dominion Energy Virginia wind project by labeling the plaintiffs as “climate deniers” and defenders of tobacco.
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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…