Category: Energy
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Dominion Green Energy Conversion Cost Dips, Partly by Sacrificing Reliability
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The projected consumer cost of Dominion Energy Virginia’s conversion to wind and solar power rises steeply in the utility’s latest capital spending plan. Although slightly reduced from earlier estimates, the utility told the State Corporation Commission its residential customers may see…
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Our Media Trusts “The Smart Ones”
by Steve Haner Not every policy imposed by government is subject to public hearings or votes. That’s one reason to vote for smart candidates who have the country’s best interests at heart and not for those who rant about personal liberty without accepting any social responsibility for individual decisions. That was part of a response…
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Now California Will Control Virginia’s Auto Sales
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s automotive sales market is now officially controlled in Sacramento, with the likelihood that no new internal combustion engines can be sold in the Commonwealth after 2035. The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, acting not with discretion but on orders…
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Youngkin to Withdraw From RGGI, End Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told a business audience Wednesday afternoon that he intends to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. His decision came two days after Dominion Energy Virginia filed a petition to increase the RGGI tax on its bills by…
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More Bacon Bits
Mia Love to Speak at UVa. Mia Love, the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress, will deliver a speech at the University of Virginia tomorrow, addressing the topic, “Preserving the American Tradition.” Love’s address is the second in a series of events bringing outside conservative voices to UVa sponsored by The Jefferson Council. For…
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TCI is Now Dead. Happy to Have Helped.
by Steve Haner You’re welcome. Well, nobody is likely to thank me actually, but why not take a bow. After Connecticut’s governor announced he would give up on imposing the Transportation and Climate Initiative on his citizens, Massachusetts’ governor made a similar announcement yesterday. Governor Charlie Baker of that state was the driving force behind…
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Another Blue State Bails on Tax-and-Cap TCI, VA Democrats Dig In to Protect Their Green Revolution
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The Governor of Connecticut has abandoned his efforts to enroll that state in the Transportation and Climate Initiative, an interstate compact which would impose a cap, tax and ration scheme on gasoline and diesel fuel. Virginia remains a part of…
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What Dominion is Hiding in its Wind Application
by Steve Haner When an applicant at the State Corporation Commission claims certain information is proprietary, or extraordinarily sensitive, a reader not privy to the full document can at least get an idea what is missing. What is missing from the application Dominion Energy Virginia recently filed at the SCC, a document so dense and…
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Turbine Costs Appear on Dominion Bills in 2022?
by Steve Haner Customers of Dominion Energy Virginia will begin to pay for its planned 176 wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach next September, years before the first electricity is produced, if the company’s request for initial project funding is approved by the State Corporation Commission. As with all such projects now, the…
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The World Doesn’t Work that Way
by Bill O’Keefe The political elites who promoted the passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act would have us believe that planning an energy transition is no more difficult than planning a long vacation. You know where you want to go, how long you will be gone, and how you plan to travel. The Clean…
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General Herring: Air All Data in Wind Application
An open letter to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring: Dear General Herring: As was reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Dominion Energy Virginia filed on Friday its application for approval to build offshore wind turbines with a nameplate capacity of 2,600 megawatts. The very first motion made to the State Corporation Commission was a request to…
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Oops. Wind Farm to Cost $2 Billion More
by James A. Bacon Dominion Energy’s CEO Bob Blue acknowledged yesterday that the cost of the power company’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project will cost $9.8 billion — $2 billion more than previously stated. During an investor conference call, Blue blamed the 25% jump on “commodity and general cost pressures” as well as completion of…
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Personnel is Policy On Future Energy Reform
by Steve Haner Does Tuesday’s election result mean Virginia is going to move back towards a rational energy policy? Watch two key personnel decisions, both entirely matters for the next legislature to decide. State Corporation Commissioner Angela Navarro was elected by the 2021 General Assembly to fill the unexpired term of Mark Christie, who moved…
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Should Choice of Supplier Extend to Natural Gas?
by Steve Haner Should there be retail choice for natural gas? The developers of a proposed natural gas-fired merchant electricity plant are testing the waters with a proposal to bypass their local monopoly supplier by building their own one-customer pipeline to another source. In the electricity arena, this is an old issue as large industrial…
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Finally, Virginia’s Political Class Starts Thinking about Grid Reliability
by James A. Bacon At last — a serious discussion has occurred about the reliability of Virginia’s electric grid as the state moves toward zero-carbon electricity generation by 2050 (and 2045 in the Dominion Energy service territory). Reliability was a prime topic of conversation at the third Virginia Clean Energy Summit Tuesday. A panel discussion…