Category: Environment
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Building Systems to Use Methane Not From Wells
by Steve Haner Methane (CH4) is money. It is also known as natural gas, one of the most efficient fossil fuels we use, and allowing it to leak into the atmosphere when it could be used wastes energy and money. Methane is also a greenhouse gas (GHG). But the story gets more interesting here, because…
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SCC Asked for Hearing on Secret Renewables Costs
by Steve Haner Appalachian Power Company has asked the State Corporation Commission to schedule a separate hearing on Attorney General Jason Miyares’ motion to break the seal on exhibits in its application for new renewable energy sources. Miyares’ April 6 motion was first reported by Bacon’s Rebellion, in a story on Appalachian’s pending application for…
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VCEA Could Raise APCo Power Bills by Half
by Steve Haner Compliance with the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act will result in a 49% increase in monthly costs by 2035 for residential customers of the Appalachian Power Company, according to a State Corporation Commission staff analysis. That’s a $57 increase on a typical 2020 residential bill of $117. Rates on the largest industrial…
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SCC Staff: Dominion May Exceed Wind Cost Cap
by Steve Haner A similar article was published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Testimony filed by the State Corporation Commission staff on April 8 opened a slight possibility that the Commission could reject Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed $10 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project off Virginia Beach. It all depends…
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Updates: Missing Wind, Lazy Assembly, Gas Wars
by Steve Haner The German Energy Mix in March When you dig in, the amount of data available on energy usage is stunning, and the presentations are often quite clear and informative. Case in point is the illustration above of Germany’s energy mix during March, in the news now as Europe seeks to wean itself…
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Virginia’s Greens Need to Change Their Strategy
by James C. Sherlock When you ask a question you have to be prepared for the answer. McKinsey Global Institute, in collaboration with McKinsey Sustainability and the Global Energy & Materials and Advanced Industries practices released in January a massive study of the costs to get the planet to net zero emissions by 2050. The study is “The Net…
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AG Expert: Wind Project Unneeded, Accounting Off
by Steve Haner There is no justification for Dominion’s $10 billion offshore wind project other than that the General Assembly has ordered it, a witness for Virginia’s Attorney General has testified. The utility doesn’t need its electricity, doesn’t need its renewable energy attributes, and is ignoring lower cost alternatives if it does need generation in…
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Another Try for Natural Gas to Hampton Roads
by Steve Haner Natural gas pipeline companies have applied to federal regulators with another proposal to enhance supply into Virginia’s Hampton Roads region, despite the earlier failures of two similar high profile efforts. Columbia Gas Transmission, part of TC Energy which is best known for the recently-rejected Keystone XL pipeline, is proposing to replace 48…
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If U.S. Copies Europe, “It Will End In Tears”
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. A major European voice for climate and energy rationality told a small Charlottesville audience March 30 that his home, the United Kingdom, and the rest of Europe face an immediate energy crisis that was brewing long before the war in…
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No Other State Plans Utility-Owned Wind Farms
by Steve Haner The table reproduced above may one of the most interesting exhibits submitted to the State Corporation Commission as it considers Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore wind application. Two things jump out, both highlighted in pre-filed expert testimony sponsored by environmental activist group Clean Virginia. First, only in Virginia is such a project being…
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Wind Case Spinning Up; Your Comments Sought
by Steve Haner In the coming weeks, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission takes up one of the largest utility investments ever undertaken in the Commonwealth, where the cost and the risk will rest squarely on Virginia’s citizens: Dominion Energy Virginia’s $10 billion Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. In applications and appendices filed late last year, probably…
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AG Sought Rejection of Some Solar Over Cost
by Steve Haner On behalf of Dominion Energy Virginia’s customers, Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) asked the State Corporation Commission to reject five of the solar projects included in the statewide renewable energy development package the Commission approved last week. The Commission, however, did not take them off the approved list and thus did not…
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Secrecy Also Hides Key Solar Energy Data
by Steve Haner Perhaps issuing its ruling on the Ides of March by design, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission last week approved another major wave of requests from Dominion Energy Virginia for solar plants it will own, solar plants it will contract with, and a smattering of battery storage facilities added to provide some public relations…
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Key Data on Dominion Wind Project Still Secret
By David Wojick A previous article published by Bacon’s Rebellion and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow challenged the notion that Dominion Energy Virginia can build a huge amount of wind and solar generating capacity and retire all of its fossil-fueled generators with almost none of the enormous storage capacity that is required to make the…
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A Low Solar Minimum Bill Ups Yours, By Design
by Steve Haner Virtue signaling can be fun. It can also be profitable if you can shift the overall cost onto somebody else. That is what is going on in the battle over a proposed “minimum bill” for Dominion Energy Virginia customers who seek to partially escape the utility by signing on with a separate…