Category: Environment
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One Governor Blinks on Carbon Tax. Will Northam?
By Steve Haner The governor of Massachusetts stated yesterday that he and other unnamed governors in Transportation and Climate Initiative states are reconsidering the new carbon tax. Is our Governor Ralph Northam among them? He has a news conference this afternoon and somebody should ask. From a post late yesterday at the Boston Herald: “Gov.…
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RGGI Carbon Tax Hits Dominion Bills Next Summer
By Steve Haner Beginning August 1 of next year, Dominion Energy Virginia proposes to begin to collect the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon tax from its customers, collecting $168 million during the first year through yet another of those proliferating rate adjustment clauses (or “RACs”). It will get it by charging a flat $.002388 per…
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Another VA Gas Pipeline Project Dies Under Fire
By Steve Haner Another proposal to build a pipeline pumping wealth and prosperity into the Virginia economy has been brought down. That is my impression of what the impact would be of expanding natural gas supply to our state – added wealth and prosperity. This beneficial project is not to be. Virginia Natural Gas has…
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Virginia Rocks
By Dick Hall-Sizemore It is time to take a break and talk about something entirely different related to Virginia — how the current physical structure of the Commonwealth in the 21st century came to be. I have been taking an introductory geology course this fall from J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. (Virtual, of course.) I…
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Fairfax School Board Should Focus on Schools, Not Environmental Policy
by Emilio Jaksetic Not content with running the county’s public school system, the Fairfax County School Board now is involved with developing strategies and recommendations for county environmental policy. The results can be seen in the Final Report of the Oct. 1, 2020, Fairfax County Joint Environmental Task Force (JET). In April 2019, the JET…
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Shellenberger’s “Apocalypse Never” Lessons for VA
“Climate change is real but it’s not the end of the world. It is not even our most serious environmental problem.” By Steve Haner That statement opens the dust jacket summary for “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All” by Michael Shellenberger, once named “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine. It remains the…
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What’s Worse for the Environment: Natural Gas or Rare-Earth Metals?
by James A. Bacon Tom Hadwin is one of the smartest, most well-informed commentators in Virginia on the subject of the electric grid, utility regulation and Dominion Virginia Energy. He sets a high standard for the discussion about energy policy in Virginia. He is calm, rational and fact-based, he refrains from ad hominem attacks and…
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A Reasonable Approach to Sea-Level Rise
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s environmentalists are smarter and more forward-thinking than California’s environmentalists. That’s a low bar, admittedly, but it’s a not-inconsiderable consolation now that environmental lobbyists and their friends in the Democratic Party run the commonwealth. In California, leaders of the environmental/political establishment fervently believe that human-caused climate change is increasing the incidence…
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Transportation Carbon Tax Debate Starts Again
First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. By Steve Haner Having imposed a carbon tax on Virginia electricity generation in 2020, the General Assembly starting in January 2021 will consider adding a similar tax on every gallon of gasoline and diesel sold for vehicle use. The Transportation and Climate Initiative,…
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Dominion Green Energy Costs Continue to Grow
by Steve Haner As sobering as they were, the initial estimates of how a green energy conversion will explode Dominion Energy Virginia rates have now been revised up. The State Corporation Commission staff now sees it costing an additional $800 per year for a residential customer to purchase 1,000 kWh per month by 2030, an…
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The Long and Winding Road to Net Zero
by Bill O’Keefe State law, embodied in SB 851, requires Dominion Energy to supply 30% percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2030 and to close all carbon-emitting power plants by 2045. In other words, Dominion must develop a plan to be emission free by 2045, less than 25 years from now. The…
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Keep California on the West Coast
by Bill O’Keefe Virginia has passed a law — SB 851 — requiring Dominion Energy to supply 30% percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2030 and to close all carbon-emitting power plants by 2045. According to the Energy Information Administration, natural gas fueled 53% of Virginia’s electricity net generation in 2018, nuclear…
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Is Green Hydrogen the Answer?
By Peter Galuszka Utilities, including Dominion Energy, are increasingly exploring the use of now-costly hydrogen technology to produce electricity with little or no carbon. One of the most promising uses involves using excess renewable electricity from solar farms or wind turbines to power electrolyzer devices that strip hydrogen away from oxygen in water. The hydrogen…
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If You Pay Full Price for Flood Insurance, Ask our City/County Manager Why
by James C. Sherlock There were lots of comments in my last post about government programs to mitigate flooding damage in flood plains, specifically about buying and tearing down houses that repeatedly flood. One of the carrots to do so is Community Rating System (CRS) discounts to flood insurance in communities that take an active…
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Virginia’s Return on Investment in Corps of Engineers Civil Works Projects
by James C. Sherlock In response to my suggestion to use the Corps of Engineers to assess Virginia’s needs for hurricane and flood control, libertarian commenters on this blog used the argument that only oceanfront landowners will benefit. That shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the process works. I ran into that same level of…