Category: Environment
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Bacon Bits on the Bay
By DJ Rippert Political action regarding the Chesapeake Bay is increasing. Here is a summary of some key issues …. Menhaden victory. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation reports, “The Virginia House and Senate have passed bipartisan legislation to transfer management of Virginia’s menhaden fisheries from the General Assembly to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC).” The…
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Finally Catching Up With Bacon’s Rebellion
It has taken a while, but the Washington Post has finally begin to catch on to what Steve Haner and others have been saying about the omnibus energy bill making its way through the General Assembly: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-democrats-push-environmental-change–but-still-in-concert-with-dominion/2020/03/01/ed0c634e-5a40-11ea-9b35-def5a027d470_story.html
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SCC Raises Estimate of Clean Energy Bill Costs
By Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission staff popped up in a House of Delegates Committee Tuesday to provide another unwelcome lecture, with revised estimates on the likely cost to Dominion Energy Virginia customers of the pending omnibus clean energy legislation. The numbers it provided to the House Labor and Commerce Committee Tuesday afternoon were…
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Getting to a Greener World with a Win-Win Agenda
by James A. Bacon Climate Change Alarmism is out of control. We’re being told that we have ten years to re-engineer the global energy economy or the world will reach a tipping point after which it will inevitably descend into an apocalyptic climate meltdown. A couple of weeks ago, the Washington Post published an article observing…
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With Friends Like These, Ratepayers in Big Trouble
By Steve Haner If your main concern is that people pay a fair price for electricity, the best outcome of Monday’s Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting would be approval of the bill changing the rules on Dominion Energy Virginia’s 2021 rate review, followed by defeat or delay of the highly touted Virginia Clean Energy…
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Moderation? Senate Holds Back House On Issues
By Steve Haner With two weeks remaining in the 2020 General Assembly session, the tendency to procrastinate (and perhaps some buyer’s remorse) has several key issues still pending. Here is an update on some previously discussed on Bacon’s Rebellion. The moderating impact of the narrow 21-19 split in the Virginia Senate, with several of those…
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Net-Zero vs. Zero Carbon
by James A. Bacon The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), an organization advocating market-based solutions to environmental issues, has taken a close look at Dominion Energy’s pledge to become a “net-zero” company by 2050. The Institute sees the company’s commitment as a positive step forward, but concludes there is less than meets the eye. Dominion’s net-zero…
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Is Carbon Capture Technology Scalable?
by Jane Twitmyer When talking about the future of Dominion Energy in a recent TV interview, Dominion Energy CEO Tom Farrell mentioned carbon sequestration as an approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the company moves toward a “zero net” carbon energy mix. In the past, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) seemed to be going…
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Energy Omnibus III: Race, Poverty and Justice
By Steve Haner Unfortunately, there is nothing new about the Virginia General Assembly passing an energy development bill which overrides the authority of the State Corporation Commission or usurps its role in planning utility resources. Where Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation breaks ground is its immersion into questions of race, poverty and…
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Energy Omnibus II: It Doesn’t Shut Gas Plants
By Steve Haner Will all of Virginia’s existing fossil fuel electric power plants be closed under Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation? As we continue our detailed examination of House Bill 1526 (with line references), the answers may surprise some. Not many of them. Not the natural gas plants. Dominion Energy Virginia has…
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Energy Omnibus: What it Does, How it Costs You
By Steve Haner The General Assembly adopted Governor Ralph Northam’s clean energy package Tuesday, with party-line votes in both the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate. Two House Democrats joined the Republicans in opposing the House version. House Bill 1526 and Senate Bill 851 appear identical but amendments were being adopted at the last minute.…
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SCC: Clean Energy Conversion’s Customer Cost
By Steve Haner In the first ten years, Governor Ralph Northam’s signature zero carbon electricity legislation will add almost 20%, about $280 per year, to typical Dominion Energy Virginia residential bills. That was the low-ball estimate Sunday from a State Corporation Commission expert who quickly discovered that shooting the messenger is the normal General Assembly…
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Deer, Cars, Wildlife Corridors… and Coyotes
by James A. Bacon Egads! Vehicle collisions with deer accounted for 61,000 traffic accidents, in Virginia in the year ending June 30, 2016, according to the Virginia Transportation Research Council. The hoofed critters contributed to one in six of all accident claims. And, judging by the number of deer carcass removals, the number of accidents…
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Cabinet Officers: Assembly Decides on Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner Thanks to the persistence of Del. Charles Poindexter, two members of Governor Ralph Northam’s cabinet are now on record stating the General Assembly will decide whether Virginia joins the carbon tax regime called the Transportation and Climate Initiative. In 2018 both of them had signed a letter endorsing the interstate compact to…
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A PIPP of an Idea: Electricity Transfer Payments
By Steve Haner Green energy advocates never tire of telling us that accomplishing their zero-carbon electricity supply will lower our costs. If so, why does their dream bill include a new income transfer entitlement program for low-income customers? It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program with a handy acronym PIPP. It first appeared…