Category: Environment
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The Failed Mountain “Decapitation” Narrative
Environmentalists say the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will “decapitate” pristine mountaintops in western Virginia. They have no evidence to back the claim. Last week foes of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) leveled their most rhetorically heated charges against the 600-mile pipeline project yet. Construction teams would have to excavate some 247,000 dump-truck loads of rock and…
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Reusing the Reusens Hydro Dam: A Tax-Driven Deal?
Appalachian Power Co. (Apco) has sold the Reusens hydroelectric dam on the James River near Lynchburg to Eagle Creek Renewable Energy LLC for an undisclosed price, according to press accounts. Apco started generating electricity at the dam in 1903 and stopped in 2011. “Over the past few years, the five generators and other equipment at Reusens began…
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Dominion Sings New Tune, Embraces Solar
Dominion expects to install up to 5,200 megawatts of solar generating capacity by 2042 — about thirteen times its current commitment and enough to power 1.3 million homes — according to forecasts contained in its 2017 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). That represents a dramatic shift from forecasts in previous versions of the long-range planning document, which is filed…
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Follow Ups: Fracking and Taxes
Frack me a river. A week ago, I noted how American Rivers had designated the Rappahannock River the fifth “most endangered” river in the United States on the grounds that the gas industry was showing interest in drilling in the Taylorsville shale basin beneath the river. Environmentalists claim that fracking is a hazard to drinking…
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Widgeon Grass, another Chesapeake Success Story
Spurred by a tripling of widgeon grass, the acreage of underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay grew 8% between 2015 and 2016 to about 97,000 acres. The expanse, which exceeds the 2017 restoration goals set under the Chesapeake Bay program, was the highest recorded by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in 30 years of measurements,…
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Eco-City Alexandria Kvetches about Accelerated Potomac Cleanup
The City of Alexandria bills itself as an “eco-city.” In 2007, it published a “green-ventory” of environmental plans, policies and programs. In 2008, the city adopted an “eco-charter.” Since then, the city has launched initiatives to tackle invasive plants, expand the regional BikeShare program, bolster transit bus service, weatherize apartments of low-income Alexandrians, design LEED-certified city…
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Pipeline Approaches Approval, but Foes Still Full of Fight
From the perspective of its managing partner, Dominion Transmission, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is looking more and more like a done deal. Dominion has completed more than 65% of the high-performance steel pipe needed to build the roughly 600-mile pipeline, and it has procured almost 85% of the land, materials and services it needs, pipeline…
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Rappahannock Water Quality Endangered by Fracking?
American Rivers has listed the Rappahannock River as the fifth “most endangered” river in the United States. The environmental group claims the river is threatened by industry interest in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in the Taylorsville Basin lying thousands of feet beneath the river. The quality of drinking water of three million people in eastern Virginia are…
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A Brain-Frying Foray into the Regulatory Maze
OK, folks, it is time to plunge into the arcana of environmental regulation. The subject matter might prove of interest if you’ve been tracking the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) controversies, especially if you’re deeply immersed enough to be familiar with the dust-up over seemingly contradictory press releases issued by the Virginia…
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What’s Next for the Pipeline Controversies?
With the announcement last week that Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) would provide closer scrutiny of water-quality standards than legally required, battles over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline shift from the federal level to the states. Foes of the natural gas pipelines have failed so far to block the projects in the…
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A Good Year for Retail Solar in Virginia
A collaborative process involving utilities, solar developers and environmentalists broke the legislative logjam thwarting the growth of retail solar in Virginia. A new law will enable electric customers to subscribe to green electricity built by independent developers. The same process will be used to tackle tough issues like net metering. So, you want to help…
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Property Tax Assessments Could Sabotage Virginia’s Solar Industry
A quirk in the way the state treats the value of solar energy projects for tax purposes could throttle Virginia’s solar industry in its infancy, according to an analysis prepared by SolUnesco, a Reston-based developer of solar energy projects. In theory, a major investment in solar energy should benefit the jurisdiction where the project is located…
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Will NIMBYs Thwart SolUnesco Solar Plan?
Not all barriers to solar energy emanate from Richmond. Take Albemarle County, for example. The county zoning code outlaws solar farms, we learn from Charlottesville Tomorrow. “The current zoning ordinance allows for the transmission and distribution of energy, but not the generation of energy,” said county planner Margaret Maliszewski at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The issue arose…
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The Right Way to Test for Coal Ash Contaminants
So, it looks like the there will be a pause in the solid-waste permitting process for Virginia coal ash. Governor Terry McAuliffe had submitted an amendment to legislation that, if approved, would require Dominion Virginia Power to compile more information on contamination around its coal ash sites and study alternative closure methods before the state issues…
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Electric Reliability and Energy Mix
Electric utilities in the 13-state PJM Interconnection regional transmission territory have a balanced resource mix — coal, nuclear, gas and renewables — that is “well equipped” to support reliable operation of the regional grid, PJM has found in a new report, “PJM’s Evolving Resource Mix and System Reliability.” But continued evolution of the resource mix —…