Category: Environment
-
Avoiding Blackouts with a Remedial Action Scheme
Two years ago Dominion Virginia Power warned of dire consequences to the Virginia Peninsula if the company could not build a 500 kV transmission line across the James River. An analysis prepared by engineering consulting firm Stantec and submitted to the U.S. Corps of Engineers left little to the imagination: Dominion will be required to implement…
-
Time to Panic Over the Closing of Yorktown Units? In a Word… No
The day, April 15, is fast approaching when Dominion Virginia Power will be compelled by federal regulations to shut down two coal-fired generating units at the Yorktown Power Station, exposing the Virginia Peninsula to the risk of blackouts. When the Yorktown units are shuttered, the utility will have enough electric power to supply the half…
-
Chesapeake Coal Ash Ruling — Advantage Dominion
My initial reaction to Judge John A. Gibney Jr.’s ruling in Virginia’s first coal ash-related federal court case was to call it a draw. As I blogged yesterday, both the Sierra Club and Dominion Virginia Power found aspects of the judge’s order that supported their positions. But as I sort through the implications for the ongoing…
-
Dominion, SELC Spin Coal Ash Ruling as Victory
Dominion Virginia Power and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) are both declaring victory after a ruling by a federal judge regarding Dominion’s disposal of coal ash at its retired Chesapeake Energy Center. U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney ruled today that the coal ash ponds are contaminating the Elizabeth River with arsenic and…
-
Fix the Broken Regulatory Process
There must be a better way for federal agencies to review infrastructure mega-projects. A few days ago, I asked why, after three-and-a-half years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has yet to give a yea or nay on Dominion Virginia Power’s permit request for the Surry-Skiffes Creek transmission line. The issue I’m raising isn’t what the Army…
-
The Saga of HB 1774 — Recurrent Flooding and Flooded Roads
by Carol J. Bova HB 1774 was written to address rural stormwater issues and amended to study stormwater management practices in rural Virginia highway ditches. Why, then, does the bill direct the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency, a group formed to help Virginia adapt to recurrent flooding and sea-level rise, to direct the study? The Commonwealth Center…
-
Virginia’s Infrastructure Deficit
I have often opined on Virginia’s hidden deficits — fiscal time bombs in the form of budgetary gimmicks, pension under-funding, and deferred infrastructure maintenance. These problems are national in scope, and Virginia has been somewhat less derelict in its duty than other states, but sooner or later the Old Dominion will have an ugly confrontation.…
-
Has Rate Freeze Benefited Virginia Customers?
Are the electric power companies ripping off rate payers under the guise of a rate freeze? Some think so. The electric utility industry came under fire during the 2017 General Assembly session when Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, submitted a bill to un-do the freeze in base electric rates enacted in the 2015 session. Although his bill…
-
Following the Least-Cost Pathway to CO2 Cuts
Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased steadily as China, India and other countries bring new coal-powered electric plants online, but the United States has bucked the trend. In the U.S. electric power sector, CO2 emissions declined 20% between 2007 and 2015. One might think that California, which is re-restructuring its electric power system to reduce carbon…
-
The Saga of HB 1774 — Starting Over
By Carol J. Bova In the second part of this series, I described how the General Assembly recognized intrinsic problems in HB 1774, a bill designed to remedy deficiencies in stormwater legislation enacted in 2016 and scheduled to go into effect July 1 this year. But instead of killing the bill, legislators passed a substitute. That…
-
Tracking California’s Grand Experiment with Solar
California is leading the nation’s transition from fossil fuels and nukes to renewable fuels, mostly solar power. The Golden State’s aggressive investment in solar energy has created such a glut of daytime electricity that solar wholesale prices literally drops to zero and such a shortage during the night that real-time prices surge as high as…
-
At Last, a Wind Farm Virginia Can Call Its Own
It looks like Virginia soon will have its first commercial wind farm. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has approved plans to build 25 giant turbines on a ridgeline in Botetourt County. Critical to the approval was an agreement by Charlottesville-based Apex Clean Energy to turn off turbines at its Rocky Forge site during warm,…
-
Will “Home Grown” Renewables Spur Virginia’s Economy?
Walton Shepherd, a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), has made an economic-development argument for renewable energy sources over natural gas in Virginia’s energy policy. Sandy Hausman with WVTF Public Radio quotes him as follows: Renewable energy and energy efficiency are basically homegrown resources. If Virginia wants to produce its own power and not…
-
The Saga of HB 1774 — Rural Growth, Stormwater Credits
By Carol J. Bova Virginia’s part-time legislators saw 3,168 bills introduced in the 2017 General Assembly session according to the Richmond Sunlight website. Inundated with such a volume of legislation, overworked part-time lawmakers are hard-pressed to grind through complex issues. In such circumstances, speeding bills through the legislature can lead to bad law. And that appears to have…
-
The Saga of HB 1774 — Bills and Buzzwords
By Carol J. Bova Virginia legislation usually follows a logical pattern in which bills lay out what they intend to do and the means by which their goals will be accomplished. This series looks at one bill introduced in the 2017 General Assembly session that missed the mark, morphing into a substitute bill that passed…