Category: Environment
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Prince William Supervisors Demand Coal Ash Studies
Four members of the Prince William County board of supervisors appeared at a public hearing last night to express concerns about Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to pursue the “closure in place” option for disposing the coal ash at its Possum Point Power Station. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) held the hearing as part of…
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Landfill, Recycle or Close in Place?
As debate intensifies over how to dispose of coal ash, Dominion Virginia Power says it is following the same approach as many other utilities: closing the coal ash ponds in place. Environmentalists want to hold Dominion to a higher standard set by other utilities in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, where many are recycling and landfilling…
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Collaborate to Increase Virginia’s Energy Options
by Joy Loving Several posts on Bacon’s Rebellion have caught my eye in recent weeks. In one, Jim Bacon noted that “[m]arket forces are shifting dramatically in favor of clean energy.” He suggested that “clean power advocates need to back entrepreneurial, market-driven solutions.” In another, he told readers: “Half the Fortune 500 companies have committed to reducing…
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Converting Coal Mines into Pumped Storage
Perhaps the most intriguing idea in the renewable-energy package promoted by General Assembly Republicans (see previous post) is the idea of converting abandoned coal mines into pumped storage generating units. Dominion Virginia Power operates a pumped storage facility in Bath County. The facility has two reservoirs. During periods of high demand when the price of…
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Pro-Solar Tweaks Advance in General Assembly
As the General Assembly reaches the mid-point of its session, solar-energy legislation sponsored by Republicans has a very good chance of passing, reports Robert Zullo with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The proposals emerged from lengthy discussions in a working group of Virginia’s electric utilities, electric cooperatives, and solar industry proponents. While the package is “a mixed…
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Is Recycling a Practical Solution for Coal Ash?
State Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, represents homeowners living near Dominion Virginia Power’s Possum Point Power Station, which is in the process of disposing of millions of cubic yards of coal ash accumulated over the years. The coal combustion residue, he told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources this afternoon, is a “booming,…
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Keep the Politicians Honest, Too
“Keep the big boys honest,” was the campaign tag-line of populist “Howlin” Henry Howell when he very nearly won his bid for the governorship in 1973. By “big boys,” he was referring to executives of VEPCO, a predecessor company to Dominion Virginia Power. Four decades later, it appears that Howell’s rhetoric is coming back in…
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Clash over Rate Freeze Shifts to Va. Supreme Court
Earlier this week, the Virginia Senate shut down a bid by Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, to revoke the rate freeze on Dominion Virginia Power’s and Appalachian Power’s electricity rates. But the battle over electric rates is far from over. The contest now moves to the Virginia Supreme Court. Today is the deadline for foes to…
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Justification for Electricity Rate Freeze Melting?
Is it time to reverse the rate freeze on electricity rates in Virginia? If President-elect Donald Trump revokes the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, author of SB 1095, thinks it would be. Two years ago, no one knew what to make of the Clean Power Plan, an Environmental Protection Agency initiative…
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Norfolk Naval’s Investment in “Energy Security”
Let me set the scene for this post. A year ago I wrote about Naval Station Norfolk’s deal to purchase enough solar electricity through Dominion Virginia Power to meet 6% of its electricity needs over the next ten years. The transaction advanced the U.S. Navy’s goal of deriving at least 50% of shore-based energy from alternative…
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Crunching the Numbers on Dominion Virginia Power
Dominion Virginia Power has just released a press release touting three numbers it wants the public to know: Customers have experienced on average a 10 percent improvement in electric power reliability since 2011. The company’s new Brunswick County Power Station will lower costs by $1.5 billion. Dominion has reduced the carbon-intensity rating of its generation…
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Chesapeake Bay: Still Troubled but Improving
The health of the Chesapeake Bay has improved again this year, showing gains in nine of 13 indicators, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s biennial State of the Bay report. “While Virginia and Maryland are largely on track to achieve their 2017 mid-term goals of 60 percent of practices in place, Pennsylvania is significantly behind,…
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FERC Finds Pipeline Impact “Less than Significant”
FERC’s pipeline impact study says proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline will have minimal lasting effects on the environment. Dominion claims the study confirms it can build the pipeline while protecting the environment and public safety. Foes contend the study ducks the question whether the pipeline is a public necessity that justifies the use of eminent domain to acquire rights of…
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True Confessions: I Am Dr. Evil
I can reveal the truth at last. I, Jim Bacon, posing for years as publisher of the Bacon’s Rebellion blog, am in fact Dr. Evil. I have long hidden my identity in the hope of furthering my insidious aims. A few readers may have long suspected my secret identity — LarrytheG and PeterG have bumbled perilously…
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Environmentalists Oppose Apco’s Green Tariff
Appalachian Power Company’s proposal to offer a special green-power tariff (which I covered here) has run into heavy resistance from environmentalists on the grounds that (1) it would be expensive and (2) it would prohibit competition in Apco’s service territory. Jim Pieroban explores the controversy in Southeast Energy News. The proposed tariff, Apco spokesman John Shepelwich…