Category: Environment
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Less Hysteria in the Coal Ash Debate, Please
by James A. Bacon Yeah, I have a problem — a big problem — when people like Marion Kanour, an Episcopal priest from Nelson County and a member of the Knitting Nannas of Virginia, are quoted uncritically in newspaper articles like today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch coverage of an environmental protest. Referring to treated coal-ash wastewater released…
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Where the Grass Is Always Greener…
The abundance of underwater grass in the Chesapeake Bay rebounded 21% between 2014 and 2015, reaching the largest extent in more than 30 years of aerial mapping by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and surpassing the Chesapeake Bay program’s 2017 restoration goals two years ahead of schedule. Aerial imagery revealed a total of…
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Report Outlines Gas Pipeline Risks to Rate Payers
by James A. Bacon The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), designed to bring low-price natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale fields to Virginia and North Carolina, pose significant risks to electric utility rate payers and landowners along their routes, argues a new study, “Risks Associated with Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion…
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Treated Coal Ash Water Flows Today
by James A. Bacon After months of controversy, Dominion Virginia Power will start draining today more than 200 million gallons of water from its coal ash ponds at the Bremo Power Station. “We’re treating to levels that will be fully protective of the river,” Jason Williams, the environmental manager in charge of the project, told a…
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Clap Your Claws for the Blue Crab
The Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population has rebounded to 554 million, a 35% increase from last year, and the best year since 2012, reports the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star. The blue crab population is a key metric of the health of the bay ecosystem. The number of female spawners numbers an estimated 194 million, shy of…
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Eb Tide for Bay Pollution
Measures enacted since 2009 to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment have driven down the level of pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay, according to computer simulations by the Chesapeake Bay Program, a partnership of federal and state agencies and not-for-profits dedicated to cleaning up the bay. The results between 2009 and 2015: nitrogen down 8%, phosphorus down…
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Once in Four Lifetimes
The conservative assumptions behind Virginia water-discharge permits, says DEQ, reduce the odds of harming aquatic wildlife to fewer than three incidents in a thousand years. by James A. Bacon Earlier this year Dominion Virginia Power was granted permits to drain water from coal ash ponds at its Bremo and Possum Point power stations, treat the water to remove heavy metals,…
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Coal’s Messy End Game
by James A. Bacon The U.S. coal industry is in collapse. Market forces in the form of cheap, abundant natural gas have put coal at a huge competitive disadvantage while environmental initiatives have gutted demand by compelling the shutdown of coal-fired power plants not worth retrofitting with scrubbers. Earlier this week Peabody Energy, the largest coal producer in…
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No Consensus on Clean Power Plan, but McAuliffe Cutting CO2 Emissions by Other Means
After five meetings of stakeholders to discuss the best way to implement the Clean Power Plan, “there is no consensus” on how to proceed, said David K. Paylor, director of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality earlier today. “What works for some people doesn’t work for others.” On the positive side, it looks like Virginia may…
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Coal Ash Mishmash
Dominion has narrowed its differences with environmental groups over how to dispose of coal ash, but the conflict is not easily resolved, and uncertainty about the final outcome prevails. by James A. Bacon Dominion Virginia Power has settled disagreements with two foes over its plans to discharge coal ash wastewater from its Possum Point and Bremo power…
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Hysteria Level Rising over Coal Ash
The debate over coal ash disposal is reaching a hysterical pitch as leftist groups peddle gross inaccuracies in “education” sessions to ignorant audiences not equipped to sift fact from fiction. An example comes from a Tuesday “teach in” hosted by Divest U.Va. and the Virginia Student Environmental Coalition, which was reported uncritically by the Cavalier Daily: “Coal ash…
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Dominion OK with Clean Power Plan
Dominion Virginia Power filed an amicus brief Friday in the national lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan arguing that “compliance is feasible.” While the brief wasn’t a full-throated endorsement of the Obama administration plan, Dominion, parent company of Dominion Virginia Power, did not join opponents in trying to derail it. The lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality…
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SCC Approves Greensville Gas Plant
by James A. Bacon The State Corporation Commission (SCC) approved yesterday Dominion Virginia Power’s filing to build a $1.3 billion natural gas-powered power station in Greensville County. The power station will generate 1,588 megawatts of electricity, upping Dominion’s reliance on natural gas to 39% of its energy mix by 2020. Construction, expected to begin later this…
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Riverkeepers, Dominion Spar Over Year-Old Release of Coal Ash Water
by James A. Bacon The Dumfries Town Council is still calling for a criminal investigation into Dominion Virginia Power’s release of untreated coal ash water into Quantico Creek last spring, reports InsideNova. After a presentation by the Potomac Riverkeeper Network March 1, the council voted unanimously to ask the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to look into…
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Turning Sea Level Rise into a Competitive Economic Advantage
by James A. Bacon To hear Henry R. “Speaker” Pollard describe all the economic risks associated with rising sea levels in Hampton Roads — soaring insurance rates, higher financing costs, declining property values, disruption to business — one might be forgiven for wondering why any business would ever want to consider investing there. “It’s easy…