Category: Environment
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ODEC Goes Solar
by James A. Bacon The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) has joined Virginia’s solar club, awarding 25-year contracts to deliver 30 megawatts of electric output from solar power plants in Northampton County and Clarke County. Hecate Energy, a developer of renewable energy projects based in Nashville, Tenn., will build and operate the facilities. “Adding clean solar…
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Radiation, Hormesis and Nuclear Power
by James A. Bacon I belong to a generation that grew up with a fear of nuclear war, fall-out and slow, agonizing death by radiation poisoning. We’d seen the horrors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We lived through the scare of Three Mile Island and, years later, had our fears reinforced by catastrophes at Chernobyl and Fukushima.…
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Do Nukes Have a Long-Term Future in Virginia?
by James A. Bacon With little fanfare two weeks ago, Dominion Virginia Power announced its intention to extend the life of its two nuclear units at the Surry Power Station for another 20 years. Commencing service in 1972 and 1973 respectively, the units are licensed to continue operating through 2032 and 2033. “Over the next several years,…
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Cycling Rolls through Chesterfield, but Will it Reach the Finish Line?
By John Szczesny It’s official, maybe: 360 new miles of bike paths and trails in Chesterfield County. Whether the plan endorsed this week by the Board of Supervisors in a 3-2 vote ever gets funded (and built) remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt cycling advocates scored a big victory. Given county staff’s initial…
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Lots of Sunlight, Not Much Transparency
by James A. Bacon Two months ago the Department of Navy announced the signing of a contract with Dominion Virginia Power to purchase enough solar electricity to meet 6% of Naval Station Norfolk’s electric power needs for more than 10 years. The next day, Dominion announced the purchase the Morgans Corner Solar Facility, located within Dominion’s North Carolina…
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Battle Lines Forming Over Clean Power Plan
The partisan battle lines are forming over the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, which calls for Virginia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from state power plants 32% by 2030. Attorney General Mark R. Herring, a Democrat, announced two weeks ago that Virginia will join a coalition of 17 other states supporting the Obama…
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Dominion Acquires Accomack Solar Plant
by James A. Bacon Dominion Energy, an unregulated subsidiary of Dominion Resources, announced today that it will acquire a planned 80-megawatt solar facility on the Eastern Shore for an undisclosed price. The solar plant, the largest yet announced in Virginia, will supply Amazon Web Services data centers in Northern Virginia. Dominion is purchasing the project from…
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Could the Clean Power Plan Double Virginia’s Electric Rates?
by James A. Bacon The Clean Power Plan for reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the nation’s electric power plants could drive up Virginia’s electric rates by as much as 14% per year (non-compounded) on average between 2022 and 2033, according to a new report published by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). The worst…
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Putting Easements to the Test
As gas and electric companies propose dozens of pipeline and transmission-line projects in Virginia, landowners are finding their conservation easements don’t provide as much protection as they thought.
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If You Like Wind and Solar, You’d Better Like Transmission Lines, Too
by James A. Bacon Wind and solar power are becoming increasingly competitive with fossil fuels and nuclear as an electric power source. As Virginia integrates more renewable energy sources into its electric generation mix, a big question is how much can the power grid handle before the intermittent nature of blowing winds and sunny skies threatens…
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“Cultural Attachment” the Latest Barrier to Infrastructure Projects?
by James A. Bacon Landowner and environmentalist groups have advanced a number of arguments against building more gas pipelines (see previous post), but among the more novel is the idea that the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) will disrupt the “cultural attachment” rural landowners feel for the land that would be traversed. What foes are contending here is…
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Pipeline Foes Appeal to FERC
by James A. Bacon A coalition of pipeline opponents has called upon the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to conduct a comprehensive review of the need for four natural gas pipelines running through Virginia rather than reviewing them on their individual merits. The coalition, which includes numerous environmental and landowner groups, was joined by two Virginia state…
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How Much Is It Worth to Preserve Dominion’s Nuclear Option?
by James A. Bacon Perhaps the biggest question facing Virginia as it implements the Clean Power Plan, which mandates a 37% reduction in CO2 emissions from Virginia power plants by 2030, is what fuel mix to rely upon. Compelled to cut coal use sharply, Virginia’s power companies effectively have a choice of natural gas, nuclear and…
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Wind Power in Virginia… 2017 or Bust
by James A. Bacon Investors have been trying without success for nearly a decade to build wind turbines along the ridge lines of Virginia’s mountains. Projects have bogged down amid concerns about noise generated by thrumming blades, the slaughter of birds and bats, and the imposition of 500-foot-high machines upon neighbors’ pristine views. While wind turbines have sprouted around the country…
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Woolly Headed Thinking about Transportation
by James A. Bacon Virginia Beach’s ongoing debate over light rail is emblematic of everything that is wrong with Virginia’s system for determining which transportation projects get built. While the Virginia Department of Transportation is implementing a mechanism for ranking road and highway projects, there is no mechanism for ascertaining the proper balance between roads/highways and…