Category: Environment
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The New West: Leaving Richmond Behind
By Peter Galuszka This story may seem a contrarian piece when it comes to smart growth and exurban sprawl but so be it. Back in 1969, road planners in Richmond came up with an idea for a superhighway, Route 288, that would span the iconic James River and connect the far western suburban areas of…
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How North Carolina Halted a Bridge Boondoggle
by James A. Bacon Many Virginians know the agony of driving to vacation in the Outer Banks at the peak of the summer season. Heading south between Chesapeake and Kitty Hawk, you follow four-lane roads jammed with as many as 50,000 cars on Saturdays. Then, if you’re staying in Duck, Whalehead or Corolla, you have…
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An Ex-Coal Baron’s Strange Movie
By Peter Galuszka Almost four years after 29 miners employed by then Richmond-based Massey Energy were killed in a West Virginia mine explosion, its former chief executive under federal investigation for widespread safety violations has come forward with an apparently self-funded “documentary” proclaiming his innocence. Donald Blankenship released the film “Upper Big Branch, Never Again”…
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Mark Warner: Let’s Out-Gas Putin
By Peter Galuszka One way to clip the wings of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aggressive land grabs, says U.S. Sen. Mark Warner who is running for reelection, is to expedite permitting of the 20 or so proposals to export liquefied natural gas, including one by Richmond-based Dominion Resources. “Most of Europe and Ukraine…
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The Terrible Link Between Income and Longevity
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Health Care, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and EntitlementsBy Peter Galuszka Call it a tale of two Virginias. One is rich with military retirees, ample benefits and gated communities. The other is remote, poor and polluted, where the life expectancy for men is merely 64 years. The former is Fairfax County at the heart of NOVA, Virginia’s economic engine, the land of federal…
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McDonnell’s U.S. 460 Debacle
By Peter Galuszka Towards the end of his term, former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his transportation chief, Sean Connaughton, bulldozed through a dubious project that would build a superhighway from Suffolk to Petersburg along the path of old U.S. 460 in southeastern Virginia. Few understood the urgency of such a project, which involved a…
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Modern Day Sharecroppers
By Peter Galuszka One book on my to-read list is Christopher Leonard’s “The Meat Racket” which looks at how food production in this country is being absorbed by large, vertically integrated companies that combine indirect federal government support with anti-free market policies to control much of the chicken, pork and beef we eat. The book,…
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No Negative Coal Poetry, Please
By Peter Galuszka Meanwhile, over in West Virginia, the long arm of King Coal reaches over to a high school poetry reading. Grace Pitt, a Hurricane High School student, wanted to read a poem by Charleston poet Crystal Good about Richmond-based Massey Energy’s April 5, 2010, disaster at its Upper Big Branch mine that killed…
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Reinventing the Formal Garden
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden is branching out to stream reclamation and indigenous plants.
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Coal Giant Alpha Pays Biggest Water Fine Ever
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka Alpha Natural Resources of Bristol, the coal giant that took over troubled Massey Energy of Richmond in 2011, has the dubious honor paying the highest fines ever of $27.5 million for water pollution violations at its coal mining operations in five Appalachian states, including Virginia. Massey Energy, the owner of the Upper…
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Dominion Benefits As Renewables Struggle
By Peter Galuszka Dominion Virginia Power, as is its style, has achieved a quiet but far-reaching regulatory victory. The General Assembly has passed a complicated bill that would help Dominion write off costs for a new nuclear reactor while avoiding giving potential refunds or rate cuts to customers. The bill, which easily sailed through the…
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Protests Pick Up Against Bay LNG Exports
By Peter Galuszka Protests are picking up against plans to convert a liquefied natural gas shipping facility on Maryland’s western shore of the Chesapeake Bay at Cove Point so it can both export as well as import the product. The proposed, $3.8 billion project is owned by Richmond-based Dominion Resources. Four protestors were arrested today…
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McAuliffe Peruses Tobacco Commission
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Demographics, Economic development, Environment, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Science & TechnologyBy Peter Galuszka What’s going on with the Tobacco Commission? Gov. Terry McAuliffe wants to know and is asking for a detailed accounting of its finances over the past five years. The Tobacco Indemnification and Revitalization Commission, created in 1999 with a $1 billion endowment from lawsuit settlements with four major tobacco companies, has been…
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The Tragic Lessons of Kiev
By Peter Galuszka The news from Ukraine is frightening and familiar. At least 100 people have been killed in rioting in Kiev. Some were shot by Interior Ministry snipers after demanding that President Viktor Yanukovych allow new elections. The latest is that he may do just that. Like all former Soviet republics, Ukraine has been…
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Dem Billionaire Runs With Big Dogs
By Peter Galuszka A major funder of Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe plans on putting $100 million into this year’s mid-term election races to warn of the danger of climate change and beat back global warming deniers and their conservative financiers. Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund founder, plans on targeting the Florida gubernatorial race where…