Category: Environment
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SCC Urged To Focus on Wind Construction Risk
by Steve Haner Advocates made their case Monday for a proposed settlement that offers Virginia consumers some protection from construction cost overruns on Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed offshore wind project. Not everybody said it was superior to an earlier proposal that protected consumers from future operational failures, but all saw it as unlikely to kill…
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East Coast Ocean Wind Projects Faltering
by Steve Haner In recent days several proposed offshore wind projects, which unlike Virginia’s are not guaranteed by captive ratepayers, are showing cracks in their pylons. Multinational developer Avangrid recently told Massachusetts regulators that its proposed 1.2 gigawatt Commonwealth Wind project is no longer economically viable. It seems to be seeking to renegotiate the power…
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Miyares Retreats from Wind Performance Standard
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The big risk with Dominion Energy Virginia’s planned offshore wind extravaganza has always been that either the wind out in the Atlantic blows too little or it blows too much. Too little and the ratepayers are paying an inordinate amount…
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Good Energy Plan But It Needs to Pass
by Steve Haner First published this morning by Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. In his newly released energy plan, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) makes it clear he sees the economic abyss created by the unrealistic and ideological green utopia demanded by his predecessor. Seeing a looming disaster and stopping it are two different things.…
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Solar Farms Trump Environmental Justice in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Virginia is a solar energy boom state. The Commonwealth ranked 4th in total generating capacity of new solar installations in 2020. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in 2021 ranked Virginia 6th nationally for projected growth in solar capacity over the next 5 years. The left is consumed by concern for…
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Progressive Initiatives in Virginia to be Blocked by Environmental Laws?
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes we are too clever for our own good. American environmentalists have been hugely successful and have done a great deal of good. We have them to thank for cleaner water and air. But traditional environmentalists, supported by legal interests, incorporated two features in America’s environmental laws that may prove as…
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Legislators MIA on Wind Performance Standard
by Steve Haner In the ongoing debate over Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed $10 billion offshore wind project, focus should remain on the people truly responsible for undercutting State Corporation Commission authority to protect consumers: the legislators who passed provisions in the code the utility interprets as a rubber stamp for its proposals.
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Coalition Exploring Lawsuit to Challenge CVOW
The following news release has been issued by the Thomas Jefferson Institute along with other coalition partners. A coalition of public interest groups – The Heartland Institute, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), and the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP) – announced in late September that it has hired counsel to explore a…
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The Greens, Their Quiet Partners, and Trains
by James C. Sherlock I love trains. Always have. Took my first train ride at a very young age with my mother and brother from D.C. to Birmingham to visit mom’s family. After the Navy, my private sector work was based in McLean. I had regular business in New York I took Amtrak whenever feasible.…
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Dominion is Keeping Whale Data Secret, Too
by David Wojick Secrecy abounds around the monster offshore wind (OSW) project proposed by Dominion Energy. In this case the hidden data is about the threat to the severely endangered North Atlantic Right Whales. I earlier reported on the big hidden whale study done by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is doing…
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Sinking the Newest Sea Level Rise Exaggerations
by Steve Haner So, let me get this straight. If we willingly keep paying the carbon tax on our electric bills, then thousands of parcels of prime Virginia waterfront won’t slip beneath the waves? Was that the point of these parallel prophecies of doom in the September 12 Richmond Times-Dispatch and Virginia Mercury?
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SCC Can Set CVOW Wind Performance Standard
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Despite Dominion Energy Virginia’s complaints that the Virginia State Corporation Commission has exceeded its authority, a legal analysis provided by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy finds that the SCC’s proposed performance standard for an offshore wind project is…
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Consequences of the Zero Carbon Fantasy
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginians may finally be waking up to the consequences of the headlong rush to adopt utopian energy policies under our previous governor. The issues are getting more attention than ever before, and now people need to realize that all the…
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When Politicians Run Power Companies
by Steve Haner Residential customers of Dominion Energy Virginia will soon be paying 55% more for electricity than they were when the Virginia General Assembly took over micromanaging utility regulation in 2007. The Western Virginia customers of Appalachian Power will have seen their electric bills rise by 92%. Underlying inflation for the period has been…
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Secret Wind Case Documents Are Key to Appeal
by Steve Haner Now comes applicant Dominion Energy Virginia, petitioning the Virginia State Corporation Commission to reverse its recent decision to impose actual financial risk on the company and its stockholders. If a hurricane blows down its planned offshore wind farm in a few years, the related costs should be imposed 100% on its captive…