Category: General Assembly
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Batting Zero on Virginia Energy Policy Reset
by Steve Haner One year later, a series of energy policy goals for Virginia proposed by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy remains just as valid and also remain unaccomplished. Gridlock has favored the flawed status quo. Compared to a year ago, more Virginians have awakened to the reality that they will soon be…
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Virginia Should Enforce Threat Assessment Laws. Noting Lack of Compliance Not Enough.
by James C. Sherlock I have written about the Threat Assessment Teams (TAT’s) of two state universities, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. I assessed Tech to be compliant with state law. I reported that UVa is not. That of course raises the issue of the rest of Virginia’s colleges and universities. The Virginia…
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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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SCC’s Jagdmann Resigns, Leaves December 31
by Steve Haner The (Very) Honorable Judith Jagdmann has resigned from Virginia’s State Corporation Commission, effective at the end of the year. The 2023 General Assembly now has two seats to fill on that crucial body, having failed through all of 2022 to fill an existing vacancy on the three-judge panel. Jagdmann, who joined the…
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JLARC Agrees: Index Virginia Taxes to Inflation
by Barbara Hollingsworth Inflation is eroding the value of each dollar earned by Virginians, making it harder for them to afford decent housing, put food on the table and educate their children. But what many Virginians don’t know is that they have also been paying more in state income taxes while their real income has…
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Virginia Needs to Adopt the Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking
by James C. Sherlock Seldom can we mitigate bad problems with solutions that work and are handed us on a platter. But we can do that in Virginia in the case of human trafficking. The Department of Justice defines human trafficking as follows: Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, is a crime that…
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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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Ungrateful Citizens of Fairfax County
by James C. Sherlock Jeff McKay, Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, can’t catch a break. Violent crime is up. The Fairfax County Police Chief has declared a police emergency for staffing. There has been a fairly brutal back and forth up there about who is responsible and who is or is not…
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Physicians, Hospitals and Gender Dysphoria in Minors- Fundamental Disputes
By James C. Sherlock What about the doctors in this controversy? What about hospital and state oversight? What do laws and regulations require and on what are they silent? We’ll look. The dispute among physicians on the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is primarily an ethical one. They agree on the diagnosis and some…
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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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“Puberty Blockers Are Wonderful” – UVa Children’s Hospital
by James C. Sherlock How do people communicate? Generally by words and visuals and, in person, with body language. The art and science of marketing and sales is one of the bulwarks of any economy — and any political system. My article on the hard selling of hormone treatments — puberty blockers and cross-gender use…
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Some Things Never Change
I am reading a recent biography of Patrick Henry and I came across a quote that just begs to be shared on this blog. One of Henry’s neighbors and friends in 1759 was Thomas Johnson, a member of the House of Burgesses from Louisa County. In the journal of the House, Johnson is recorded as…
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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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Next Virginia Tax Reform: Index for Inflation
by Barbara Hollingsworth Most Virginians are painfully aware that it’s becoming much more difficult to make ends meet. Prices for food, housing, gasoline and other necessities have soared. Inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June, the largest yearly increase since January 1982. And a recent study from the University of Iowa found…
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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…