Category: Infrastructure
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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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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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Striking a Balance on Municipal Broadband
by John Szczesny Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes… towards municipal broadband, that is. As officials in the Roanoke Valley move forward with plans for a municipal fiber network the state of North Carolina is busy suing the FCC to prevent its local governments from doing the same. To be fair, municipal broadband is no…
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Too Little Density, Too Much Road Surface
by James A. Bacon It goes without saying that New Jersey is dissimilar from Virginia in many ways, so it’s hazardous extrapolating conclusions from one state to the other. But a new study about New Jersey roads co-authored by Smart Growth America and New Jersey Future implies that the Old Dominion could have saved hundreds of millions…
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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…
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Environmentalist Update on Offshore Wind
by James A. Bacon Judging from comments made in a Environment Virginia-sponsored webinar held this morning, environmentalists, the McAuliffe administration and Dominion Virginia Power are operating on the same wave length when it comes to developing offshore wind power in Virginia. If environmental groups have big differences with Dominion on how to proceed, no sign of…
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How about Habitat Exchanges for the Cow Knob Salamander?
by James A. Bacon I’ve been cogitating a lot recently over the difficulty of building major infrastructure projects in Virginia that are vital to the economy yet intrude upon landowner rights and the environment. One problem, which I dubbed the “rule of firsties,” is the spreading conviction that existing landowners (the ones who got there…
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A Sign of the Coming Grid Wars
It happened in Nevada first, but it could come to Virginia eventually — the effort by major electricity consumers to bypass their local utilities and purchase power from wholesale electric markets. Three big casino companies — Wynn Resorts, MGM Resorts International and Las Vegas Sands — say they could slash millions of dollars from their electric bills…
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When Dynamic Pricing Meets Energy Storage
Other states are targeting energy storage as an industry of the future but Virginia may have the most hospitable climate for it.
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Towards a Smarter Grid
Dominion Virginia Power is using big data to increase the reliability of its electric distribution network. The result: Fewer disruptions and shorter outages for customers.
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An Intractable Dilemma
When Dominion shuts down the Yorktown Power Station, Virginia’s Peninsula will need another source of electric power. Dominion says a 500 kV transmission line over the historic James River is the the best. Conservationists disagree.
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The Slow, Inevitable Demise of Traditional Mass Transit?
by James A. Bacon The 2010s were supposed to be the era of mass transit in the Washington metropolitan region. Millenials were jettisoning their automobiles in favor of walking, biking, buses and rail. Localities were zoning for denser development around transit stops and Metro stations. State and federal governments were channeling more money into new rail projects.…
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Virginia's Maritime Future Is Now
by James A. Bacon Virginia’s maritime industry has long anticipated the arrival of the new giant, post-Panamax ships, and now they’re here — a couple of years before they were anticipated, and well before the completion of the Panama Canal expansion that is expected to release the floodgates. As the East Coast port with the deepest…