Category: Money in politics
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Time For a Fossil Fuel Reality Check
By Peter Galuszka Let’s pause for a moment, catch our breath and realize what is really going on in the world of fossil fuel and climate change. We’ve heard tons of loosely-based opinion from climate change deniers and drum beaters for the “War on Coal” crowd. Here are two recent news items: Coal baron Robert…
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Film Rips Climate Change Deniers
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka A just-released documentary “Merchants of Doubt” seems tailor-made for the readers of Bacons Rebellion. The film by Robert Kenner explores the profession of doubting climate change in which the energy industry quietly hires “scientists” to debunk the idea that carbon dioxide emissions are creating global warming that could have catastrophic consequences. The…
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Why Clean Energy Will Be Cheaper
By Peter Galuszka The Sturm und Drang to which utility executives, coal companies and politicians have subjected Virginians as they oppose President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon emissions has always been a deliberate distraction from what’s really happening. According to them and their confederates at the State Corporation Commission and the state…
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Another Russian Reformer Murdered
By Peter Galuszka It was a personal shocker to read of the murder in Moscow of Russian reformer Boris Nemtsov, the latest in a long string of killings related to the tragic fight for change in that country. Nemtsov was gunned down Friday in a drive-by shooting as he walked across Moskvoretsky Bridge a short…
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Closely Watched Trains?
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka The small town of Pembroke in southwest Virginia is used to seeing endlessly long unit trains of coal cars rumbling past. But last week, it got an unexpected surprise – trains of similar length hauling crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken fields started going by. According to Reuters, Pembroke is one of…
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The McDonnell Saga Is Far From Over
By Peter Galuszka Former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell has been sentenced to 12 months and a day in federal prison, but the GiftGate saga is far from over. She will appeal as has her husband, former Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, who was sentenced to two years in prison last month. The now estranged couple was…
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Propping Up Coal at the Taxpayers’ Expense
By Peter Galuszka It’s always curious when big business and their bankrolled politicians complain about how the government and its regulations stymie the “magic of the free market.” Then they turn around and keep protectionist policies that give certain industries big favors such as tax credits. That’s what the General Assembly has done with a…
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Why Hide Details of Lethal Injection?
By Peter Galuszka It has to be one of the creepiest bills ever considered by the General Assembly. Senate Bill 1393, sponsored by Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax), would drop a veil of secrecy over how Virginia executes prisoners by lethal injection. Its backers, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, are pushing it against a backdrop of global…
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In Politics: “Cherchez la femme?”
By Peter Galuszka The two governors couldn’t seem more different. One is a popular progressive who dressed in an “urban cowboy” style of boots, jeans and down jacket and ran a state as green as a rain forest. The other favored Joseph A. Banks suits and helmet hair-dos while pushing a “God, Mom and Apple…
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Dominion Resources Is on a Tear
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in Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Dominion Resources has been on a tear recently. It’s been muscling through a dubious law in the General Assembly that would allow it to avoid State Corporation Commission rate audits for six years. And, it has been throwing its weight around in less populated sections of the state. It is suing to…
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Dominion’s Strange Ploy to Avoid Audits
By Peter Galuszka Dominion Virginia Power appears to be getting its way with strange legislation to freeze its rates and avoid regulatory audits for the next six years. The state senate will hold hearings today on a bill that would cancel biennial rate reviews by the State Corporation Commission to 2020. Dominion’s rates will be…
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The Many Problems of Offshore Drilling
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Property rights, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Almost five years after the infamous Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama has again proposed opening tracts offshore of Virginia and the southeastern U.S. coast to oil and natural gas drilling. The plan poses big risks for what may be little gain. Federal surveys show there could…
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The Importance of “Selma”
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in Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Economic development, Electoral process, Government workers and pensions, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka “Selma” is one of those fairly rare films that underline a crucial time and place in history while thrusting important issues forward to the present day. Ably directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie depicts the fight for the Voting Rights Act culminating in the dramatic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in…
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The Real “War on Coal”
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in Business and Economy, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Over in West Virginia, some things never seem to change. Families of the 29 miners killed on April 5, 2010 at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch are asking a federal judge to lift her gag order so they can testify before West Virginia legislators considering tougher rules that would make it easier…
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Interview: McAuliffe’s Economic Goals
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in Business and Economy, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Transportation, Uncategorized, Water-waste waterBy Peter Galuszka For a glimpse of where the administration of Gov. Terry McAuliffe is heading, here’s an interview I did with Maurice Jones, the secretary of commerce and trade that was published in Richmond’s Style Weekly. Jones, a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and University of Virginia law, is a former Rhodes Scholar who had…