Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Virginia Should Regulate Healthcare Monopolies as Public Utilities
by James C. Sherlock I am a capitalist, but we haven’t had capitalism in the healthcare market in Virginia since the Certificate of Public Need (COPN) made its way into the Code of Virginia in 1968. If we repealed COPN today, we’d still be left with the monopolies it has created and protected. All that…
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More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About the Regulatory Process in Virginia
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been a fair amount of general discussion on this blog lately about promulgating or repealing regulations in Virginia. As a recent post of Steve Haner indicates, the regulatory process also figures prominently in bills being introduced in the current General Assembly. To help inform this and future discussions, the following…
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Infrastructure Bill, Meet Richmond’s United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
by James C. Sherlock The President and members of Congress have celebrated the enactment of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act into law. In Virginia and the other states (Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia) of the federal Fourth Circuit, good luck with that. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit just published two…
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COPN’s Regional Monopolies Helped Boost Virginia Hospitals’ Operating Margins to more than 3x National Median in 2020
by James C. Sherlock Virginians have been assured forever by the hospital lobby that the non-profit regional monopolies established and protected by COPN nearly everywhere but Richmond: are benign public servants with a charitable mission; certainly don’t drive up costs; that competition does not matter; that the State Medical Facilities Plan on which COPN is…
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Weather Writer/Climate Warrior Defends RGGI Tax
by Steve Haner The Richmond Times-Dispatch weather reporter has entered the political debate over Governor Glenn Youngkin’s efforts to exit the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). But is he really a weather reporter, or a climate warrior? Sean Sublette’s on-line report on RGGI is packaged as a simple recitation of facts, but it is the…
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Bills Reversing Green New Deal Advance, Stutter
by Steve Haner “To say that an electric stove is as good as a gas one is misunderstanding the art of cooking.” That line was used by a restaurant industry lobbyist February 3 in a House of Delegates committee debate on a bill seeking to protect the use of natural gas in Virginia homes and…
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Energy Reform Bills Due for Decisions Soon
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The highest priority on a Virginia energy reform agenda proposed a few weeks ago was restoring State Corporation Commission oversight over decisions on massive renewable energy investments. Under current law, the General Assembly has basically dictated billions of dollars in such…
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Poll: Bipartisan Support for Scholarship Tax Break
by Chris Braunlich The following was issued today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy as a news release: As National School Choice Week 2022 concludes, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy today released results of a polling question demonstrating the overwhelming popularity of Virginia’s sole education choice program. Support is particularly strong…
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First Bill to Amend VCEA Buried by Committee
by Steve Haner The first of several pending bills to slow Virginia’s rush to an expensive energy future based on unreliable electricity just failed in a Republican-controlled committee. There is every reason to expect the same fate for two other pending measures with similar goals. In past years energy bills have gone to a subcommittee,…
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Do Not Move RGGI Tax Into Utility Base Rates
by Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) is seeking to get Virginia out of a regional carbon tax compact, yet inexplicably has offered supporters of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) a path to protect it. His proposal would remove the tax on monthly electric bills which has galvanized opposition and move the cost of…
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Poll: Most Democrats Dislike RGGI Carbon Tax
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The high consumer cost of Virginia’s forced conversion to a fossil fuel-free economy remains unpopular with Republican and Independent voters, but is supported by many Democrats, a recent poll revealed. Even Democrats, however, dislike a new carbon tax that is now…
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Bill Creates, Protects Right to Natural Gas Service
by Steve Haner Efforts to repeal or amend the Virginia Clean Economy Act are not the only bills pending at this 2022 General Assembly to mount a bit of defense against The War on Fossil Fuels. If the City of Richmond decides in the future to close its municipal natural gas utility, a step its…
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Energy Reliability, Cost Concern Some Democrats?
by Steve Haner First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The Department of Energy, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Quality, shall analyze the life cycle of renewable energy facilities, including solar, wind, and battery storage components. The analysis shall assess the (i) feasibility, costs, recycling and salvage opportunities, waste strategies,…
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Impractical Solar Power, Illustrated With the Math
by David Wojick This was first published at cfact.org and is reproduced with Wojick’s permission. Many states and the utilities they regulate are talking about replacing their coal and gas fired generators with solar and wind power. For example, I recently wrote about how the crazy-named Virginia Clean Economy Act already has almost 800 square…
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A Regulatory Path to End the RGGI Carbon Tax
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) will proceed to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon tax compact by the same route Virginia entered it: he will push to repeal the underlying regulation. As with much else in his promised “Day…