Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Rolling Back Regulations Easier Said Than Done
by James A. Bacon Virginia has lagged the nation in economic growth and job creation for a decade or more, and Governor Glenn Youngkin has made it a priority, as every governor does, to boost economic development. One of his strategies for rebooting the economy is to prune needless regulation. “The growing regulatory burden on…
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Can Financially Failing Coal Plant Be Closed?
by Steve Haner The economic decision on whether and when to cut and run from a losing investment is always complicated. The debate over the future of Dominion Energy Virginia’s economically failing coal plant in Wise County will be complicated by power politics. The State Corporation Commission has been asked to accept an agreement between…
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Government Attacks K-12 Public Education in Virginia – Chapter 2: The Regulatory State
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) both runs its own virtual school and regulates that school’s competitors. The Virginia way. Mark Zuckerberg can only dream. Virginia’s privately run, state-funded, multidivision online providers (MOPs) constitute the major competitors to VDOE’s own Virtual Virginia, its state-run virtual school. Virginia law positions MOPs as…
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A Price of COPN — Sentara Pleads COVID Capacity Shortages
by James C. Sherlock Sentara Health, once described by The Washington Post as “playing COPN like a violin,” yesterday went statewide with an acknowledgment that its system is out of capacity for many who seek its help. On a Zoom press conference yesterday, Sentara reported seeing a huge surge in hospital admissions. Hospitalizations have more…
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Bureaucrats Are Not Running Amok
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In a couple of recent posts, much has been made of Governor-elect Youngkin’s comments about reviewing regulations. After thinking about this promise and remembering similar promises by former governors, I decided to undertake one of my favorite exercises: poking around in the Code of Virginia a little bit. I found two items…
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Medical Facility State Inspector Shortfalls An Urgent Matter for the Governor and General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Virginians are blessed to have a person running the Department of Health Office of Licensure and Inspection (OLC) who may be the best public servant in the Commonwealth. She desperately needs help to do the work she is assigned in order to protect us. Kim Beazley, the Director of that Office,…
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Dominion Green Energy Conversion Cost Dips, Partly by Sacrificing Reliability
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. The projected consumer cost of Dominion Energy Virginia’s conversion to wind and solar power rises steeply in the utility’s latest capital spending plan. Although slightly reduced from earlier estimates, the utility told the State Corporation Commission its residential customers may see…
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Delegating Emission Standards to California Is Unconstitutional
by Emilio Jaksetic As Steve Haner noted in a December 10 post, “Now California Will Control Virginia’s Auto Sales,” the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board (VAPCB) adopted a regulation that places ultimate control of Virginia’s vehicle emission standards in the hands of the California Air Resources Board. Although the VAPCB acted pursuant to a statute…
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Virginia State and Local Agencies Must Spend Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds by December 31
by James C. Sherlock State and local governments are awash in billions of dollars of federal funding with various federal expiration dates if not spent. The General Assembly set its own deadline. Recipients have to spend federal money allocated by the General Assembly by Dec. 31 or lose it back to the Governor for repurposing.…
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Now California Will Control Virginia’s Auto Sales
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s automotive sales market is now officially controlled in Sacramento, with the likelihood that no new internal combustion engines can be sold in the Commonwealth after 2035. The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, acting not with discretion but on orders…
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Youngkin to Withdraw From RGGI, End Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told a business audience Wednesday afternoon that he intends to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. His decision came two days after Dominion Energy Virginia filed a petition to increase the RGGI tax on its bills by…
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Tree Tyrants Win Round 2
by James A. Bacon As the old saying goes, “You can’t fight city hall.” Certainly not in Fredericksburg. Several months ago, I chronicled the travails of my mother, Sallie Daiger, regarding the removal of a tree in the public right-of-way in front of her house. I won’t repeat the gory details — you can find…
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Workplace Heat Rule Given Cold Shoulder
by Steve Haner First published this morning by Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s Safety and Health Codes Board on Friday voted down a proposed workplace heat protection standard, strongly opposed by the state’s business community but ardently sought by organized labor and farmworker advocates. The Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) was seeking…
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Why Is the CBF Fighting a Compressor Station 200 Miles from the Chesapeake Bay?
by James A. Bacon The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board voted 6 to 1 today to deny a permit for a natural gas pipeline compressor station in Pittsylvania County. The station is integral to the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project. The site lies “within five miles of four communities with strong African American and American Indian…
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Omigod, Omicron Is Coming!
by Kerry Dougherty I’ve seen this movie before. And I’m not buying a ticket this time. I’m talking about the latest remake in the theater of the absurd: “A New COVID Variant Is Coming! We’re All Going To Die!” Fear hustlers managed to spook the stock markets on Friday with panic porn about a variant…