Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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SCC Raises Estimate of Clean Energy Bill Costs
By Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission staff popped up in a House of Delegates Committee Tuesday to provide another unwelcome lecture, with revised estimates on the likely cost to Dominion Energy Virginia customers of the pending omnibus clean energy legislation. The numbers it provided to the House Labor and Commerce Committee Tuesday afternoon were…
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Who Regulates the “Business” of Healthcare in Virginia?
by James C. Sherlock Understanding the relationships between healthcare and government oversight in Virginia requires distinguishing between the business of healthcare and the practice of medicine. In Virginia, the Department of Health regulates the practice of medicine. The State Corporation Commission regulates the business of health insurance. No agency of the administration has the authority…
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With Friends Like These, Ratepayers in Big Trouble
By Steve Haner If your main concern is that people pay a fair price for electricity, the best outcome of Monday’s Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting would be approval of the bill changing the rules on Dominion Energy Virginia’s 2021 rate review, followed by defeat or delay of the highly touted Virginia Clean Energy…
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Moderation? Senate Holds Back House On Issues
By Steve Haner With two weeks remaining in the 2020 General Assembly session, the tendency to procrastinate (and perhaps some buyer’s remorse) has several key issues still pending. Here is an update on some previously discussed on Bacon’s Rebellion. The moderating impact of the narrow 21-19 split in the Virginia Senate, with several of those…
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Would Legal Medical Marijuana in Virginia Reduce Opioid Addiction?
By DJ Rippert The lesser of two evils. The ongoing 2020 Virginia General Assembly session has generated a lot of debate over gun control. Proponents of stricter firearms regulation cite reduced gun violence as a goal. While gun-related deaths (including murder) are a real problem, those deaths are less frequent than fatal opioid overdoses. In…
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Energy Omnibus III: Race, Poverty and Justice
By Steve Haner Unfortunately, there is nothing new about the Virginia General Assembly passing an energy development bill which overrides the authority of the State Corporation Commission or usurps its role in planning utility resources. Where Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation breaks ground is its immersion into questions of race, poverty and…
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Energy Omnibus II: It Doesn’t Shut Gas Plants
By Steve Haner Will all of Virginia’s existing fossil fuel electric power plants be closed under Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation? As we continue our detailed examination of House Bill 1526 (with line references), the answers may surprise some. Not many of them. Not the natural gas plants. Dominion Energy Virginia has…
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VA to Examine Company Payrolls, Hunting Bias
By Steve Haner How bad is the climate for business in Virginia now? Just how much does this New Blue General Assembly detest and distrust evil capitalists? Let’s look at one little bill first noticed Monday in the long string of bills rushing toward Tuesday’s deadline for action. House Bill 624 won’t be the worst…
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SCC: Clean Energy Conversion’s Customer Cost
By Steve Haner In the first ten years, Governor Ralph Northam’s signature zero carbon electricity legislation will add almost 20%, about $280 per year, to typical Dominion Energy Virginia residential bills. That was the low-ball estimate Sunday from a State Corporation Commission expert who quickly discovered that shooting the messenger is the normal General Assembly…
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The Energy Whirlwind: Here Finally are the Bills
The House Labor and Commerce Committee has now seen (sort of) and passed out two major revisions to Virginia’s energy policies, promising a new clean energy economy and demanding that the two dominant electric power providers reach 100% renewable status in a few decades. Delegate Richard Sullivan, D-Arlington, is patron of both House bills, which…
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Bacon Bits: If It Walks, Tax it. If It Still Walks, Regulate It…
First they came for Uber… First the General Assembly decided to regulate Uber and Lyft after taxicab companies protested, then Airbnb after hotels protested. Now lawmakers are moving to regulate peer-to-peer car sharing after rental-car companies started griping. Roanoker Neil Aneja owns three automobiles that he rents out through car-sharing app Turo. As he explains…
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Bill Changing Rate Rules on Dominion Advances
By Steve Haner As the energy whirlwind continues to spin at the General Assembly, changing the landscape the way a twister changes a trailer park, one proposal that should be a boon to Dominion Energy Virginia ratepayers passed a notable hurdle late Tuesday night. House Bill 1132, the chance for legislators to repent and make…
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Offshore Wind Mandate Advances, Cost Ignored
By Steve Haner Smart lawyers, and the General Assembly is full of them, don’t ask questions unless they know the answer already and want the information included in the debate. Nobody down at the General Assembly is asking what it will cost Virginians on their monthly bills to build massive offshore wind facilities to generate…
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Finished with the Second Amendment Virginia Dems Now Attack the First (and Sixth)
By DJ Rippert Sticks and stones? Del. Jeffrey M. Bourne, D-Richmond, has introduced HB1627. The bill is entitled, “Threats and harassment of certain officials and property; venue.” The proposed legislation strengthens a series of very questionable laws already on the books. The first few sections of the existing law make it illegal to make threats…
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Governance Nightmare: Integrating Hospitals and HMOs
by James C. Sherlock Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville, has introduced a terrific piece of legislation, HB 1731. The bill tackles for the first time an increasing threat to competition, cost, availability, consumer choice and quality of health care in Virginia — the vertically integrated carrier. The combination of hospitals and insurance carriers has captured the…