Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Dominion Refinances Capital Structure, and What It Means to Virginia
by James A. Bacon Dominion Energy Inc. will sell a 25% interest in its Cove Point liquid natural gas-exporting facility to Brookfield Super-Core Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure fund, for $2 billion, the company announced this morning. Said Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II: “The agreement highlights the compelling intrinsic value of Cove Point and allows…
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What? More Solar Means More NOx? No One Saw that Coming!
by James A. Bacon The surge in solar power production in North Carolina has caused an increase in nitrogen oxide (NOx), a serious air pollutant, North Carolina’s Duke Energy has concluded. Without changes to state regulatory policy, according to a report by North State Journal, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions also could increase. These counter-intuitive findings…
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Environmental Balderdash: Exporting CO2 to EU
by Steve Haner In parts of Virginia, conservation groups are being paid by California to preserve forest land because trees capture the CO2 considered the culprit in global warming. In other parts of Virginia, large swaths of trees are being cut to convert into biomass fuel for European power plants, based on a claim that…
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Dueling Crises: Unaffordable Housing vs. Flammable Housing
by James A. Bacon Citing housing affordability as the key issue, the Virginia Board of Housing and Community Development has voted down an update to the state building code that would have mandated the installation of sprinklers in all new single-family homes and townhouses. Virginia home builders have said that the sprinkler requirement would add…
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Dominion Has Lost the Dems. What’s Next?
Dominion Energy is fast losing the Democratic Party. Following the lead of dozens of Democratic candidates and elected officials, the Democratic Party of Virginia has declared that it will no long accept political contributions from the electric utility. Reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Party Chairwoman Susan Swecker said Dominion’s contributions are a “very contentious issue with…
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Dominion’s Move Against Green Competitors Fails
by Steve Haner The verdict is in and green energy virtue in Virginia’s electricity market remains available in monthly increments. You do not need to be green twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, tracking every change of demand. That was the requirement demanded by Dominion Energy Virginia in its recent effort to block…
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GOP Also Concerned About Electricity Consumers
by Steve Haner With an eye on November 5, Virginia’s Republican legislators are expressing their concern for Virginia’s electricity customers and warning that their Democratic competitors will support a new energy carbon tax if they gain the majority. The carbon tax is a key element of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). In media releases…
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Tweet First, Check Your Notes Later
by Steve Haner It doesn’t matter what you say, only what they say you said. This was demonstrated once again this morning as the State Corporation Commission’s hearing on Dominion Energy Virginia’s profit margin unfolded in Richmond courtroom. While Dominion’s lead attorney droned on in his opening statement, Sarah Vogelsong of Virginia Mercury – doing…
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Just Pretending To Protect Ratepayers Won’t Cut It
by Steve Haner If you have nothing substantive to offer, try some meaningless virtue signaling. That’s the only way to interpret a claim from 36 General Assembly Democrats that they are taking steps to oppose “Dominion raising Virginian’s energy bills by $147 million,” to quote a Blue Virginia headline today. The story reports on a…
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Dominion: Two Reports, Four Predictions
by Steve Haner There is no sign, nine weeks out from the big General Assembly election, that the arcane and obscure field of electricity regulation is going to change any votes or win any elections in Virginia in 2019. There is plenty to debate if anybody wanted to in two recent reports now public at…
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SCC Reports $277 Million in Excess Dominion Earnings
Dominion Energy Virginia made $277 million in excess profits last year, according to a just-released State Corporation Commission report. Instead of returning the excess earnings to rate payers, the utility will apply those funds toward construction of a demonstration wind-turbine project off the coast of Virginia Beach and upgrades to smart meters in concert with…
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The New Childcare Crisis: Affordability
by James A. Bacon The cost of full-time infant care in Virginia has increased by 37% in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2008 and 2017, while women’s wages in the state have grown by only 5%, finds a new report by the National Women’s Law Center, “From Shortchanged to Empowered: A Pathway to Improving Women’s Well-Being in…
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Dominion Must Move Customers To Competitors
by Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission Wednesday granted motions by two competitive service providers and ordered Dominion Energy Virginia to hand over various customers. The two companies, Direct Energy Business LLC and Calpine Energy Solutions LLC, offer a 100 percent renewable energy option in the monopoly utility’s territory. “The Commission has found that: (a)…
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Best Gun Violence Idea Not Proposed in VA?
by Steve Haner The most effective gun violence prevention idea presented to the Virginia State Crime Commission Monday was one seldom discussed in the state: Add violent misdemeanors to the list of convictions that prevent gun purchases from a licensed dealer. Four states, including Maryland, have that provision and a Boston University study found it…
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Fungible (and Vintage?) Green Virtue, For A Fee
by Steve Haner Like most major electric utilities now, Dominion Energy Virginia has a certain amount of energy generated by processes now designated “renewable.” Hydro power has been around for a long time, and now that is supplemented by a growing number of solar generators – owned by the company or under contract to it.…