Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Goodbye and Good Riddance to Goodlatte
Carpetbagger. Bob Goodlatte is the 13-term congressman from Virginia’s 6th Congressional District who has blessedly chosen to retire this year. In my opinion he represents just about everything that is wrong with the GOP. Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts and educated at Bates College in Maine, Goodlatte somehow avoids the “carpetbagger” moniker so quickly put on Terry…
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Dominion Seeks Approval for Experimental Wind Turbines
Dominion Energy Virginia has submitted to the State Corporation Commission a proposal to build two wind-generating turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach — arguably the most expensive research project ever funded by the Commonwealth. The experimental turbines will not produce 12 megawatts of electricity at a remotely economic cost. But they will…
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Will Dominion Appeal Latest Loss At SCC?
Michael Martz has a good report in this morning’s Times-Dispatch on the State Corporation Commission’s opinion trimming Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed transmission charge. The SCC ordered the proposed Rider T going into effect next month reduced to reflect the lower federal income tax rates. It also rejected the utility’s argument that a payment it was…
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A Mercifully Brief Coal-Ash Update
A year ago, Virginians couldn’t open up a newspaper without reading about Dominion Energy’s coal ash controversy. Then the issue disappeared from view. Months passed without news of any kind. Then earlier this week, I noticed a stray phrase in Dominion’s 2nd quarter 2018 financial results: The company had written off $81 million to reflect…
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What a Tangled Analysis We Weave
Dominion Energy Virginia does not want state regulators to require a formal cost-benefit analysis of its plan to spend $3 billion on grid modernization over the next decade, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I do not believe it would be appropriate to impose such a requirement for its approval,” said Edward H. Baine, senior vice president…
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The Underground Saga Continues: I-66
The saga of expensive underground transmission continues: Now comes the Dominion Energy Virginia 230-KV line along I-66 which is needed for an Amazon facility and the growing data center industry. The State Corporation Commission has signed off and reports in the order a cost of $170 million or more to build it. Every step in…
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Protestants, Progressives and Paternalism
To put Steve Haner’s recent post about the Virginia lottery in broader perspective, I have displayed the “freedom from paternalism” ranking of the 50 states published this year by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. Virginia ranks 39th in freedom from paternalism. The flip side of that finding is that the Old Dominion ranks as the…
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Dominion Files 10-Year Grid Modernization Plan
Dominion Energy today filed a plan with the State Corporation Commission outlining how it intends to comply with the Grid Transformation and Security Act of 2018. The filing asks the SCC to approve the programs and investments included in the first three years of a 10-year grid modernization initiative. The filing can be viewed here.…
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Ratepayers Cover $760,000 Line for One Customer?
The State Corporation Commission staff audit of Dominion Energy’s ongoing effort to place residential and small business electric service tap lines underground has turned up some expensive examples. A handful of lines will cost ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars over time to serve a single residence. The average cost for the first 18,000 customers…
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You Can End this Folly, Governor Northam!
At the Annandale Cooperative Preschool, parents volunteer three to six hours a month to serve as teachers and class assistants. One big benefit is the pleasure of watching their toddlers mature. Another is more affordable tuition. Now comes a proposal from the Virginia Department of Social Services that would require school staff, including the parent…
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State Solicits Input from Solar, Wind Stakeholders
A nonprofit company specializing in addressing complex public policy issues has begun holding a series of meetings to solicit input from solar and wind energy stakeholders that will be used to formulate the Northam administration’s update to the Virginia Energy Plan. Discussion topics will address community solar, corporate procurement of clean energy, state/local barriers to…
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SCC Examiner Rejects Dominion Tax Argument
A State Corporation Commission hearing examiner has rejected Dominion Energy Virginia’s arguments that it was correct to ignore a lower federal income tax rate in calculating transmission costs for 2018 and is recommending that the full commission give ratepayers the benefit of the lower tax rate immediately. Chief Hearing Examiner Deborah V. Ellenberg’s ruling was…
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Virginia’s Political Class Isn’t Doing Much to Reduce CO2 Emissions — And It’s Working Out Just Fine
As faithful readers know well, I remain unpersuaded that the world is facing global-warming Armageddon or that we need to force a restructuring of the global energy economy to avert it. But as long as there’s even a remote chance that the emission of greenhouse gases (primarily CO2) might be driving cataclysmic climate change, I…
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An Argument Straight From Wonderland
In late December of last year, after a long debate pushed forward by President Donald Trump and covered on an almost hourly basis by the nation’s media, the Congress of the United States adopted a new tax code. On December 22 it was signed into law, to be effective January 1, 2018. On the business…
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Revisiting Virginia’s Public Accommodation Laws
Virginia is for lovers haters. A sad scene unfolded in Lexington, Va., last Friday evening. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump’s press secretary, tried to enjoy a meal with her family at the Red Hen restaurant. The owner, a New York transplant named Stephanie Wilkinson, asked the Sanders party to leave the restaurant after starting their appetizers.…