Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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What If… Dominion Pursued a Solar+Smart Grid Strategy?
After proposing an end to the freeze on base electricity rates and a reinvestment of excess profits into modernization of the electric grid, Dominion Energy Virginia has produced an ad touting renewable energy and the smart grid. What if more of the energy we used came from renewable resources? What if the electric grid…
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Digging into Your Electric Bill
Monthly electric bills for a typical Virginia household (using 1,000 kilowatt hours) increased by $48.64 for Appalachian Power Co. customers over the past 10 years, and $26.61 for Dominion Energy Virginia customers. Those numbers come from a presentation by Kimberly B. Pate, director of the division of utility accounting at the State Corporation Commission, at…
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Dominion Open to Ending Rate Freeze
Take surplus revenue and invest it in modernizing the electric grid, the Richmond utility proposes. Dominion Virginia Energy has proposed ending a controversial freeze in base electric rates and plow surplus revenues owed to rate payers into modernizing the electric grid. “We believe it is time to transition away from the rate freeze as the…
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The Politicization of Energy Regulation in Virginia
Earlier this week the Richmond Times-Dispatch published an in-depth series tracing the history of the relationship between Dominion Energy, the General Assembly and the State Corporation Commission over the past twenty years. Michael Martz and Robert Zullo conducted dozens of interviews and reconstructed the complex history of electric utility oversight during a tumultuous period that…
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Is Dominion Generating Millions in Excess Profits? It Depends on Who’s Doing the Accounting.
The SCC says Dominion generated up to $395 million in excess revenue in 2016 under the electric rate freeze. Dominion says the SCC is inflating the numbers. Depending on how you crunch the numbers, Dominion Energy Virginia (DEV) is earning between $221 million and $252 million in excess profits. Had the company not expensed nearly…
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Why Would Dominion Want a $19 Billion Nuclear Plant?
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has indicated it will issue a license within the next few days to build a third nuclear reactor at Dominion Energy’s North Anna power station, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported earlier this week. Dominion has spent $600 million so far on planning, engineering and developing the 1,450-megawatt facility, which has been widely…
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The Nightmarish Complexity of Environmental Regs
As far as I’m concerned, the environmental regulatory process governing the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline is incomprehensible. And that’s a bad thing. If only a handful of regulators, industry players and environmentalist activists can navigate the layers of bureaucracy and thicket of rules, the public is the loser. In the latest hoo-ha,…
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McAuliffe Moves to Cap Utility Carbon Emissions
Big news yesterday: Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order to cap greenhouse gas emissions from Virginia power plants. Unfortunately, I’m out of town on personal business today, so I don’t have time for anything more than a cursory analysis. Said McAuliffe in a press release: ““The threat of climate change is real, and we have a…
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Please, Norge, Don’t Go NIMBY on Solar Project
Report from today’s Virginia Gazette: Members of the Norge community of James City County are “concerned” that a proposed solar farm will impact their neighborhood negatively. The James City County planning commission approved in April an application to build a solar farm on a 225-acre property on Farmville Lane. The developer, California-based SunPower, said that the…
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Eco-City Alexandria Kvetches about Accelerated Potomac Cleanup
The City of Alexandria bills itself as an “eco-city.” In 2007, it published a “green-ventory” of environmental plans, policies and programs. In 2008, the city adopted an “eco-charter.” Since then, the city has launched initiatives to tackle invasive plants, expand the regional BikeShare program, bolster transit bus service, weatherize apartments of low-income Alexandrians, design LEED-certified city…
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Rappahannock Water Quality Endangered by Fracking?
American Rivers has listed the Rappahannock River as the fifth “most endangered” river in the United States. The environmental group claims the river is threatened by industry interest in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations in the Taylorsville Basin lying thousands of feet beneath the river. The quality of drinking water of three million people in eastern Virginia are…
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Will NIMBYs Thwart SolUnesco Solar Plan?
Not all barriers to solar energy emanate from Richmond. Take Albemarle County, for example. The county zoning code outlaws solar farms, we learn from Charlottesville Tomorrow. “The current zoning ordinance allows for the transmission and distribution of energy, but not the generation of energy,” said county planner Margaret Maliszewski at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. The issue arose…
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The Right Way to Test for Coal Ash Contaminants
So, it looks like the there will be a pause in the solid-waste permitting process for Virginia coal ash. Governor Terry McAuliffe had submitted an amendment to legislation that, if approved, would require Dominion Virginia Power to compile more information on contamination around its coal ash sites and study alternative closure methods before the state issues…
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Fix the Broken Regulatory Process
There must be a better way for federal agencies to review infrastructure mega-projects. A few days ago, I asked why, after three-and-a-half years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has yet to give a yea or nay on Dominion Virginia Power’s permit request for the Surry-Skiffes Creek transmission line. The issue I’m raising isn’t what the Army…
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A Prosecution or Persecution of Pawn Brokers?
The Virginia Attorney General’s office has extracted settlements from two Fredericksburg-area pawnbrokers for allegedly charging illegal interest and fees. Spotsylvania Pawnking LLC and Stafford-based All-Star Pawn & Gold will provide more than $62,000 in refunds to more than 1,000 customers to resolve the allegations. The two pawn shops also paid the Attorney General’s office a total…