Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Clash over Rate Freeze Shifts to Va. Supreme Court
Earlier this week, the Virginia Senate shut down a bid by Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, to revoke the rate freeze on Dominion Virginia Power’s and Appalachian Power’s electricity rates. But the battle over electric rates is far from over. The contest now moves to the Virginia Supreme Court. Today is the deadline for foes to…
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Should Lawmakers Cap College Tuition Increases?
Now for something totally different — the first poll in the 14-year history of Bacon’s Rebellion! I would say that I offer this poll in response to popular demand, but that would be misleading. No one but Bacon’s Rebellion‘s skeptic-in-chief, Larry Gross, AKA LarrytheG, has been agitating for polls. Moreover, I know that I will…
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Justification for Electricity Rate Freeze Melting?
Is it time to reverse the rate freeze on electricity rates in Virginia? If President-elect Donald Trump revokes the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, author of SB 1095, thinks it would be. Two years ago, no one knew what to make of the Clean Power Plan, an Environmental Protection Agency initiative…
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Clean Energy Options and Economic Development
Half the Fortune 500 companies have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, either through energy-efficiency or using more renewable energy. If states want to compete for their investment, they had better create regulatory environments that are friendlier toward solar and wind energy, contends a new report, the “Corporate Clean Energy Procurement Index.” That doesn’t necessarily mean giving…
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How to Roll Back Regulations in Virginia
A case study in regulation run amok: To earn a living blow drying customers’ hair in Virginia, one must acquire a license from the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. To acquire such a license, one must attend an accredited cosmetology school, the average cost of which is $14,887 nationally, not counting the time…
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Dominion Tweaks Coal-Ash Dewatering Process
Dominion Virginia Power has temporarily shut down the $35 million water treatment facility at its Possum Point Power Station as it adjusts the process of cleaning water from its coal ash ponds, Levels of selenium, a chemical element that can be toxic at high levels, rose above a “trigger” point specified in agreement between Dominion and Prince…
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The Cosmetology Licensing Rip-Off
William E. Grobes IV has pleaded guilty to charges of committing wire fraud and money laundering in the operation of the College of Beauty and Barber Culture in Chesapeake. The case against him, according to WAVY-TV: Grobes represented to the [Veterans Administration] that CBBC provided full-time schooling to hundreds of veteran students beginning in October 2011.…
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Tesla Scores Big Victory in Virginia
First Uber, then Air BnB, now Tesla. Free markets in Virginia’s “new economy” are making steady ground. Uber and Lyft, the revolutionary ride-hailing companies, overcame the taxicab industry two years ago to win the right to compete in the Virginia transportation marketplace. Last year, the General Assembly legalized Air BnB, an online marketplace for short-term rentals…
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Trenches, Sinkholes and Slippery Slopes
Building gas pipelines over steep mountains and sinkhole-prone terrain risks erosion, sedimentation and drinking-water pollution. Are state regulators on top of the situation? by James A. Bacon Early this year James Golden and Melanie Davenport, senior managers with Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), were hearing increasingly vocal concerns about the environmental problems posed by the proposed Atlantic…
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COPN Strikes Again
After two years, a thousand hours of staff time, and more than $300,000 in legal fees and other expenses, Medarva Healthcare has received a Certificate of Public Need (COPN) allowing it to build two new outpatient surgical rooms in Goochland County. But there was a catch: The company had to close two surgical rooms at its…
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Let Tesla Open in Richmond
By Stuart C. Siegel Tesla’s electric vehicles are often described as disruptive to the motor-vehicle industry, and understandably so. The U.S.-based company’s all-electric vehicles are well designed, transparently priced and environmentally friendly, and the company is setting high standards for other car makers to follow. Tesla’s sales model is disruptive, too. The company has never…
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Introducing a Novel Concept: Cost per Ton of CO2 Reduced
by James A. Bacon A new Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy paper about the impact of a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) on Virginia warrants close examination. You may or may not accept the study’s conclusion that implementing a requirement for 6% solar and wind in Virginia’s electricity mix by 2025 would increase electricity rates in Virginia…
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The Cooter Controversy as Window into the New Class/Culture War
by James A. Bacon Ben Jones, the former actor and Georgia congressman, has built a small retail empire around the character Cooter he played in the “Dukes of Hazzard” television series. In addition to his Cooter’s store in Rappahannock County, Va., he has opened stores in Nashville and Gatlinburg, Tenn. But Jones has to contend with a…
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Consumer Group: Halt Spending on North Anna 3
by James A. Bacon A Virginia consumer advocacy group has petitioned the State Corporation Commission to forbid Dominion Virginia Power from spending more money on its proposed $19 billion North Anna 3 nuclear unit without obtaining formal approval from the SCC. Dominion has spent $600 million on the project, mainly for engineering and regulatory expenses, but…
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Another Example of Good Intentions Gone Wrong
by James A. Bacon Last year Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive order to “ban the box” prohibiting employers from asking job seekers about their criminal history at the initial job stage. The goal was to “remove unnecessary obstacles” to felons seeking employment after incarceration. How could one object? Once felons have paid their debt to…