Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Yeah, It’s Probably a Good Idea to Update Your Zoning Code Every Half Century or So
News flash: Henrico County officials see the need to bring the county zoning code into the 21st century. Although the zoning code has been amended 240 times, it was adopted in 1960 and has never seen a systematic overhaul since. The code, Randy Silber, deputy county manager for community development, tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is “over 55…
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The Land of the Semi-Free and Home of the Brave
The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, has compiled a basket of some 200 metrics of fiscal, regulatory and personal freedom policies to produce an index of “Freedom in the Fifty States.” If you lean libertarian, as I do, then a Virginia score of 21 is not terribly impressive. Could be worse, but not nothing…
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With Health Care Premiums Up 14%, Virginia Should Act
by James A. Bacon Insurance companies participating in Virginia’s Affordable Care Act health exchanges are asking to increase rates by an average of 14% next year. In making presentations to the State Corporation Commission yesterday, they said the increases reflect (1) general health care inflation that affects everyone, and (2) and an imbalance in sick versus…
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Republicans and Leftists Are Outraged, Outraged, I Tell You
by James A. Bacon Here’s what I missed in yesterday’s quickie post about Governor Terry McAuliffe’s plan to convene a clean energy task force: Both Republicans and leftist environmental groups are attacking the move, though for opposite reasons. Republican legislators see the initiative as an end run around the state budget, which specifically prohibits any spending…
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Sierra Club’s Coal Ash Gambit
by James A. Bacon The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit charging that coal ash stored at Dominion Virginia Power’s shuttered coal plant in Chesapeake is leaking arsenic into the Elizabeth River. The environmental organization wants the U.S. courts to compel Dominion to scrap plans for burying the coal ash in place at four power stations around the…
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Maryland Drops Coal Ash Appeal
The state of Maryland has dropped its appeal of permits granted to Dominion Virginia Power for discharging treated water from its Possum Point Power Station coal ash ponds into Quantico Creek and the Potomac River. “Maryland is supportive of recent agreements in Virginia to increase wastewater treatment protections and monitoring protocols,” Ben Grumbles, Maryland’s secretary…
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Virginia Procurement Process Needs Reform
by James A. Bacon The Commonwealth of Virginia needs to reform its procedures for contracting and administering billions of dollars of contracts, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) has found in a new study. In 2015 Virginia spent more than $6 billion through contracts, including for transportation projects, information technology, and building construction,…
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Coal Ash, Parts Per Billion, and Risk
Kudos to Robert Zullo with the Richmond Times-Dispatch for digging beneath the dueling press releases to shed light on the contamination risks that coal ash ponds pose to drinking water. Focusing on the carcinogenic chemical hexavalent chromium, which has been detected in well water near Dominion Virginia Power’s Possum Point Power Station, he broaches key questions: How much…
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Siding with the Least Greedy Bastard
by James A. Bacon Elon Musk has a gift for spinning fabulous visions involving super-cool technology — everything from solar energy and rocket ships to high-speed rail and electric cars. But he has also mastered the art of scrounging money from government. According to a year-old Los Angeles Times article, his enterprises had racked up some $4.9 billion…
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APCo Forecast: One Quarter Renewables by 2030
by James A. Bacon While acknowledging regulatory and market uncertainties that could change its thinking, the Appalachian Power Company (APCo) plans to meet its projected demand growth over the next 15 years through solar power, wind power, battery storage, energy efficiency initiatives and demand-side management strategies, according to the company’s 2016 Integrated Resources Plan filed earlier this month. Renewable…
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Another Blow to Free Market Health Care
by James A. Bacon Citing fiscal reasons, General Assembly Republicans have blocked Medicaid expansion that would have extended medical coverage to 400,000 uninsured Virginians. But they have tried to enact other measures to make medical care more accessible and affordable. Among other ideas, they have fought for expanding medical clinics, rolling back Certificate of Need restrictions…
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More Visibility for Health Plan Mergers, Please
by James A. Bacon Virginia consumers are not particularly torqued about two proposed mergers between leading health care insurers — only 20% of respondents to a poll sponsored by Virginia Consumer Voices for Healthcare (VCVH) were even aware of the proposals — but that didn’t stop 87% from being “very” or “somewhat” concerned by the impending consolidations when…
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Nuke Foes Take Case to Dominion Shareholders
by James A. Bacon Foes of a third nuclear power plan at Dominion Virginia Power’s North Anna Power Station have taken their case to the shareholders of parent company Dominion Resources, which is holding its annual shareholders meeting in Columbia, S.C., today. Dominion is racking up billions of dollars of potential liabilities on the nuclear unit…
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NRDC Blasts Dominion’s $13 Billion Cost Projection
by James A. Bacon The 15-year planning document filed by Dominion Virginia Power last week vastly overstates the cost of complying with the Clean Power Plan and is chock-full of errors, flaws and misjudgments, charged Walton Shepherd, staff attorney for the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and a member of a committee of stakeholders advising…
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Report Outlines Gas Pipeline Risks to Rate Payers
by James A. Bacon The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), designed to bring low-price natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale fields to Virginia and North Carolina, pose significant risks to electric utility rate payers and landowners along their routes, argues a new study, “Risks Associated with Natural Gas Pipeline Expansion…