Search results for: “amazon”
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Solar as Economic Savior for Wise County?
When I covered the coalfields beat for the Roanoke Times in early 1980s, Virginia coal companies employed more than 25,000. The number has dwindled to one-tenth that number today. Not only has the number of miners plummeted, but so has employment in the industries that supply them with everything from timbers, rock dust and roof…
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Will “Home Grown” Renewables Spur Virginia’s Economy?
Walton Shepherd, a staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), has made an economic-development argument for renewable energy sources over natural gas in Virginia’s energy policy. Sandy Hausman with WVTF Public Radio quotes him as follows: Renewable energy and energy efficiency are basically homegrown resources. If Virginia wants to produce its own power and not…
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At the Academy Awards, Three Virginia Movies to Cheer For
With the Academy Awards ceremony fast approaching, there is a bumper crop of movies set in Virginia to root for this year. Normally, the production of three motion pictures based on Virginia history would be the occasion for considerable congratulations and back-slapping. Sadly, all three films dwell on the state’s troubled racial past, not exactly…
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Three Land Use Trends to Watch
Three articles today may help us divine the future of residential and commercial development in Virginia: Rebound of the exurbs? For many years, I was committed to the proposition that metropolitan development had reached a tipping point in which the forces favorable to urban re-development were stronger than the forces driving suburban sprawl. The exurbs —…
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Dominion Fulfills 400-Megawatt Solar Commitment
Dominion is investing more than $800 million in solar projects in Virginia totaling 398 megawatts of generation either completed or under development. The projects bring the company within an eyelash of fulfilling a 2015 promise to bring 400 megawatts of large-scale solar generation facilities into service by 2020. Furthermore, said Dominion in a press release issued…
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“Blood on the Mountain”
Jeff Thomas, author of “Virginia Politics & Government in a New Century” and podcaster, interviews former Bacon’s Rebellion contributor Peter Galuszka about the “war on coal” and the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia. Peter also appears as a prominent “talking head” (his words, not mine) in a documentary, “Blood on the Mountain,” coming…
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“Running Lean” at the University of Virginia
Once upon a time, the credo of American journalism was to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Today, the attitude of many reporters is quite the reverse: Defend the institutional status quo against Tea Partiers, Trumpkins, rabble-rousers and other yahoos. The bias is especially evident in coverage of that most elite and privileged of establishment institutions,…
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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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Natural Libertarians, a Virginia Majority
It’s the holiday season, the news is slow, and I’ve been thinking about things that I probably shouldn’t be thinking about. One is how to convert the latent “small L” libertarian potential of Virginia’s electorate into a meaningful political force. A large percentage of the Virginia population, I firmly believe, is what writer Lee Harris…
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Renewable Energy Outlook in Virginia Still Sunny
Progress toward an electric grid powered by renewable energy has been frustratingly slow to many Virginians. There have been two main obstacles to ramping up production of wind and solar power in the Old Dominion: cost and reliability. Wind still has high hurdles in Virginia. There is a limited number of on-shore locations suitable for…
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Feds Spend $80 Billion a Year on IT to Maintain Status Quo
The IT revolution has transformed the private sector with radical business models seen in companies as diverse as Amazon, Facebook and Uber. But government keeps plugging along, doing the same thing the same way, just a little more efficiently. Says a new report, “Transforming Government Through Technology” published by ACT-IAC and the Institute for Innovation:…
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Can America Import Scandinavian-Style Socialism?
by James A. Bacon In the never-ending debate that rages in the comments section of Bacon’s Rebellion, defenders of an extensive welfare state often refer to the success of the Nordic countries — Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway — as proof that the United States “blue state” governance model can succeed. The Nordics combine high state…
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Hecate Announces Solar Deal in Cape Charles
by James A. Bacon Governor Terry McAuliffe has announced yet another utility-scale solar deal, this one a 20-megawatt project in Cape Charles in Northampton County. The “Cherrydale Project” will generate enough energy to power more than 3,000 households throughout the region, states the governor’s press release. The project was assembled by a newcomer to the Virginia…
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DEQ Approves Utility-Scale Solar Permit in Buckingham
by James A. Bacon The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued a permit for construction of a 19.8-megawatt, utility-scale solar project in Buckingham County, Governor Terry McAuliffe announced yesterday. Construction of the 200-acre facility is expected to begin early in 2017 and be finished by the end of the year. The cost is estimated…
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The Market Path to Green Energy
Economic forces increasingly favor wind and solar. Creating the right regulatory incentives could accelerate the adoption of renewables, says the Rocky Mountain Institute. by James A. Bacon Consolidated Edison, the utility that provides New York City’s electricity, confronted a challenge in the summer of 2014. Forecasts showed that demand for electricity in parts of Brooklyn…