Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Tag: Bill Tracy

  • Surprise Findings About Metro Derailment

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    Bob Rayner
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    by Bill Tracy In Northern Virginia on Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board released a scathing final report on the Washington area Metro’s derailment problem with its newer. 7000-Series railcars.  The NTSB’s media presentation by Chair Jennifer Homendy can be found on YouTube.   NTSB also faulted Metro’s safety culture. My prior layman’s understanding, from local…

  • Sudden Impact

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy President Biden’s new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) might be better called the American Auto Industry Rescue and Restructure bill. The U.S. auto industry wants to phase out gasoline vehicles, and it also urgently needs Congress to endorse and support that goal. Apparently, the IRA’s eventual passage was no surprise: the handwriting was…

  • Turbocharged: Fairfax Car Tax Burden

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy Fairfax County just mailed out its 2022 Car Tax bills, and the tax increase is substantial. The Board of Supervisors granted us a 15% discount off of the inflated 2022 Blue Book vehicle values. That’s nice, but it looks like the Board failed to mention that the car tax was increasing for…

  • Seeing Red About Blue Hydrogen

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy In recent discussions on Bacon’s Rebellion, readers have been talking about hydrogen as an emerging fuel source. Hydrogen, not electricity, may be the ultimate transposition fuel of the future. Let’s call it the 800-lb blue “gorilla” in the room. U.S. liberals and electric vehicle advocates see hydrogen as a threat to their vision…

  • Step Aside Gypsy Moths, There’s a New Bug in Town

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy The next bug infestation: Spotted lanternflies. Have you seem them yet? If not, you probably will in the next few years. The Winchester region is already a quarantine area. Prince William County has them. Yesterday someone found a dead one in Fairfax County — in a grocery-store produce shipment.

  • Virginia May Kill Two West Virginia Coal-Fired Power Plants

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy Kentucky may have already killed one West Virginia coal plant, and according to a recent article by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Virginia’s State Corporation Commission may well shoot down two more. Apparently, by 2028, many U.S. coal-fired power plants face costly EPA mandates to upgrade their wastewater treatment and coal ash disposal…

  • Hey, Mount Trashmore, Top This!

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy According to WJLA-TV7, The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved the next phase in the evolution of the former Lorton landfill off of Interstate 95: It will become a 1,700-foot ski slope. That’s right, a ski resort. In Northern Virginia. Only 10 minutes from my home. The project, Fairfax Peak, will…

  • Should Virginia Rebuff the HUF?

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy There’s a new Virginia tax called a HUF — for Highway Use Fee. Who knew? Not me — until I had to pay it. If you renew your Virginia vehicle registration, and your car exceeds a 25 miles-per-gallon EPA rating, you will be politely advised that you are underpaying pump taxes, and…

  • The Virginia Green Car Buyer’s Blues

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy Let me tell you a sad yarn about buying green cars in Virginia. Due to a dead hybrid battery after 14 years and 192,000 miles, we recently traded in our classic 2006 Toyota Prius for a new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid LE, the cheapest green RAV4. Had we lived in a different Blue…

  • Of Trash and Truckers

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy Trouble, trouble, trouble.  We got trouble in River City. “River City” in this case denotes certain municipalities in Northern Virginia, Georgia, and Colorado serviced for trash disposal by Manassas-based American Disposal Services (ADS). After years of exemplary service, ADS has seemingly lost the ability to pick up trash on a reliable basis.…

  • Virginia Gothic

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy Following up on Steve Haner’s discussion of Virginia’s handling of the new federal tax laws, I decided to do a “hypothetical” sample calculation.  “Hypothetical” is in quotes, because this example is somewhat similar to my own household, where we are grandparents in retirement. In this simplified example, the annual income is assumed…

  • I Want to Say Two Words to You: Plastic Reycling!

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    James A. Bacon
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    by Bill Tracy I  want to say one word to you: plastics!” That’s the famous 1967 quote from “The Graduate,” which ranks #42 in the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 movie quotations. Evidently, it was good career advice, because it now seems like just about everything in our homes and vehicles is made from…