Tag: Dominion
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Chesapeake Coal Ash Ruling — Advantage Dominion
My initial reaction to Judge John A. Gibney Jr.’s ruling in Virginia’s first coal ash-related federal court case was to call it a draw. As I blogged yesterday, both the Sierra Club and Dominion Virginia Power found aspects of the judge’s order that supported their positions. But as I sort through the implications for the ongoing…
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Dominion, SELC Spin Coal Ash Ruling as Victory
Dominion Virginia Power and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) are both declaring victory after a ruling by a federal judge regarding Dominion’s disposal of coal ash at its retired Chesapeake Energy Center. U.S. District Court Judge John A. Gibney ruled today that the coal ash ponds are contaminating the Elizabeth River with arsenic and…
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Why So Long to Decide about Surry-Skiffes?
Tick, tock! The April 15 deadline is fast approaching for when Dominion Virginia Power will have to shut down its Yorktown One and Two coal-fired units, leaving the Virginia Peninsula vulnerable to blackouts. That risk will hang over the region, home to a half million people, for a year-and-a-half or more — for however long it…
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Peninsula Still Needs Surry-Skiffes Project, Says PJM
PJM Interconnection may have lowered its forecasts for peak electricity load on the Virginia Peninsula, but the regional transmission organization still contends that the proposed Surry-Skiffes Creek high-voltage transmission line is still needed to avoid the risk of blackouts. “It is PJM’s determination that the current Skiffes Creek 500 kV project remains the most effective and…
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Has Rate Freeze Benefited Virginia Customers?
Are the electric power companies ripping off rate payers under the guise of a rate freeze? Some think so. The electric utility industry came under fire during the 2017 General Assembly session when Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, submitted a bill to un-do the freeze in base electric rates enacted in the 2015 session. Although his bill…
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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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No Simple Answers on the Electricity Rate Freeze
Former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli joined state Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax City, down at the General Assembly yesterday to put pressure on Governor Terry McAuliffe to resurrect Petersen’s bill that would roll back a rate freeze on Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power. Petersen summarized the argument in a nutshell: “In reality, it was…
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Corey Stewart Defines Himself through the Fights He Picks
I met Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for governor, for the first time last night and interviewed him outside a public hearing about coal ash disposal. The Prince William County board chairman came across as a genial guy. But he’s not one to run away from a fight. Indeed, he’s more likely to be the first…
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Prince William Supervisors Demand Coal Ash Studies
Four members of the Prince William County board of supervisors appeared at a public hearing last night to express concerns about Dominion Virginia Power’s plan to pursue the “closure in place” option for disposing the coal ash at its Possum Point Power Station. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) held the hearing as part of…
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Landfill, Recycle or Close in Place?
As debate intensifies over how to dispose of coal ash, Dominion Virginia Power says it is following the same approach as many other utilities: closing the coal ash ponds in place. Environmentalists want to hold Dominion to a higher standard set by other utilities in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, where many are recycling and landfilling…
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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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McAuliffe Reverses, Now Opposes Electric Rate Freeze
Governor Terry McAuliffe said yesterday that he supports legislation that would cancel the freeze in base electric rates on Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power if President Trump kills the Clean Power Plan. The endorsement came a little late for state Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax City, whose bill to roll back the freeze was…
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Converting Coal Mines into Pumped Storage
Perhaps the most intriguing idea in the renewable-energy package promoted by General Assembly Republicans (see previous post) is the idea of converting abandoned coal mines into pumped storage generating units. Dominion Virginia Power operates a pumped storage facility in Bath County. The facility has two reservoirs. During periods of high demand when the price of…
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Is Recycling a Practical Solution for Coal Ash?
State Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, represents homeowners living near Dominion Virginia Power’s Possum Point Power Station, which is in the process of disposing of millions of cubic yards of coal ash accumulated over the years. The coal combustion residue, he told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources this afternoon, is a “booming,…
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Keep the Politicians Honest, Too
“Keep the big boys honest,” was the campaign tag-line of populist “Howlin” Henry Howell when he very nearly won his bid for the governorship in 1973. By “big boys,” he was referring to executives of VEPCO, a predecessor company to Dominion Virginia Power. Four decades later, it appears that Howell’s rhetoric is coming back in…