Tag: RGGI
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Do Not Move RGGI Tax Into Utility Base Rates
by Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) is seeking to get Virginia out of a regional carbon tax compact, yet inexplicably has offered supporters of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) a path to protect it. His proposal would remove the tax on monthly electric bills which has galvanized opposition and move the cost of…
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A Regulatory Path to End the RGGI Carbon Tax
by Steve Haner First published today by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) will proceed to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon tax compact by the same route Virginia entered it: he will push to repeal the underlying regulation. As with much else in his promised “Day…
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Our Media Trusts “The Smart Ones”
by Steve Haner Not every policy imposed by government is subject to public hearings or votes. That’s one reason to vote for smart candidates who have the country’s best interests at heart and not for those who rant about personal liberty without accepting any social responsibility for individual decisions. That was part of a response…
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Youngkin to Withdraw From RGGI, End Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told a business audience Wednesday afternoon that he intends to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. His decision came two days after Dominion Energy Virginia filed a petition to increase the RGGI tax on its bills by…
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Conference Explores VA Rush to Copy CA Energy
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by Steve Haner Californians were again this week under an electricity “flex alert,” a conservation order required because of its reliance on unreliable solar and wind energy. They often cannot keep up with demand on the hotter days. Is this Virginia’s future? The government is telling Californians: Set your thermostat at 78° or higher Avoid…
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Surprise! State Underestimated Carbon Tax Cost
by Steve Haner Virginia has collected its first wave of carbon taxes from the state’s electricity generators, costs which will eventually show up on future bills. The $43.6 million take just about doubles the revenue estimates used when participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was being approved by the Virginia General Assembly last year.…
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The Wildest Energy Whirlwind Ever is Underway
by Steve Haner If Bacon’s Rebellion at times has been “Dominion Pravda,” providing a window into that corporate giant’s C suite, our friends at the Virginia Mercury sometimes take the opposite role of “Environmental People’s Daily.” Its story today is a good example, for what it includes and what it does not. The long, detailed…
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After Santa Comes Carbon Tax Sugar Daddy
by Steve Haner The Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources will be the sugar daddy for the carbon tax dollars raised from electricity customers, according to pending legislation to fully enroll Virginia in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) next year. House Bill 20, sponsored by Norfolk Democrat Joe Lindsey, is similar (with some changes) to…
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Carbon Tax for Your Car, SUV Takes Shape at TCI
By Steve Haner In this politically sensitive moment, they don’t call it “cap and tax” but instead “cap and invest.” Yet, the recently released draft Transportation and Climate Initiative proposal fits a Bacon’s Rebellion prediction in March that next they would be coming to tax your SUV. Reducing CO2 emissions from electric power plants…
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GOP Also Concerned About Electricity Consumers
by Steve Haner With an eye on November 5, Virginia’s Republican legislators are expressing their concern for Virginia’s electricity customers and warning that their Democratic competitors will support a new energy carbon tax if they gain the majority. The carbon tax is a key element of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). In media releases…
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Dominion: Two Reports, Four Predictions
by Steve Haner There is no sign, nine weeks out from the big General Assembly election, that the arcane and obscure field of electricity regulation is going to change any votes or win any elections in Virginia in 2019. There is plenty to debate if anybody wanted to in two recent reports now public at…
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No Appeal Filed on RGGI Regulation, Now In Force
Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is now fully authorized under a new state regulation, and the deadline to appeal that regulation has now passed with no appeal filed. The text of the regulation is here. Language inserted by General Assembly Republicans into the current state budget merely puts RGGI membership and…
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Dominion Seeks To Add Carbon Tax In Fuel Factor
Dominion Energy Virginia is taking advantage of its annual, and usually boring, fuel cost review to move the cost of any future carbon tax or emissions allowances out of its fixed base rates and into its variable fuel charge. If the State Corporation Commission agrees it could either lower or raise your bill someday but…
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Meet GOP Carbon Tax Advocate Bob Inglis
There is a hotbed of carbon tax advocacy at George Mason University, led by a former GOP congressman sent packing by South Carolina voters because he’s ready to tax them into loving solar and wind.
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Is the Goal Cutting CO2 or Imposing a Tax?
While it would have been a popular step with his political base, and one he was expected to take, Governor Ralph Northam may have been smart to pass on seeking to veto state budget language preventing Virginia membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.