Tag: Stephen D. Haner
-
Moderation? Senate Holds Back House On Issues
By Steve Haner With two weeks remaining in the 2020 General Assembly session, the tendency to procrastinate (and perhaps some buyer’s remorse) has several key issues still pending. Here is an update on some previously discussed on Bacon’s Rebellion. The moderating impact of the narrow 21-19 split in the Virginia Senate, with several of those…
-
A Series of Hidden Tax Hikes In the Bag
By Steve Haner Politicians hate taxes that voters pay by check and love taxes that are buried deep on invoices or fully invisible. The 2020 General Assembly is raising taxes right and left (mostly left) but focused on that second method. These will be tax increases most people will never spot. Governor Ralph Northam’s record…
-
Energy Omnibus III: Race, Poverty and Justice
By Steve Haner Unfortunately, there is nothing new about the Virginia General Assembly passing an energy development bill which overrides the authority of the State Corporation Commission or usurps its role in planning utility resources. Where Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation breaks ground is its immersion into questions of race, poverty and…
-
Energy Omnibus II: It Doesn’t Shut Gas Plants
By Steve Haner Will all of Virginia’s existing fossil fuel electric power plants be closed under Governor Ralph Northam’s new clean energy transition legislation? As we continue our detailed examination of House Bill 1526 (with line references), the answers may surprise some. Not many of them. Not the natural gas plants. Dominion Energy Virginia has…
-
Energy Omnibus: What it Does, How it Costs You
By Steve Haner The General Assembly adopted Governor Ralph Northam’s clean energy package Tuesday, with party-line votes in both the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate. Two House Democrats joined the Republicans in opposing the House version. House Bill 1526 and Senate Bill 851 appear identical but amendments were being adopted at the last minute.…
-
VA to Examine Company Payrolls, Hunting Bias
By Steve Haner How bad is the climate for business in Virginia now? Just how much does this New Blue General Assembly detest and distrust evil capitalists? Let’s look at one little bill first noticed Monday in the long string of bills rushing toward Tuesday’s deadline for action. House Bill 624 won’t be the worst…
-
SCC: Clean Energy Conversion’s Customer Cost
By Steve Haner In the first ten years, Governor Ralph Northam’s signature zero carbon electricity legislation will add almost 20%, about $280 per year, to typical Dominion Energy Virginia residential bills. That was the low-ball estimate Sunday from a State Corporation Commission expert who quickly discovered that shooting the messenger is the normal General Assembly…
-
Cabinet Officers: Assembly Decides on Carbon Tax
By Steve Haner Thanks to the persistence of Del. Charles Poindexter, two members of Governor Ralph Northam’s cabinet are now on record stating the General Assembly will decide whether Virginia joins the carbon tax regime called the Transportation and Climate Initiative. In 2018 both of them had signed a letter endorsing the interstate compact to…
-
A PIPP of an Idea: Electricity Transfer Payments
By Steve Haner Green energy advocates never tire of telling us that accomplishing their zero-carbon electricity supply will lower our costs. If so, why does their dream bill include a new income transfer entitlement program for low-income customers? It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program with a handy acronym PIPP. It first appeared…
-
The Energy Whirlwind: Here Finally are the Bills
The House Labor and Commerce Committee has now seen (sort of) and passed out two major revisions to Virginia’s energy policies, promising a new clean energy economy and demanding that the two dominant electric power providers reach 100% renewable status in a few decades. Delegate Richard Sullivan, D-Arlington, is patron of both House bills, which…
-
Bill Changing Rate Rules on Dominion Advances
By Steve Haner As the energy whirlwind continues to spin at the General Assembly, changing the landscape the way a twister changes a trailer park, one proposal that should be a boon to Dominion Energy Virginia ratepayers passed a notable hurdle late Tuesday night. House Bill 1132, the chance for legislators to repent and make…
-
Consistency? Seek it Not at the General Assembly
The Virginia Constitution grants exemption from local real estate taxes for veterans with 100% service-related disability and for the Gold Star families of those killed in action, a move enthusiastically endorsed by voters in 2010. But in a House Finance Committee subcommittee this morning Virginia’s local governments presented the General Assembly with a bill. The…
-
Updates: Electoral College, Carbon Tax, Tax Reform
By Steve Haner Catching up on several issues previously discussed, with links to the original posts: Virginia’s 2020 Electoral Votes Still Ours to Award. Pending legislation to enact the National Popular Vote regime has now failed in both House and Senate committees, although nothing is really dead in this process until final adjournment in March. …
-
High Cost Detailed, Offshore Wind Support Fades
By Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia’s massive $7.8 billion offshore wind project received a tepid 5-4 endorsement late Thursday night in a House subcommittee, after legislators were told it would add $13 per month to typical residential bills starting in 2027. In stark contrast to a similar hearing in the Senate Wednesday, both the State…
-
Offshore Wind Mandate Advances, Cost Ignored
By Steve Haner Smart lawyers, and the General Assembly is full of them, don’t ask questions unless they know the answer already and want the information included in the debate. Nobody down at the General Assembly is asking what it will cost Virginians on their monthly bills to build massive offshore wind facilities to generate…