Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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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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The Good News Few Will Report or Admit
I ran across the illustration above on my favorite contrarian website, Wattsupwiththat.com, and decided to share. The media feed us a constant diet of gloom and doom and disaster, and only those with a sense of history understand this is a bit of a Golden Age (75 years ago the American and British armies were…
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The Carbon Car Tax Nobody Is Discussing
By Steve Haner So far there appear to be about six schemes before the 2020 General Assembly to save the Earth and its inhabitants from the fiery holocaust of climate catastrophe. The one that is going to cost you the most money in the shortest period of time is still missing in action. Finally we…
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Yes! A Statue for Virginia’s Black Union Troops
Yes! Where can I donate? Richmond Councilwoman Kim Grey’s proposal in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch for a statute honoring the Civil War’s black Union troops from Virginia needs to be acted on promptly. It should replace the one statue that does need to disappear off Monument Avenue, the one to Jefferson Davis. In particular the…
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Conformity Article Errata, Semi-Mea Culpa
I got enough of importance wrong in yesterday’s post on state income tax policy that a real correction is required, not just a tweak to the existing previous post. Herewith what I know I got wrong: As Dick Hall-Sizemore pointed out, correcting me in a comment, the 2019 provision creating a new Taxpayer Relief Fund…
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Games Still Played with “Conformity Windfall”
By Steve Haner Sometimes you have to start the victory lap, even if you only get halfway around the track. A year ago, on Bacon’s Rebellion and in Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy organs, I was beating the drum for a proposal to double the state’s standard deduction, the amount of family income exempt…
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Two Medicaid Updates: Work Requirement, PBMs
By Steve Haner Medicaid Work – Training Requirement Dead Disappointing many, thrilling many, and surprising nobody, the Governor of Virginia has openly broken his 2018 promise to couple expanded Medicaid coverage with a work or job training requirement for able-bodied recipients. Moving people out of poverty is no longer the goal. Governor Ralph Northam was…
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Ignore the ROE Decision. Dominion Gets It All.
By Steve Haner After a long, expensive and contentious legal battle producing a huge case record, the State Corporation Commission left Dominion Energy Virginia’s authorized profit margin unchanged Thursday. The return on equity figure did not go higher, as the utility demanded, and did not go lower, as just about everybody else involved in case…
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Northam Appointee Opposes DEV’s Green Tariff
By Steve Haner Is Governor Ralph Northam now on both sides of the electricity retail choice issue? Having sent a strong signal weeks ago that he would oppose 2020 legislation creating competition for all customers, his administration has now intervened in a regulatory dispute asking to protect competitive choice for 100% renewable electricity. You are…
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Will VA Now Help Kill the Electoral College?
By Steve Haner Add this to the pile of really bad ideas that now have a chance to pass in New Blue Virginia: Allowing California and New York to decide how to cast Virginia’s electoral votes. Since millions who slept through government class were stunned to learn in 2016 that the popular vote doesn’t pick…
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This Says It All: In Just Four Years
This says it all – from J. Miles Coleman, at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. I saw it this morning on The Bull Elephant, which focuses on Loudoun. Would Virginia Beach and Henrico look the same? If you have any doubts the Trump era has produced a true realignment, dispel them. SDH
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There Was No Republican Message. None.
By Steve Haner You know Virginia has changed when being labeled a socialist by your opponent is less damaging than being labeled a Republican. That’s the opening line for my short essay on what happened November 5, which as far as I can tell has already been analyzed 345 other times in various publications, including…
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What Will Clean Virginia Be Asking For?
By Steve Haner “Do you actively support efforts to reduce corruption in government?” Of course, any candidate presented with that question will reply yes. What do you expect? “No, I’m quite passive about corruption in government. Live and let live.” That was one of the softball questions on the Clean Virginia candidate survey form,…
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Orsted Drops Projected OSW Capacity Factors
By Steve Haner The company that will partner with Dominion Energy Virginia to build a massive offshore wind farm off our coast has just cut the energy production forecasts for its own facilities, sufficient to lower its profit margins and drop its stock values. “Our models weren’t sophisticated enough,” Orsted’s chief financial officer is quoted…