Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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SCC Told It Lacks Authority to Limit Balance Billing
by Steve Haner The arguments which have paralyzed Virginia General Assembly efforts to end surprise bills from medical providers are surfacing again in comments to the State Corporation Commission. It is considering an internally generated regulation that requires advance consent from patients to be treated by someone outside their approved health plan. As proposed in…
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Just Pretending To Protect Ratepayers Won’t Cut It
by Steve Haner If you have nothing substantive to offer, try some meaningless virtue signaling. That’s the only way to interpret a claim from 36 General Assembly Democrats that they are taking steps to oppose “Dominion raising Virginian’s energy bills by $147 million,” to quote a Blue Virginia headline today. The story reports on a…
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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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Catholic Bashing No Disqualification for Northam?
by Steve Haner Try this thought experiment. Imagine a headline in the state capitol newspaper reading: “Appointee’s posts disparage Republicans and others on the web.” Or swap Democrats for Republicans. Would anybody bat an eye? Instead, of course, the story in the Richmond Times Dispatch is about Governor Ralph Northam’s recent appointment of a vicious…
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Dominion Must Move Customers To Competitors
by Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission Wednesday granted motions by two competitive service providers and ordered Dominion Energy Virginia to hand over various customers. The two companies, Direct Energy Business LLC and Calpine Energy Solutions LLC, offer a 100 percent renewable energy option in the monopoly utility’s territory. “The Commission has found that: (a)…
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Surplus? How About $455 Million Windfall Tax Hike
by Steve Haner Virginia ended the last fiscal year with about $797 million more in revenue than projected, and the Northam Administration credits $455 million of that to higher taxes on about 30% of taxpayers caused by conforming to the new federal tax law. More than 700,000 tax returns stopped claiming state itemized deductions, accounting…
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Best Gun Violence Idea Not Proposed in VA?
by Steve Haner The most effective gun violence prevention idea presented to the Virginia State Crime Commission Monday was one seldom discussed in the state: Add violent misdemeanors to the list of convictions that prevent gun purchases from a licensed dealer. Four states, including Maryland, have that provision and a Boston University study found it…
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Fungible (and Vintage?) Green Virtue, For A Fee
by Steve Haner Like most major electric utilities now, Dominion Energy Virginia has a certain amount of energy generated by processes now designated “renewable.” Hydro power has been around for a long time, and now that is supplemented by a growing number of solar generators – owned by the company or under contract to it.…
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Gun Issues Return to Capitol Monday, Tuesday
by Steve Haner Proposed firearms regulations will pack a General Assembly meeting room Monday and Tuesday, and for that portion of the population not already locked into an ideological position either way, it could be useful to pay attention. The Republican majorities have taken some political bashing for failing to act on the flood of…
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What Does Dominion Lose When Customers Leave?
When you use a competitive service provider (CSP) instead of the monopoly electricity company, what does the monopoly provider stop collecting? Just what part of the electric bill are big customers such as Costco and Kroger and Walmart seeking to avoid by leaving Dominion Energy Virginia? The answer is most of it, everything covered under…
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Medicare for All? Medicare for Us Is Different
Blame this one on four wasted evenings watching the Democratic presidential debates. As Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the rest were describing their promise of “Medicare for All,” my wife and I were deep in the process of learning about and registering for “Medicare for Us,” which kicked in this month. The big…
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Dominion Protecting Renewable Energy Buyers?!
Dominion Energy Virginia is simply trying to protect the unsuspecting public from environmental fraudsters, you understand. Companies like Costco Wholesale and The Kroger Company lack the energy expertise to decide for themselves if a competitive service provider really is providing 100 percent renewable energy. They are being denied that service by Dominion for their own…
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Bacon Bits: The Rules, California is Crazy, Rider E
This is the simple stuff, people. Delegate Nick Freitas doesn’t seem to be the only person in the Republican camp complaining that the rules are a problem, at least when enforced. A conservative activist group that went after state Senator Emmett Hanger in the June primary is now screaming “bloody murder” because Hanger filed a…
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Saving the Planet Sometime Soon After Never
What feeds persistent skepticism about those highly touted energy efficiency programs that we utility ratepayers get billed for? The actual reports on their costs and outcomes do not help. Case in point: A quarterly report from Dominion Energy Virginia about its on-going efforts to reduce energy usage for low income or elderly residential customers. The…
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A Ray of Hope Ends a Troubled Week
Just when hope has largely departed, a ray of sunshine. Senator Chap Petersen of the 34th District in Fairfax showed up in my inbox with a nice message on why he was pleased to attend this week’s festivities in Jamestown. Why did he feel the need to explain, I wondered? I didn’t have to wonder…