Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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Will Dominion Fool Us Again with SMR Cost Bill?
By Steve Haner Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. A utility-backed bill to stick electricity ratepayers with the high-risk costs of developing small (modular) nuclear reactors, approved by a Senate committee Friday, is a “fool me twice” example. Shame on the General Assembly if it falls for it.
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Only Tax Increases Still Pending at Assembly
By Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin’s package of proposed tax changes is now stalled in both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates. A House subcommittee spiked it Feb. 5 and then dashed other bills imposing major tax increases on higher income Virginians. A full Senate committee refused his bill on Feb. 6. Of…
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Stratford Hall Tax Exempt Status Preserved
The real and personal property tax exemptions for the historic colonial plantation Stratford Hall, the ancestral home of the Lees of Virginia, have been spared by the Virginia Senate. It once again amended a bill stripping tax exemptions from other organizations with connections to the Southern Confederacy, removing the popular tourist attraction that was home…
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Rare SCC Deadlock Sinks Dominion’s Energy Plan
By Steve Haner The year long debate over Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed integrated resource plan, which threw climate catastrophe activists into a frenzy because it added a new natural gas plant, is ending with no decision. Two State Corporation Commission judges split on whether to approve it, basically a win for the anti-fossil fuel forces.…
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Mea Culpa, Bills Targeting UDC Should Fail
By Steve Haner Racial animus and revenge are always bad policies. It is now very clear those are the motivations for the bills advancing to strip tax exemptions from legitimate historical and charitable institutions, simply because of connections to the Southern Confederacy. They should die. The beeping sound you hear is me backing up my…
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NJ Greenmailed Into Massive Wind Energy Costs
By Steve Haner New Jersey just agreed to two ocean wind projects with astronomical guaranteed power prices. The price demanded and received by independent competitive suppliers shows there is at least some upside to the utility-owned, captive ratepayer-financed model behind Dominion Energy Virginia’s massive offshore wind facility. In late 2023 the news was full of…
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The Aggressive Progressive Democratic Agenda
By Steve Haner The Democrats now running Virginia’s General Assembly are not just more progressive, but far more ambitious than their predecessors. To fully understand how ambitious you must compile the entire list of progressive bills advancing in the 2024 session and consider their total impact on the cost of living and cost of doing…
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Great Judges Can’t Fix Bad Energy Laws
By Steve Haner The General Assembly has now filled the two open seats at the State Corporation Commission (SCC), ending two years of gridlock. Unfortunately, the same legislators, on both sides of the aisle, are still working overtime to dictate and micromanage the state’s energy policy, reducing the discretion and authority of the independent, non-partisan…
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Two Excellent Nominees Emerge for SCC
By Steve Haner The new Democratic majority in the Virginia General Assembly is moving rapidly to fill the two State Corporation Commission vacancies with excellent, qualified choices. One is well known in Virginia and the second is new to our hallowed Capitol, but with a decade of energy law experience on the federal level. Former…
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Index Minimum Wage? Do the Tax Code, Too.
By Steve Haner One bill that certainly is heading for Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk is the increase in the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour as of two years from now. Both versions, House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 1, raise it to $13.50 for next year, with the $15 level kicking in a…
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Will Democrats Revisit Virginia Net Zero Laws?
By Steve Haner For the third year in a row, Democrats in the Virginia Senate have shot down an effort to divorce Virginia’s auto dealers from California’s impending mandates on electric vehicle sales. But before the predetermined vote went down, the new chair of the committee made a surprise announcement that he and his colleagues…
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Thank Coal, Gas for Your Warm House Today
By Steve Haner Good morning, Virginia. Your lights and heat are on, and you can thank coal and natural gas. Here are the 8 a.m. charts from PJM’s website, which you can check periodically today as the winter weather closes in. Those fuels were providing more than 66% of our electricity, with nuclear providing almost…
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As Dominion and APCO $oar, NOVEC Drops Rates
By Steve Haner The major “rural” electric cooperative serving very urban Northern Virginia is drastically lowering its rates as of this month, because the cost it is paying for bulk power purchases has dropped. The contrast with what is happening with Virginia’s two major investor-owned electric companies may be telling Virginia something if anybody wants…
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God Made Nikki Haley, Too
By Steve Haner On or before March 5, I will cast a vote for former Governor and Ambassador Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination for president. She edges out Governor and former Congressman Ron DeSantis with me mainly on questions of temperament and foreign policy. I am not an isolationist. There are six names on…
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How Not To Do Tax Reform. Again.
By Steve Haner According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration had its first formal discussion with Virginia’s local governments about eliminating their car tax collections two days after he announced it publicly. The General Assembly convenes Wednesday and if there is a plan to replace the $2.8 billion in local government revenue raised…