Tag: Stephen D. Haner
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Imprudent, Unreasonable, Unnecessary, Approved
The State Corporation today found as a factual matter that the two-turbine Commonwealth of Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) demonstration project 27 miles off the coast is imprudent and places unreasonable costs and risks on Dominion Energy Virginia’s ratepayers. It then approved the project citing the clear legislative mandate in an omnibus energy regulation bill passed…
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The Forgotten Literary Fund
One of the many debates expected in the 2019 General Assembly of Virginia, which is coming at us like a freight train, will focus on school construction funding and the need for a dedicated source of revenue to repair or replace old or dilapidated local facilities. Proponents have latched onto additional sales tax revenue that…
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Dominion Grid Plan Panned For Lacking Detail
The specific phrase is not used, but the general theme in testimony filed with the State Corporation Commission as it considers Dominion Energy’s massive grid modernization proposal is this plan is not ready for prime time. That thread runs through pre-filed testimony from the Office of the Attorney General, the staff of the State Corporation…
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Conformity: Option on Deductions Saves $370M
If Virginia were to allow its taxpayers to keep taking itemized deductions at the state level, even though they take the new higher federal standard deduction, almost 550,000 more would be expected to itemize at the state level, Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne told state legislators Thursday. Almost 90,000 would be people who were not…
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A New Tax Policy Principle: Harm Reduction
Despite a long tradition of taxing traditional tobacco products, Virginia should not now tax the alternative products from the same industry based on nicotine-laced heated liquids because they serve the high social purpose of harm reduction, legislators were told Tuesday. Carrie L. Wade of the R Street Institute, who never quite stated who had paid…
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Update: SCC Hearing on Off-Shore Wind
If the State Corporation Commission holds a hearing and Bacon’s Rebellion is not there to cover it, does it make news? Well it turns out there is a transcript. Having first held a hearing to debate whether it had the authority to reject a two-turbine, $300 million off-shore wind “demonstration” facility blessed by the General…
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Caution: These Links Will Ruin Your Sleep
A campaign pitch for an incumbent member of Congress you will not hear: You are getting $4 worth of government for every $3 you pay in taxes and fees, and the other buck is piled on as debt for your kids and grand kids to pay! You should vote me back in! The Treasury Department’s…
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Global Climate Catastrophe (in 1501?)
Once the Viking Cruise people have your mailing and email address the marketing is relentless, and the fog from 11 hours on two legs of Lufthansa had barely lifted before the email arrived with a fabulously attractive deal on a Rhine cruise in early 2019. Ah, but I know now why the price is so…
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When and Why Can the SCC Say No?
When the General Assembly and Governor pass a law that states a source of electricity – or even a specific power project – is in “the public interest,” what is the State Corporation Commission left to do? Does that mean the SCC must approve the project even if it turns out to be unreasonable, imprudent…
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Virginia Should Double Its Standard Deduction
In 1987, as part of its response to the conformity issues created by President Reagan’s tax cut, the Virginia General Assembly increased the standard deduction available to Virginia taxpayers to $3,000 for an individual and $5,000 for a couple. At some point since the joint filing amount went up to $6,000 to eliminate any marriage…
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Rural Virginia Does Not Need A Marshall Plan
In devastated post-war Europe, millions of people were qualified and eager for jobs or desperate for capital to get their farms planted and harvested. In demographically-diminishing rural Virginia, farms are mechanized. If you build a huge factory today qualified workers may not come in sufficient numbers. A scaled-down 21st Century Marshall Plan is a nice…
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Transparency? No, Alignment Drives PAC Decisions
Abigail Spanberger won’t take money from corporate political action committees but will from ideological political action committees because the issue PACs have their position statements on their web pages. Spanberger said that Friday to a business organization that donates no political money, Virginia FREE, but there were plenty of big donors or their representatives in…
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This Certainly Demonstrates Something (Don’t Ask)
Under normal circumstances, building two wind turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia at a cost of $300 million would be neither reasonable nor prudent. They may produce the most expensive 12 megawatts of electricity in Virginia history. The only rational reason to go forward is to test technology which is becoming more common…
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Decisions on a New House Plan May Start Today
The House of Delegates Privileges and Elections Committee meets this afternoon to consider several competing proposals for a new House of Delegates district map, all having proponents who claim they will satisfy demands from a federal court. Setting aside the politics and hypocrisy on both sides, when I see the Virginia Public Access Project’s displays…
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A Thumb On The Scale for ACP?
A witness to whom Dominion Energy Virginia had vehemently objected, Gregory Lander of a company called Skipping Stone, had his time on the stand anyway at the State Corporation Commission Tuesday. His testimony might still be stricken, but the two commissioners and everybody else in the room heard it and then a lengthy cross-examination underlined…