The Great Grid Grab
Share this article
ADVERTISEMENT
(comments below)
Comments
Comments
18 responses to “The Great Grid Grab”
-
Aint buying it. Give me Petersen’s bill. At least we would get back everything, not BS laws. Shoot this down the way they shot us down, dump these too long in the GA guys and get people who enact laws where the taxpayer gets what they deserve.
-
“Hopefully, members of the General Assembly will trouble themselves to find the answers before declaring their support of or opposition to the bills.”
Not a chance, these bills have been bought and paid for, it is simply a matter of how many votes they pass by.
-
rate setting oversight will not be restored, as dominion will be able to keep all their overcharges for “investing”.
this bill is straight up theft. -
The first thing you need is the names of the folks who wrote it and let them field questions.
Next.. it reads like regulations and the devil-in-the-details is whether the legislation says for the bullet items .. “Dominion SHALL DO” versus “Dominion MAY do” is nothing.. it’s like saying Higher Ed has to provide “affordable” tuition so we need to know who wrote the legislation and what their INTENT is – and is not.
You might say it’s too early to take a position…. but the process here is wrong because we don’t have any assurance what-so-ever how the questions are going to be answered if at all.. and that’s not a good process and people SHOULD be opposed to this process… where the devil-in-the-detail questions don’t get answered or you find out after the legislation is passed.
I’ll save DJ the effort. This is the same old same old Va GA NOT doing a legitimate process…
-
“The first thing you need is the names of the folks who wrote it and let them field questions.”
It was written by Dominion and/or their lobbyists. The upper right hand corner of the bill says, “Legislation Not Prepared by DLS”. DLS is the Department of Legislative Services. The group, within the General Assembly, that actually writes the words of a bill. At least, in most cases. They didn’t write this bill. And, since it was not submitted in purple crayon, I feel confident that neither of its sponsors wrote it either. Hat Tip on that to Blue Virginia.
-
-
The trouble with systematic corruption such as that found in Virginia’s state government is that the corrupt begin to sing in tune. For years we’ve been told by the right and the left, Democrats and Republicans alike, that Virginians pay some of the lowest electricity rates in the country. Against that backdrop it’s harder to get very excited about the shenanigans of Dominion and our General Assembly. However, I’ve just come across a recent study that calls the claim of Virginia’s electrical utopia into question.
http://www.vplc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/VPLC_EnergyReport.05032017.pdf
The study contends that while Dominion may provide low base rates to Virginians those base rates only constitute 60% of what the utility charges for residential electricity. Once the other 40% is factored into the equation Virginians have the 10th highest electrical bills in the United States.
I guess Goebbels is the patron Nazi of the Virginia General Assembly.
-
I agree with Jim Bacon’s bottom line stated above: “It strikes me that it is way too early for anyone to declare themselves for or against this legislation. Too many questions need to be answered.”
-
Wagner and Saslaw’s bills are posted, SB 966 Electric utility regulation; grid modernization; energy efficiency programs; schedule; rate review and SB 967 Electric utility regulation; grid modernization; energy efficiency programs; schedule; rate review, respectively. Wagner’s appears to match Kilgore’s word for word, Saslaw’s does not.
Seems like a setup for a Conference Committee hatchet job.
-
I believe you’re correct that these will go to conference to allow for maximum time to tweak and pretend to respond to objections that will be raised.
Wagner’s bill is close, but doesn’t quite match Kilgore’s. The 50 MW of distributed generation isn’t in Wagner’s bill. But his does require the SCC to write yet another report that Kilgore’s doesn’t. Because we all know there needs to be one more report that no one will read.
-
-
If it ends on the Gov’s desk, we know how it ended last time with the rate freeze. Gov McAuliffe said he had met with Dominion top brass and they pleaded with him that they simply had to have a rate freeze, so he agreed as long as they built 500 MW of solar.
-
Having worked in the utility and carrier regulatory arena for 40 years, I’m not opposed per se to trying different tweaks to the basic model. Getting some of these improvements are of benefit to ratepayers. Making the distribution system more reliable is a good example of something that could benefit ratepayers. Fewer and shorter outages are important. Ergo, one might be able to justify forgoing a return of an amount of excess profits equal to the new investment.
But the analysis cannot stop there. The amount of investment must be recorded as fully recovered capital from day one. Dominion should not be permitted to put any of these investments in lieu of refunds in its rate base. It must not be allowed to earn a rate of return on this investment, which is zero cost capital. Similarly, it cannot be allowed to recover depreciation or amortization of this capital.
I’m not done yet. If, for example, Dominion invests in more durable distribution lines that reduce outages, Dominion’s projected expense for outage restoration needs to be reduced. For example, if the investment allowed Dominion to project 5% fewer outages, its restoration costs should be reduced by 5%. In my view, if done correctly to protect ratepayers, there may be room for some horse-trading.
What I fear the most is Northam will pull another McAuliffe and give up some refunds or offsetting investments for some amount of “renewables” that are less expensive than the other investments. The environmental groups do not have the same interests as consumers.
-
Several of you understand this better than most of the legislators. (Unless some of you with pseudonyms are legislators…..) I wish the bill(s) were in this committee!
-
The IQ of this “committee” in on average, significantly higher than that of the House and Senate Commerce and Labor Committees. I will leave it to you to guess who drags down the average on both.
-
-
Perhaps we should form a Commonwealth of Virginia Bacon’s Rebellion Political Party. Perhaps Big Bacon runs for Governor. Given that he is a sure winner, then his cabinet can be divied up between Ackbar, Rippert, TMT, Haner, TBill, Mom, Andrew, and Larry the G.
Then we all can sit back, watch, and critique.
The sun then will shine on the Commonwealth, things like free electric power, and free education worthy of Socrates. Folks like Jeff Bezos will come running for a seat at the bountiful table of fruits, breads, and honeys galore, plus fast and free transit everywhere to shining cities on hills at a snap of one fingers.
-
Sound more like a junta wherein those cabinet members who are better armed would quickly stage a palace coup and run the Commonwealth like a corporation.
-
-
Still wonder if ALEC had a role in writing this legislation and other.
“ALEC’s Influence over Lawmaking in State Legislatures”
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/alecs-influence-over-lawmaking-in-state-legislatures/
No matter where you personally stand on issues.. left or right … and on energy and electricity issues – .. what goes on in the Virginia General Assembly – you should KNOW .. WHO wrote proposed legislation. y=
You should KNOW the name of the people who actually wrote it and what their affiliations are.
For some time now ALEC has been involved in helping to write legislation in the states, including Virginia and every piece of legislation proposed – people have the right – the responsibility to KNOW the views of the people who wrote it.
Legislation written by Dominion would be very different from legislation written by.. say the Southern Poverty Law Center. No matter where you fit in to the political continuum.. all of us need to know who wrote legislation finding it’s way through the legislative process.
GOOGLE ” Virginia ALEC Politicians – SourceWatch”
and you’ll see some familiar names
these are Virginia legislators with ties to ALEC – and ALEC writes model legislation that becomes the starting point for many bills in state legislators.
again – it’s not whether you are pro or con on an issue – it’s do you know who wrote the legislation and what their philosophy is with regard to the subject of the legislation.
-
No. This is not an ALEC bill. The disclaimer from DLS means it was written by Dominion’s own counsel. The simple explanation is usually correct. Plenty of law firms routinely write bills and hand them to patrons. I have written short bills only (not a lawyer.) I think that disclaimer only shows up if the patrons hand them in and say “use as is” and the DLS staff doesn’t get to vet them.
-
Thanks Steve. I THOUGHT that any legislation had to be written with respect to how it would be ultimately appear in the Va Code.
As you probably know – the Va Code is a rats nest..that probably only a few really know how actually implement the intent of a bill.
That’s part of what I thought was DLS role.. in vetting… i.e. they don’t change the intent of the legislation but they know how it has to be inserted into the code .. and how it is written has to be with respect to how it is put into the code.. or am I off into LA LA Land?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.