Author: Steve Haner
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SCC Raises Dominion Wind Price, Exempts PIPP Participants
by Steve Haner The four-part rate hike hitting Dominion Energy Virginia bills by September 1 is now five parts. The increase of more than $14 on a 1,000-kilowatt hour residential bill will now be just under $17 instead. The price we are paying for Dominion’s offshore wind project is also going up. The expected additional…
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Spanberger Support for Mandatory Union Jobs Not “Moderate”
By Chris Braunlich Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger wants voters to believe she’s a moderate. That’s understandable. At a time when the Democratic Party’s favorability is at 33 percent and with an avowed socialist as the party’s nominee in the most highly visible election in the nation, the smart money is for Democrats in Virginia…
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Bidding Up the Price of Buying Virginia’s Legislature
by Steve Haner As of the last round of campaign finance reports, Dominion Energy Virginia is smoking its political nemesis Clean Virginia in donation totals, with more than $11 million given compared to $3.2 million. At $14.3 million in combined donations, the two are well on their way to matching or exceeding the $23 million…
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SCC Faces Dueling Experts, Models on Future Energy Reliability
By Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) decision on whether Dominion Energy can build a new natural gas-fired power plant will depend on which expert or set of experts it believes, and which of the many computer models that dominate the testimony it judges best predict Virginia’s energy future. Dominion has filed testimony…
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No, Spanberger Did Not “Embrace” Natural Gas, But Earle-Sears Does
By Steve Haner A recent headline indicated that Abigail Spanberger, Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia, had “embraced” natural gas in an interview. A reading of the text left a very different conclusion, as in reality what she embraced was the anti-natural gas Virginia Clean Economy Act. Spanberger did tell Inside Climate News that natural gas…
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Four More Dominion Rate Hikes Hitting By Sept. 1
By Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission Friday approved two separate increases in Dominion Energy Virginia’s rates; one caused by the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) and the other related to regional transmission services. Combined they add more than $5 to a 1,000-kilowatt hour residential bill effective September 1. The VCEA driven increase is an…
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Conforming to Trump’s Tax Law Would Save Virginians $1.4 Billion
By Steve Haner Should the 2026 Virginia General Assembly choose to conform state tax laws to the full set of new tax rules at the federal level, Virginia families and businesses might save as much at $1.4 billion annually. That is a fresh estimate from the Tax Foundation, which looked at the impact of full…
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LCV Attack Ads: Three Swings, Three Misses
By Steve Haner The best defense has always been a good offense. With Virginia Democrats under some political pressure over their wind, solar and electric vehicle addictions (not enough pressure, in my opinion), Virginia’s environmental activists are counterattacking at Republicans who won’t drink their green Kool-Aid. The Virginia League of Conservation Voters has announced a…
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Education Issues, Choices Facing Virginia’s Voters
By Derrick Max Virginia’s education system is in crisis. The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are a wake-up call: only 31% of Virginia’s fourth graders are proficient in reading and only 40% in math, and just 29% of eighth graders meet proficiency standards in both reading and math. Worse, nearly one…
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$104 Billion for Batteries in 5 years, $40K Per Customer
By David Wojick, The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) mandates that Dominion Energy Virginia, the state’s major electric utility, rapidly shift its power generation to wind and solar. Dominion’s latest Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) provides dramatic evidence that this shift does not work, making blackouts inevitable. Making it work would be fantastically expensive with the…
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Backup Generation Within PJM Earns Another Stunning Price
by Steve Haner The regional electricity marketplace that serves Virginia, PJM Interconnection, was shocked (pardon the pun) by last year’s high price auction to secure future excess generation capacity, needed for days of tight supply. In response, several changes were made to the process to lower the price faced by the member utilities and their…
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Only Some Job Losses Trigger Media and Political Outrage
By Paul Driessen When Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently laid off 1,350 employees as part of a broader restructuring effort, the media response was swift and emotional. Stories of tearful farewells, union outrage, and dramatic claims of “fascism” filled the airwaves. One would think these federal employees had lifetime appointments and that accountability or…
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Rocky Forge Wind Opponents Still Working to Stop It
By Steve Haner Virginia’s first (and so far, only) installation of onshore utility-scale wind turbines is in its early construction phase, with opponents hoping the Botetourt County project will draw the attention and opposition of the new Trump Administration. They are also complaining to regulators about soil running off the job site and fouling a…
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Dominion’s Gas-Dependent IRP Not Accepted or Rejected by SCC
By Steve Haner The State Corporation Commission has judged Dominion Energy Virginia’s latest integrated resource plan (IRP) – the one with controversial proposals for additional use of natural gas— to be merely “legally sufficient.” In its final order issued July 15, the commission applied the term “reasonable” to only a few elements of Dominion’s 15-year…
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Another Week of Misleading Media to Scare Americans on Climate
A Critic Answered, a Narrative Destroyed By Steve Haner The propensity of American news outlets to spread outright falsehoods about extreme weather and the claimed (but easily refuted) link to “climate change” has been on full display this week. Any observant person who spends even a day driving in the Texas Hill Country can see…