Author: Steve Haner
-
Dominion’s Wind Farm Price Jumps $900M
Dominion Energy Virginia has announced a $900 million increase in the capital costs of its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, bringing the new projected total to $10.7 billion. The additional expense will be incurred on transmission interconnections needed to allow the power to move within the PJM regional electricity market. The news came in a…
-
Virginia Students Missing Even Low Expectations
By Hannah Schmid Virginia students continued to struggle to meet national proficiency standards based on results in the recently released 2024 data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Reading scores remained stagnant among Virginia’s fourth graders while math scores slightly increased. Among Virginia’s eighth graders, scores in both reading and math declined. Every…
-
Making VCEA Even More Expensive and Onerous
By Steve Haner The 2024 General Assembly ended with a promise from its majority Democrats to review and perhaps revise the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which mandates the end of hydrocarbon electricity. The revisions are now pending at the 2025 General Assembly and are uniformly bad. One positive development this session has been an…
-
Building a Virginia Workers Paradise in Just One Meeting
By Steve Haner Virginia Democrats envision a Workers Paradise and are busy trying to create it. By way of illustration, below are ten bills that were approved by the House Labor and Commerce Committee last week in just one of its meetings. This is by no means a complete list of the new mandates on…
-
Surprising No One, Study Finds Skill Games Target Poor
By Steve Haner A Virginia economist has turned up hard data showing which neighborhoods contained the highest concentration of the gaming devices called “skill games” by some and “neighborhood slot machines” by others, when last they were legal. The result will not surprise you. Fletcher Mangum of Mangum Economics in Henrico County was hired by…
-
Keeping Seats Open for Next Governor to Fill
By Chris Braunlich The Democratic State Senate last week rejected nine of Governor Youngkin’s appointments to key governing Boards in the state. Although Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) used high minded language to defend the action, it is much more likely that the rationale was baser — simply keeping important policy-making board seats open for what…
-
$633 Tax Hike Results if Senate Dems Balk on Standard Deduction
By Steve Haner In the past few years, under governors of both parties, Virginia has expanded its standard deduction for income taxpayers from $6,000 for a couple in 2018 to $17,000 today saving those taxpayers $633 per year. When they produce their budget bill on Sunday, the Democrats who hold the majority in the Virginia Senate…
-
Tax-Free Tips Bill Fails First Vote, Standard Deduction May Grow
By Steve Haner If it were my job to pass the bill to eliminate income tax on tips, my first move would be to fill the room where a committee was voting with men and women who depend on tips and who would benefit from the bill. I’d have the legislators considering a no vote…
-
Four Anti-School Choice Myths Exploded
By Chris Braunlich When Governor Glenn Youngkin proposed an Education Opportunity Scholarship Grant – similar to what exists in 28 other states – providing $5,000 in private school scholarships to 10,000 low-moderate income public school K-12 students, the reaction was instantaneous, underscoring America’s partisan divide: Republicans endorsed it. Democrats opposed it. Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mt. Vernon),…
-
The Real Cost of the RPS Mandate? $609 Million, Money for Nothing
by Steve Haner In a recent debate at the Virginia General Assembly over the growing consumer cost of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a senior Democratic delegate dismissed concerns over the renewable energy requirement as only involving perhaps $2 per month on a residential customer. The actual amount is $4.69, or about $56 per year,…
-
The Expensive Triple Whammy If Dominion Wind Dies
By Steve Haner On its face the executive order President Donald Trump signed to bring a halt to future offshore wind turbines on federal ocean leases did not target the Virginia project underway. Dominion Energy Virginia is reporting it has all the federal permits it needs and will continue pushing toward its late 2026 completion date…
-
Bobby Scott Helped Free Notorious Cop Killer Peltier
By Steve Haner Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott, a long serving Democrat from Newport News once in the Virginia Senate, joined several congressional colleagues late in 2024 to petition President Joe Biden on behalf of one of the most notorious of cop killers. Biden agreed and granted clemency to Leonard Peltier, popular with leftists around the…
-
Dominion Sells Solar Power at a Loss Just to Earn the RECs
By Steve Haner To avoid the financial penalties included in the Virginia Clean Economy Act, Dominion Energy Virginia has sometimes sold solar energy at a loss to earn the related renewable energy credit. It has been paying the regional PJM wholesale energy market to accept the electrons, rather than PJM paying it for the power. …
-
Yes, Deficiency Payments May Happen, Dominion Reports to SCC
By Steve Haner Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) in his State of the Commonwealth Address last week described the Virginia Clean Economy Act as a “quagmire.” Later that same day, the director of his Department of Energy warned that the state’s premier electric utility might soon begin making “deficiency payments,” in effect paying fines for failing…
-
Celebrate Even Small Wins Over the Green Madness
By Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia is in the process of modernizing and upgrading the remaining natural gas fired generator at the controversial Possum Point power plant in Prince William County, seeking to squeeze out an additional 44 megawatts of output in addition to the existing 660 megawatts. Dominion claims it needs the power to…