Category: Business and Economy
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Do CNBC ‘Best States for Business’ Rankings Mean Anything at All?
Last year, CNBC ranked Virginia as the 4th best state for business. However. as Dwayne Yancey observes at Cardinal News… Over the past year, Virginia has lost more jobs than [almost] any other state. Only two other states have lost jobs at a faster rate. Federal job cuts are a big driver, but not the…
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Virginians Question Power-Hungry Data Centers’ Expansion
by Rich Tucker Newton’s third law indicates that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. In Virginia politics, that is showing up in the push-and-pull over data centers. The state is already peppered with data centers, and developers are rolling out plans to build more. In almost every location, local residents quickly rally to…
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Dominion Sale is Warning Siren for Virginia’s Weak Ethics Laws
by Steve Haner Let me get this straight. A main argument against letting Florida-based NextEra Energy buy Virginia-based Dominion Energy is that the giant and rich new company might be so politically powerful that it will corrupt Virginia’s governance processes. That was the big argument from this fellow on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website. Shall I tell him…
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Too Many Millionaires in Virginia… Or Not Enough?
Some say there are too many millionaires in the United States: The increase in the number of taxpayers earning seven figures or more each year is a sign of growing wealth inequality. Others see the surging number of millionaires as a positive: a reflection of economic dynamism and wealth creation. Not to mention, millionaires pay…
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Retail Theft in Virginia: $155 Per Resident Annually
Reports Forbes: “Retail theft is more prevalent and has a larger impact on retail businesses of all sizes in some states compared to others. According to our analysis, Washington state ranks as the state most impacted by retail crime, while Wyoming ranks as the least impacted.” The cost of theft was highest in the state…
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The Rest of the Story on the Dominion Fuel Price Hike
by Steve Haner The stories making the round last week about Dominion Energy’s bill increase for fuel were blatantly incomplete, as were Dominion’s communications on the matter. Here is what the utility and the well-tamed Virginia “news” media have not told you. The $8 per month reported as the impact on a typical residential customer…
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Virginia’s #3 for Business Rank Argues for Stability, Not Change
by Derrick A. Max Key Takeaways: Key Quote: “Virginia’s No. 3 ranking is a credit to the Commonwealth’s inherited strengths, not a blank check for Richmond to tax more, mandate more, and make it harder to do business here.” Virginia’s climb in CNBC’s newest “Top States for Business” ranking — moving from No. 4 back to…
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Pittsylvania County Breathes Sigh of Relief
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Colorado-based company, Stack Infrastructure (Stack), has announced that it will move forward with its plans to build a giant data center complex in Pittsylvania County. As was reported earlier in Bacon’s Rebellion, the company had made its decision to locate in Virginia contingent on the state continuing its exemption of computer…
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PJM Probably Reached Record Demand Thursday
by Steve Haner A proprietary energy industry newsletter shared with Bacon’s Rebellion reports that the PJM Interconnection regional electricity grid probably set a summer record for demand on Thursday, July 2. The old peak of 165,563 megawatts in the 13-state region was seen in 2006. The system maintained its service by activating demand reduction programs forcing…
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Spanberger, Assembly Pass on Meddling With Dominion Sale
by Steve Haner The most important energy outcome of recent legislative wrestling over Virginia’s energy-focused state budget is what it didn’t include. Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the legislators did not meddle with the plan for Florida’s NextEra Energy to acquire Dominion Energy. The application for that transaction (it is not a merger, but…
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Thanks to Heat Wave, RGGI Will Bite Fast and Hard
by Steve Haner There is some irony in how Virginia will reenter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme on Wednesday just as a long and deep heatwave begins. It is safe to predict that every RGGI-covered coal and natural gas generation plant in the state will be running full tilt until next…
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Coop Customers (But Not NOVEC) May Now Get RGGI Rebates
by Steve Haner Governor Abigail Spanberger’s proposed amendment to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative rebate system will give most but not all residential customers of Virginia’s rural electric cooperatives a shot at some cash back. The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative is still in the RGGI wilderness. The feeding frenzy over the RGGI carbon tax dollars,…
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Debunking Data Center Myths
by Jeff Reynolds You’ve heard the stories. Data centers are loud, water-guzzling monsters chewing up rural landscapes. They promise jobs but deliver none. They’ll suck the grid dry, jack up everyone’s electric bill, overload the power grid, and leave abandoned warehouses when the AI bubble bursts. Opponents paint them as the latest corporate scam, with…
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Let’s Be Honest: Virginia’s Budget Is Racist
by Kerry Dougherty Are black tourists having trouble coming to Virginia? How about “indigenous” visitors? Hispanics? I only ask because buried on page 122 of the hastily assembled 600-page budget Democrats finally finished on Friday – 100 days late – is this intriguing item: “$1,500,000 the first year and $1,500,000 the second year out of…
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Virginia Democrats Inject Race into Tourism
by Virginia Grace McKinnon The Virginia House of Delegates just released its final draft of the 2026 budget. Buried in a civil war on data centers, lifting marijuana restrictions, and giving themselves a 150% pay raise, Democrats are also seeking to spend millions on DEI tourism. Virginia legislators are busy working out the 2026 budget. After months of…