Category: Business and Economy
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A Rising Democratic Star Disappoints Teachers’ Unions in Virginia
by Kevin Mahnken, The 74 Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed an expansion of collective bargaining rights last week. Her allies in the labor movement weren’t pleased. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s rejection of a new law expanding collective bargaining rights for teachers has led to a division in the state’s Democratic coalition. It also generated discontent…
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Will Dominion Sale Solve Virginia’s Growing Energy Challenges?
by Steve Haner Assuming Dominion Energy Virginia is indeed absorbed into an expanded NextEra Energy, the more things change the more they may stay the same. The average consumer might see no real difference in their service or their cost. This step was probably inevitable. Credit (or blame) the massive electricity demand growth facing Virginia,…
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When Business Packs Up and Leaves
by Chris Saxman A Warning for Seattle, Olympia — and Richmond Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz opens his Wall Street Journal op-ed by celebrating Washington state’s extraordinary economic rise — built over half a century by Microsoft, Amazon, Costco, and Starbucks into a global hub of technology, innovation, and logistics. That era succeeded, he argues, because civic…
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Assembly and Spanberger Made Zero Progress on Virginia Energy Challenges
by Steve Haner In advance of the 2025 election, the Jefferson Forum outlined in this June commentary the energy challenges facing Virginia. New Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the General Assembly have now concluded work on the 2026 energy legislation and Virginia has made zero progress – and may be losing ground. Ignore the political posturing coming…
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Spanberger Right to Veto Public Employee Unionization Bill
by Derrick A. Max Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, the sponsor of a sweeping public-sector collective bargaining bill (Senate Bill 378) said Governor Spanberger told him Wednesday that she planned to veto the legislation. If she does, she will be making the right decision for Virginia taxpayers, local governments, students, public employees and for her status as the…
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Dominion’s Fantasy PIPP Application Should Be Rejected or Resubmitted
by Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia has asked the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to allow it to begin collecting the cost of a low-income energy subsidy program, adding a small monthly charge to all its customers. The application should immediately be dismissed because it fails to recognize how the 2026 General Assembly expanded the program.…
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Fuel Price Spike Hits Your Dominion Bill Next. Pow!
by Steve Haner The typical Dominion Energy Virginia electric bill could rise another $22 this summer to cover the rising cost of the fuel it uses and the cost of its purchased power, according to the company’s latest filing on its fuel charge with the State Corporation Commission. The utility’s costs of fuel and purchased…
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The Source of All Evil: Data Centers!
Jefferson Forum’s President Derrick Max puts out a Sunday morning summary that only some of you probably see, and I cannot really link to it for you. But today’s email had a useful and entertaining riff on the ongoing efforts to demonize Virginia’s data center industry, a clearly coordinated hit job from the left and…
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Natural Gas Dominates PJM’s Future Plans
by Steve Haner And the winner, again, is natural gas. The 13-state PJM Interconnection regional electricity market announced this week that it has reopened its process for adding new generation and most of the new electrons are proposed to come from natural gas. The news release reports 811 applications for future connection to the regional…
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With Virginia Back In, RGGI Futures Price Tops $41 Per Ton
by Steve Haner Virginia’s impending return to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has driven up the price for carbon credits in the multistate cap-and-trade system’s secondary market. The futures price exceeded $41 per ton this morning, far above the roughly $25 per ton that utilities had to pay in the March 2026 auction. It reflects…
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Potentially Disastrous Legislative Brinksmanship
by Ali Ahmad One of the most striking themes from last Wednesday’s reconvened session was the widespread rejection of Governor Spanberger‘s recommendations. Legislative Information Services shows that of 180 bills amended, the legislature adopted 137, placing those bills straight into law without returning them to her desk. For the first time in decades, the General Assembly also preemptively…
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Testing a New Governor’s Resolve
by Derrick A. Max and Steve Haner This session, the General Assembly sent over 1,000 bills to Governor Spanberger for her signature. She signed 852 into law, vetoed 8 and proposed amendments to 180. Even though some of her amendments were little more than window dressing (see article on Paid Family and Medical Leave) and…
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Another SCC Warning That VCEA Will Fail and Cost a Fortune
by Steve Haner The Virginia State Corporation Commission, consisting of three judges all picked by the General Assembly while Democrats were in control, has delivered another stern warning that the Virginia Clean Economy Act is unworkable and will greatly increase electricity costs within Virginia as it reaches failure. Despite the concerns expressed in its 21-page…
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Spanberger’s Rewrite of Energy Bill Challenges Assembly, Dominion
by Steve Haner Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) has proposed that the General Assembly return to the misguided practice of dictating by law a utility profit margin, overturning a bipartisan reform approved just three years ago. It is no different than her effort to end the bipartisan reforms against political gerrymandering and again put politicians in…
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New State Law offers Landowners the “Freedom” to Build Exactly What the Government Wants Built
by James C. Sherlock Democrats have given Virginians the “freedom” to build: They want single-family homeowners to be able to build an additional dwelling on their property in residential areas without having to comply with local residential zoning ordinances. So Governor Spanberger signed Senate Bill 531 Zoning; development and use of accessory dwelling units (ADUs)…