Category: Energy
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Investor in Dominion Wind Buys $150M Island
By Steve Haner One of the leaders of investment firm Stonepeak, which is buying a 50% share in Dominion Energy’s Virginia Virginia Beach wind project, just bought a private island. The story is reported by the New York Post, which mentions his role in the major investment firm but doesn’t make the connection to the…
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Four Years In, Energy Subsidy Helping Very Few
By Steve Haner Four years after approval, a state program to provide lower electricity costs to low income families is still struggling to get going. Administrative costs have far exceeded any actual benefits to utility customers to date. It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program (PIPP) and was created by the 2020 General…
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Challenging the Fact-Free Narrative on RGGI
By Steve Haner The numerous falsehoods in a recent Richmond Times-Dispatch story about the carbon tax so loved by Virginia Democrats start right with the headline. It states that Virginia’s decision to withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative “is costing millions.” The figure of $150 million per year is then mentioned, apparently simply quoting…
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Views on Tobacco Disqualify Defender of Whales?
By Steve Haner It was disappointing to the see the Richmond Times-Dispatch stoop to a weak ad hominem argument on its front page on May 6, seeking to discredit a legal challenge to the Dominion Energy Virginia wind project by labeling the plaintiffs as “climate deniers” and defenders of tobacco.
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Utilities Will Gamble on Nukes With Your $$$
By Steve Haner Standing firm against raising taxes is a fine thing, but it would help if Virginia’s leaders also stopped using people’s electricity bills to fund rent-seeking energy speculations. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has tweaked, but not vetoed, pending bills that allow both of Virginia’s investor-owned utilities to charge ratepayers for power plants that…
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Fighting Over the Check at the Green Power Cafe
By Steve Haner New power plants are pretty useless unless they are connected by new power lines. The debate over who pays for those tall towers and miles of cable can be just as divisive as the fight over who pays for a proposed nuclear plant or offshore wind turbines. Bottom line, of course, the…
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Will Consumers Come First in VCEA Review?
By Steve Haner “If we always keep as our focus what is best for consumers, in getting them reliable power for the least cost, then I think that’s the main guidepost we ought to follow.” That was Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Mark Christie’s opening quote on a PBS broadcast on energy issues due to air…
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Climate Change Wars Coming to Virginia Schools?
By Steve Haner Young Virginians are not getting enough instruction on the deadly existential threat of climate change from the news media, their favorite social media sites, Hollywood productions and President Joe Biden’s campaign stump speeches. Virginia’s General Assembly Democrats are demanding that the public schools double down with a wave of new classroom materials.…
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Wind Project Sued Over Claimed Threat to Whales
By Steve Haner A coalition of public interest groups has now filed its expected lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore wind facility off Virginia Beach. Its key complaint is the federal permits were issued without a full and fair evaluation of the potential impact of the turbines on the shrinking North…
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Can the Governor Veto RGGI?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s top priorities has been to extricate the Commonwealth from participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). One of the top priorities of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has been ensuring that the Commonwealth participates in RGGI. For those readers unfamiliar with the purposes of RGGI and how…
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Whoops!
by James A. Bacon A recurring debate in Virginia’s push toward a net-zero electric grid has been whether demand for electricity in the Old Dominion will grow or shrink. Citing expansion of demand from data centers and electric vehicles, Dominion Energy has contended for years that demand for electricity would continue increasing at a steady…
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EPA Told CVOW Wake Has Air Quality Impacts
By David Wojick In formal comments, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess the adverse impact of the giant Virginia offshore wind project on air and water quality. The issue is far-reaching because all big offshore wind facilities could have these adverse effects.
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Governor May Get Two Different Nuclear Bills
By Steve Haner A Virginia Senate committee voted Monday to approve a House of Delegates bill designed to finance a small modular nuclear reactor in Southwest Virginia, contradicting its own earlier vote for a much broader bill that had statewide application. Two different bills on the same topic might now pass the Virginia Senate. If…
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Floyd Judge Ponders Order to Return RGGI Tax
By Steve Haner A circuit court judge in Floyd County may soon order Virginia to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and to reimpose the related carbon tax on Virginia’s electricity consumers. Judge Kenneth “Mike” Fleenor Jr. ruled earlier this month that a suit seeking reinstatement of RGGI could continue and held a hearing on…
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If Assembly Wants SMR Bill, Then Fix It
By Steve Haner This is progress. Only twenty members of the Virginia Senate voted Tuesday to ignore a key tenet of utility ratemaking and put utility stockholders and profits ahead of consumer protection. Usually when the utilities persuade the General Assembly to do that to Virginia consumers, they get a bigger vote margin than 20-16.*…