Category: Energy
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Delayed Fuel Costs May Include Interest Now
by Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia wants its customers, not its shareholders, to pay an interest penalty for the privilege of taking three years to pay off the recent explosion in its fuel costs. The company is paying about $1 billion more for fuel than it planned when the fuel portion of bills was set…
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Salvation for the Mountain Valley Pipeline?
by Steve Haner And now, from our “I’ll believe it when I see it” department, comes the expectation that passage of President Joe Biden’s new corporate tax hike and green energy incentives package will be followed by a smooth path to completion for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for natural gas. The topic is everywhere…
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Electric Vehicles in a Hurricane?
by Kerry Dougherty While hurricane season technically began two months ago, it isn’t until August — or even September — that most of us pay attention to those pesky tropical depressions off the coast of Africa. My favorite parlor game is the annual will-we-evacuate-if-a-hurricane-is-headed-our-way debate. My family’s answer, so far, has always been no. There’s…
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Dominion Kicks off Battery-Storage Pilot Project
by James A. Bacon A utility-scale battery storage system has gone online at Dominion Energy’s Scott Solar Facility in Powhatan County, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. During the day when solar output is peaking, excess energy is rerouted to the batteries. When the sun goes down and output falls, batteries release electricity back into the…
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Wojick on Whales III: The Noisy Driving of Piles
by David Wojick The Virginia wind-versus-whales story has taken a turn for the worse. Worse for the severely endangered Right Whales that is. My research has found what may be some really bad news. Meet Tethys. Not the real Tethys, the mythical Greek Titan of the sea, but the U.S. Department of Energy’s center for…
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The July Surprise from Congress – a Completely Revised Energy Economy by 2030
by James C. Sherlock Here at Bacon’s Rebellion we spend a lot of ink talking about Virginia energy demand and supply. We debate the ideas of both sides of the discussion. Turns out that we made the mistake of thinking these were state issues. Democrats in Congress are about to intervene in every part of…
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Solar Development Continues to Erode VA Farmland
by Barbara Hollingsworth First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia lost about 2,000 acres of productive farmland per week in 2021, according to data released in February by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There are many reasons why farmers sell off their land, including development pressures, lack of interest by younger members…
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Bill to Bury Fauquier Powerline Comes to You
by Steve Haner One of the key skills in politics is to make your constituents happy with money provided from those far, far away. It is happening again as Fauquier County’s leaders want the General Assembly to force all Dominion Energy Virginia’s ratepayers to pay to bury a 230-kv power line out of sight from…
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Wojick on Whales II: Missing BOEM Report?
by David Wojick In my previous article I raised this question: what is the potential adverse impact of Virginia’s massive offshore wind project on the severely endangered North Atlantic Right Whales? Answering this basic question should be a central feature of the upcoming Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA) required for the wind project by the National…
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How’s Your Climate Emergency Going? Hanging In?
by Steve Haner How is your climate emergency going so far? We seem to be hanging in well at my house. The media hype around this fairly typical July hot spell has been off the charts, but my favorite headline of the season appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (home of at least one climate jeremiad…
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Five Reasons to Reject Offshore Wind
by Steve Haner Researchers at the University of Virginia are part of an ongoing effort to redesign wind turbines to be both more efficient and better protected from storm-scale winds, as described in this video you can find on a university website. What is the problem to be addressed? Says one of the engineers: As…
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Wind Farm Threat to Whales is Next Big Argument
by David Wojick The massive offshore wind (OSW) project proposed by Dominion Energy may pose a serious threat to the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale population. A comprehensive environmental impact assessment is required to determine the extent of this threat and the mitigation it might require. The same is true for the other proposed Mid-Atlantic…
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More Solar Generation Approved
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Charlotte County Board of Supervisors has approved the development of the largest solar project in the Commonwealth and one of the largest east of the Mississippi River. As reported by the News & Record, the 800-megawatt Randolph Project, debated by the board for almost a year, will occupy approximately 6,000 acres. …
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Can Dominion Be Made To Stand Behind Promises?
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Second of two articles. In promoting its proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project, Dominion Energy Virginia has made many specific projections about its costs and performance. The State Corporation Commission is now being advised to convert one or more…
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Offshore Wind Risks Stressed in SCC Briefs
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. First of two articles, with the second coming tomorrow. Virginia’s State Corporation Commission has now received a series of legal briefs offering opinions on what steps, under the law, it can take to protect Dominion Energy Virginia consumers from the…