Category: Energy
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Hurricanes: Dominion’s Big Bet With Our Money
By David Wojick My regular readers know that I have been fussing about the threat of hurricanes destroying proposed Atlantic coast offshore wind arrays. The issue arises because the offshore wind industry is based in Europe, which does not get hurricanes. My focus has been Dominion’s massive project off Virginia, but the whole East Coast…
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Youngkin Now All-In on Offshore Wind
by Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin’s media spokesperson has told the Associated Press that not only is he committed to the current Dominion Energy Virginia offshore wind project, now under State Corporation Commission review, he is also willing to consider additional turbines off Virginia’s coast. The Republican had campaigned a year ago expressing concerns for…
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Dropping? Nope, Gas Tax Now Rises July 1
by Steve Haner Virginia’s gasoline and diesel taxes will rise 7% on July 1, about three more cents per gallon when all the elements of the tax are combined. This is the inflation-driven cost of living adjustment which Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) and most legislative Republicans tried to short circuit, but which was preserved by…
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California Proposing More EV Rules for Virginia
by Steve Haner Virginia’s auto industry overlords in California have a new set of proposed mandates for both electric and internal combustion vehicles which, once adopted, will automatically apply here in the Commonwealth. They do not advance the date for banning the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles earlier than 2035 but do increase…
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Update: Richmond Could Still Close Gas Works
by Steve Haner The Senate of Virginia, after long avoiding a vote, has now approved a bill that would require a Virginia local government to try to sell its municipal natural gas utility before simply closing it. The watered down conference report was all that remained of a more robust bill protecting the natural gas…
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America’s Petroleum Refining Capacity in the News – What is Going On?
By James C. Sherlock This is a note about perhaps the highest profile national inflation issue, the price of gasoline and diesel. The President is demanding more supply from U.S. refineries. Headlines like this one blare at us today: Biden threatens oil companies with ’emergency powers’ if they don’t boost supply amid inflation spike. The…
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Fuel Costs Explode on Dominion Bills in July
by Steve Haner Are you enjoying paying more for gasoline? Have you noticed how that works its way through and inflates the price of just about everything else you buy? The other shoe drops in July when Dominion Energy Virginia increases its prices to reflect the rising cost of fuel. It will also spread more…
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Democracy Dies in Sophistry
by James C. Sherlock All should note the article, “Average U.S. gas prices top $5 a gallon, as surging energy costs squeeze economy,” in The Washington Post. The same Washington Post that is the only newspaper for most Northern Virginians who get one. That article shows again the depths to which the progressive press will…
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The Defense Production Act as a Political Tool to Boost Solar Farms
by James C. Sherlock We have had multiple discussions, good ones, on the issues surrounding solar farms in Virginia. Jim Bacon wrote an excellent column about it in February of 2021 titled “The Political Economy of Solar Farms.” It was good then and prescient as of yesterday. He wrote another one two days earlier. From that…
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You Just Paid More RGGI Tax, Virginians
by Steve Haner Last week Virginia collected another $76 million in carbon tax dollars through the ongoing Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative allowance auction. That was the sixth such sale since Virginia joined RGGI, and the state’s total tax take is now $378 million in 18 months. Do not for one minute allow yourself to be…
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How are Virginians Preparing for the Coming Food Price Shocks?
by James C. Sherlock Virginians have only begun to experience price inflation at the grocery store. Price increases are in the food pipeline that will be a much bigger problem starting this summer. Farmers and ranchers invest up front. They borrow money to do it. They are incredibly efficient at what they do, but are…
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What the Wind Project Costs You and Who Pays
by Steve Haner If the project goes as planned, the consumer cost for Dominion Energy Virginia’s offshore wind installation will rapidly rise to a peak in 2027 and then descend annually over the following 20 years. If it produces power for 30 years, in the final phase the revenue related to the project will exceed…
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Youngkin Endorses Dominion Wind Project
by Steve Haner Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s administration has filed a letter with the State Corporation Commission asking the regulators to approve the Dominion Energy Virginia application to build a 176-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project. The letter was on Department of Energy letterhead and signed by that agency’s director, John Warren, a holdover…
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“Let the Sunshine In”
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Dwight Yancey, editor of Cardinal News, has a fascinating piece today dealing with solar energy in Southwest Virginia and Southside Virginia. In a piece replete with information and rumination, he sets out 13 takeaways from the recently-released Virginia Solar Survey “and other solar energy news, as viewed through the lens of the…
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Miyares Challenges Secrecy in Dominion Wind Case
by Steve Haner Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) has moved to open to public inspection much of the secret data and analysis about Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. His petition filed with the State Corporation Commission April 29 comes about two weeks before formal hearings on the application begin in…