Bacon's Rebellion

  • AI Guardrails Will Shape Society. Here’s How They Work.

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image generated by ChatGPT 4o

    You know Artificial Intelligence has reached critical mass when the politicians start trying to regulate it. (See The Virginia Mercury’s summary of Virginia bills here.) As citizens, we need to pay close attention. John Farmer, a Richmond intellectual-property attorney, provides a helpful primer. — JAB

    by John Farmer

    You will be hearing a lot about AI guardrails. There will be intense political battles over what they do and whether they must be disclosed publicly. My mission today is to tell you why they matter greatly and how they work.

    Prominent venture capitalist and computer scientist Mark Andreessen recently said, “AI is highly likely to be the control layer for everything in the world.” It will likely become the control interface between humans and computers. Technology providers are already pushing this, such as the “AI Overview” in Google search results and “Apple Intelligence” being featured in iOS 18 in recent iPhone models.

    AI guardrails are becoming powerful tools that will shape societal thought. We already have had political fights, new state laws, and litigation over curating what goes on social media, with conservatives accusing some social media sites of censorship, sometimes at the behest of government officials, and progressives demanding the deletion of information they deem false and harmful.

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  • Disgraceful

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Geoffrey Sills with rescue dog. Aw, what a nice guy. Except for the assaulting-the-police-officer-with-a-baton part.

    Geoffrey William Sills, of Mechanicsville, was found guilty of wresting a police baton from a Capitol police officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and using it to “repeatedly strike at officers in the police line.” He received clemency under President Trump’s blanket pardon of individuals who participated in the mayhem. So reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    Disgraceful.

    It is possible to hold two thoughts in one’s head at the same time: that the Justice Department went overboard in prosecuting people who strolled peacefully into the Capitol building and wandered about as curiosity seekers while it was justified in throwing the book at people who committed violent acts.

    Last time I heard, Republicans were not normally sympathetic to people who assault the police.

    According to the RTD, Trump’s clemency extended to Farhad and Farbod Azari, a Richmond father and son who rammed a metal bike rack into a line of Capitol police and used a flag to strike an officer.

    What’s the saying? You do the crime, you do the time.

    (more…)

  • The Expensive Triple Whammy If Dominion Wind Dies

    Posted on

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    On its face the executive order President Donald Trump signed to bring a halt to future offshore wind turbines on federal ocean leases did not target the Virginia project underway. Dominion Energy Virginia is reporting it has all the federal permits it needs and will continue pushing toward its late 2026 completion date for Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW).

    A brave face and soothing reassurance are not enough. The reality is the project is in jeopardy. The EO calls upon the new federal bureaucracy to hunt for an excuse to cancel even the leases or permits for projects already underway, “identifying any legal bases for such removal,” and present those options to Trump.

    Because of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) and its mandates to generate renewable energy credits or pay financial penalties, the cost of a cancellation is even higher than most realize. This is one more reason for Virginia to retreat from this unachievable law.  

    It has been previously explained that under the traditional rules for monopoly utilities, any costs incurred for a cancelled project of this nature could fall totally on the ratepayers. The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has approved this project with its $9.8 billion price tag (not including financing). Having gotten that approval, the utility is entitled to recover its costs. The potential stranded costs a year ago were $4 billion and must be far more now.

    A residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of power is already paying $8.63 a month to build the plant and Dominion has an application pending to raise that to over $11 starting in July. That routine update on the project could become the forum for a debate on its future. If nothing else, the total of the potential stranded costs could be determined.

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  • The Baucom Resignation Could Set Off a Power Struggle at UVA

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Ian Baucom

    Ian Baucom will step down as provost of the University of Virginia in March to become president of Middlebury College in Vermont. UVA will launch a national search for his replacement, the university announced today. His departure will likely set off a power struggle between President Jim Ryan and members of the Board of Visitors appointed by Governor Glenn Youngkin.

    As the chief academic officer of UVA, the provost is arguably the most important position in the university power structure second only to President Jim Ryan. Indeed, the provost may do more to set the cultural tone and strategic direction of the university than the president, much of whose time is tied up with fundraising.

    Ryan has asked Brie Gertler, deputy provost and senior vice provost for academic affairs, to serve as interim provost during the search process.

    Educated at Wake Forest University and Yale, Baucom taught at Duke University for 17 years before joining UVA in 2014 as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences where he oversaw the overhaul of the curriculum. Upon the departure of UVA’s previous provost Liz Magill for presidency of the University of Pennsylvania, he was Ryan’s choice for the No. 2 position and appointed in 2022 without controversy.

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  • Bobby Scott Plays Hamlet: A Theatrical Review

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Paul Goldman

    With apologies to Bobby Scott. Try as I might, I could get neither ChatGPT or Grok to render an image resembling the congressman. Some versions were of white dudes. And every image had a beard! — JAB

    Poor Denmark: As if the threat of losing Greenland to President Donald Trump isn’t enough. Now Hampton Roads Congressman Bobby Scott as Hamlet? Such are the indignations the Danish people must endure today. Bobby is clearly not whom William Shakespeare had in mind for the princely role in 1600. He is a tad old for the part. But I ask you, who better to play a prince than a member of Congress? They get the royal treatment for sure.

    There’s no denying that “to be or not to be” is the question hanging over Virginia’s gubernatorial race. Democratic Congressman Scott keeps saying he hasn’t ruled out running for governor in the Democratic primary. He has until late March to submit the required nomination materials.

    The real Bobby Scott

    Richard Burton’s Hamlet set the record with a 137-day run on Broadway. It’s fair to say Scott’s been at this a lot longer. This isn’t his first time he’s auditioned to play Hamlet. 

    Former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger is understandably getting tired of Scott not making up his mind. Spanberger’s people are saying privately Scott is a wuss and knows Abigail would clean his clock in a primary fight. (I’ll discuss this later.)

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  • Bobby Scott Helped Free Notorious Cop Killer Peltier

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    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    Rep. Robert Scott

    Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott, a long serving Democrat from Newport News once in the Virginia Senate, joined several congressional colleagues late in 2024 to petition President Joe Biden on behalf of one of the most notorious of cop killers. Biden agreed and granted clemency to Leonard Peltier, popular with leftists around the world because he claimed he was acting on behalf of America’s oppressed indigenous peoples.

    What Scott did needs to be noted and reported because he continues to toy with the idea of running for governor as a Democrat, appealing to Democrats who fear Abigail Spanberger is not sufficiently true to The Cause. Well, she was smart enough not to sign this letter on Peltier’s behalf, so maybe they’re right about her.

    Scott’s action wasn’t reported in Virginia at the time of Peltier’s inclusion on Biden’s long list of pardons and commutations. Peltier’s release was the focus of a Wall Street Journal editorial today, which mentioned the letter from 36 members of Congress and then provided a link. Scott was the only Virginian who signed. It reads in part:

    Nearly 50 years ago, Mr. Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, was arrested and later convicted for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Since that time, Mr. Peltier has maintained his innocence, and serious concerns have been raised regarding the fairness of his trial and incarceration. Calls for his release have also received sweeping support from civil liberties and human rights organizations – including the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch; faith leaders and other respected voices – including Pope Francis, Saint Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, and Coretta Scott King; and even those previously involved in his prosecution.

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  • Bacon’s Birthday (Sir Francis’, That Is)

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    James A. Bacon

    Sir Francis Bacon

    It’s high time we begin celebrating the birthday, January 22, of the most consequential individual surnamed Bacon in history: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). A proponent of empiricism and skepticism in the pursuit of scientific inquiry, Bacon is widely regarded as the philosophical founder of the scientific revolution. As a member of parliament, according to Wikipedia, he became known as “a liberal-minded reformer, eager to amend and simplify the law. Though a friend of the crown, he opposed feudal privileges and dictatorial powers.” All in all, he was much to be admired and should be regarded as one of the great benefactors of mankind. (Hat tip to Paul Blumstein.)

    — JAB

  • Trump 2.0 Should Be Good for Virginia

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    But will Virginians vote GOP in November ’25?

    by Ken Reid

    Donald Trump is back in office. Trump 2.0 has begun. Will this be good for Virginia and the country?

    As a free-market conservative and GOP activist and former elected official in Loudoun County, I believe it will be. However, Trump and the GOP Congress have to deliver on promises to lower inflation, tackle illegal immigration, crime and improve the U.S. standing in the world. 

    And, all those executive orders he signed in this first hours of his 2nd non-consecutive term, and future EO s, can be overturned when a new president takes over in four years. With a stroke of a pen Monday, Trump revoked 78 executive orders Joe Biden signed during his term.

    But Trump 2.0’s effort to cut the size of the federal government and workforce, while necessary, might not be good politics for the Virginia 2025 elections for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegates.

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  • Dominion Sells Solar Power at a Loss Just to Earn the RECs

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    To avoid the financial penalties included in the Virginia Clean Economy Act, Dominion Energy Virginia has sometimes sold solar energy at a loss to earn the related renewable energy credit. It has been paying the regional PJM wholesale energy market to accept the electrons, rather than PJM paying it for the power. 

    This practice of selling solar power even when the market value is negative is revealed in testimony on file at the State Corporation Commission, part of Dominion’s pending application to add additional solar and battery energy assets and to increase the monthly charge for them imposed on consumers. Dominion files an application for new assets annually to meet the renewable mandates in the VCEA.

    As previously explored, the key element of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is its requirement that a covered utility must meet certain renewable energy production targets, a renewable portfolio standard. If it does not do so with its own assets, it must either purchase outside renewable energy credits or pay a fine. The RPS target percentage of its annual electricity sales goes up year after year (26% now, 41% in 2030.)

    The sales of solar at a negative price was revealed in testimony filed by the environmental activist group Appalachian Voices, which has hired a former SCC expert now in the private sector. Gregory Abbott’s recommendation to the SCC is that Dominion’s stockholders, not its customers, cover the financial losses incurred. 

    I recommend that the Commission put Dominion on notice that, going forward, if the Company dispatches its solar units at negative hourly LMP energy prices that exceed the proxy value of RECs … or, alternatively, the deficiency payment, then the excess costs above the REC proxy value or deficiency payment will be recovered from shareholders instead of customers.

    The goal of this recommendation is not to punish shareholders but rather to properly incent Dominion to establish operational protocols and to develop the technical capabilities to overcome the operational constraints that are allowing this to happen.

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  • A Vindictive Bill that Invites Retaliation

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    I can’t decide which is more appalling. The fact that Delegate Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, would introduce a bill to revoke tax-exempt status for several Confederate heritage groups, or the fact that the measure won the support of 12 Democratic legislators to pass through the House Finance Committee.

    Playground bully. ChatGPT

    Both chambers of the General Assembly passed a similar bill last year, but Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed it on the grounds that it was unnecessary and divisive.

    That’s putting it mildly.

    The bill is vindictive. It sets a terrible precedent for using the state tax code as a weapon in the culture wars. And it invites retaliation. Virginia Democrats apparently can’t imagine themselves ever being in the minority and having Republicans wield the tax code to bully them.

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  • Who’s the Biggest Electricity Importer in the Country? Not California

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Virginia is the biggest importer of electricity in the United States, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report released last month. The Old Dominion has surpassed California as the biggest consumer of electricity from other states. Imports into the Land of Nuts and Fruits declined due to heavy investment in rooftop solar and energy efficiency, says the report. By contrast, imports into Virginia have soared between 2019 and 2023 due to growing commercial-sector demand, mainly data centers.

    The increase in demand is highly concentrated in Data Center Alley in Loudoun and Prince William counties. I’m all in favor of making Virginia the data-center capital of the world — but not if it means a tax bonanza for Loudoun and Prince William paid for by higher electricity rates for everyone else.

    The average retail price of electricity in Virginia in 2023 was 10.8 cents per kilowatt hour. Those weren’t the cheapest electrons in the country, but electric rates were lower than the national average of 12.7 cents per kWh. Lower rates make Virginia more economically competitive for manufacturing and give the commonwealth a cost-of-living advantage.

    Surely it is possible to design an electric tariff that meets the energy demands of the data centers without penalizing all Virginians with higher rates. The issues will be complex, so the legislature needs to get moving pronto.

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  • A Commonsense Bill for Math SOL Exams in Spanish

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Todd Truitt

    Senator Barbara Favola

    The Senate Public Education Subcommittee advanced a commonsense bill negotiated Thursday by Senator Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, and the Youngkin administration, providing for math Standards of Learning (SOL) exams in Spanish for beginning English Learners, as most states provide.

    The bill addresses the alignment of Virginia’s new school ratings system with federal law, which includes the English, math and science SOLs scores of English Learners (EL) three semesters after arrival. Virginia previously used a de facto end run around this standard (as well as other more rigorous federal requirements), issuing school ratings under a separate state system that exempted ELs for 11 semesters.

    Recently arrived ELs’ lack of English proficiency creates the potential for misidentification of schools needing support if proper accommodations are not used, which these Spanish math SOLs address.

    Favola has taken a pragmatic approach to advancing her bill. Shortly after learning about the information below from Migration Policy Institute, she filed a budget amendment to fund such exams in Spanish for math and science for $300,000 per year.

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  • Political Polarization and Data Centers

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    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    The Town Council of Warrenton has big regrets after issuing a special-use permit allowing Amazon to build a data center in the town. Council finds itself embroiled in litigation from a citizen lawsuit to block the Amazon project as well as a FOIA request to release thousands of emails and documents, according to the Fauquier Times.

    Council fired its old town counsel and hired former state senator Chap Petersen, an old-school New Deal Democrat who was ousted by the new generation of “progressive” Democrats. Judging by his recent autobiography, “Rebel,” this new role is just right for Petersen, who, though appalled by the progressives’ woke brand of “social justice,” still enjoys standing up for the little guy…. especially when the big guy is Dominion Energy.

    It is fascinating to watch the politics of data centers unfold. There is nothing inherently pro-Republican or pro-Democrat about building Artificial Intelligence-enabling data centers. But the tribalistic instincts driving polarization in our society seem to be pushing the parties into opposite camps.

    Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity. A projected surge of demand for electricity in Virginia threatens to derail the push toward a zero-carbon electric grid. Dominion, which once endorsed that goal, now says it will need to build natural gas plants to offset the intermittency of wind and solar power. Therefore, progressives are aligning with the anti-data center protesters.

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  • Bacon Bits: The Irresistible Impulse to Regulate

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    If it moves, regulate it… Democrats and civil libertarians are gearing up to restrict the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) by law enforcement. A bill submitted by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, would restrict police use of the readers to specific instances such as missing person cases, outstanding warrants, human trafficking or stolen vehicles, reports The Virginia Mercury. Law enforcement authorities say ALPRs also can help locate track down wanted individuals and produce evidence for use in courts. Dems raise privacy concerns and, of course, the potential for “disparate impacts on minority communities.” For such a simple device, ALPRs raise a lot of questions: What data is collected, how long is it retained, does it require a search warrant to access, and who gets to say where the devices are placed on public rights of way?

    If it flies, regulate it… Meanwhile, spooked by an incident in which a 25-year-old Chinese national flying a drone over Newport News Shipyard, Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, has submitted a bill that makes it a felony to knowingly fly a drone over defense contractors’ sites, reports The Virginian-Pilot. The FBI charged the Chinese student with four misdemeanors. Locke’s bill would impose more prison time. There is a gap between punishments allowed under current law and what’s needed to establish an “enhanced deterrent,” Locke opines. The ability to see the connection between punishment and deterrence is a refreshing perspective for Locke, a “progressive” critic of traditional law-enforcement theories.

    If it pulsates, regulate it… The wave of technology sweeping the nation offers endless opportunities for legislators to substitute their own judgment for those of citizens and businesspersons. Take, for example, Delegate Bonita Anthony, who has submitted a bill prohibiting landlords from using pricing algorithms to assist in rate setting. The bill would grant tenants an opportunity to file a written complaint with the Office of the Algorithmic Rent Pricing Ombudsman. You can’t make that up! Heaven forbid that landlords would automate their research into what’s occurring in the rental marketplace. Far better to have imperfect pricing based on ignorance of supply and demand!

  • Oh, Don’t Worry About the Law

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It seems our incoming President is willing to disrupt millions of lives and families by rounding them up and deporting them because they violated a law when entering this country, but is willing to disregard a law, overwhelmingly passed by Congress and unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court, judged to be essential to the national security of the country. I suppose that means he will have his fingers crossed tomorrow when he takes that oath of office.

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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