From The Bull Elephant
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Jeanine’s Memes
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The Real Cost of the RPS Mandate? $609 Million, Money for Nothing
by Steve Haner
Dominion’s predictions of the added customer cost of compliance with several VCEA provisions. In a recent debate at the Virginia General Assembly over the growing consumer cost of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, a senior Democratic delegate dismissed concerns over the renewable energy requirement as only involving perhaps $2 per month on a residential customer.
The actual amount is $4.69, or about $56 per year, if that customer averages 1,000 kilowatt hours per month. Dominion Energy Virginia has an application pending at the State Corporation Commission to raise the cost for purchased renewable energy certificates up 65% to $7.68 per 1,000 kwh, or $92.16 per year on that residential customer.
It wants to collect $609 million from customers between September 1 of 2025 and August 31 of 2026, the next “rate year.” About $250 million of that is “true up” payment for previous years to cover costs not picked up by earlier versions of the charge, known as Rider RPS.
That is money Dominion Energy Virginia will use to buy the renewable energy certificates (RECs) it needs because it is failing to hit the green energy targets of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). There is an entirely separate charge to customers to cover all the construction or lease costs of solar and battery assets which Dominion is acquiring to comply with VCEA (Rider CE), and yet a third segregated charge to pay for the construction of its offshore wind facility (Rider OSW).
According to a chart included in another Dominion regulatory filing, reproduced with this post, the combined cost of compliance with VCEA’s renewable portfolio standard is $17.89 per 1,000 kwh in 2025, or $215 per year. Dominion projects that will be $282 annually by 2030 and $626 annually by 2035. That is using Dominion’s preferred projection method.
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Just Read the Bill
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
Gov. Glenn Younger has been reading Kerry Dougherty’s columns too much. He announced that he will veto SB 1031, dealing with religious exemption from sending one’s children to school.
“I am a strong supporter of homeschooling and will always support the rights of parents to homeschool their children,” he declared. He needs to read the bill.
Under current law, parents may choose not to send their kids to school on the basis of their “bona fide religious training or belief.” A parent may also choose to educate his child at home for other reasons. If the parents choose to homeschool their child, they must provide evidence that one of them is qualified to teach or evidence that an on-line learning program will be used. In addition, parents must provide to the local superintendent a list of the subjects that will be taught and, at the end of the year, evidence that an “adequate level of progress” has been made. The evidence of progress can be a score on a standardized test or a letter from a certified teacher or someone with a master’s degree of higher who has knowledge of the child.
The proposed legislation would require that parents who have a religious objection to sending their children to school meet the same requirements that apply to parents who choose to homeschool their children for other reasons.
No one is being denied the right to homeschool their children under the provisions of the bill. If the governor is opposed to the bill, he, in effect, is saying that he supports parents being able to keep their kids out of school on religious grounds and provide them no education whatsoever.
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Bacon Meme of the Week
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Youngkin Takes Off Gloves, Puts on Brass Knuckles
by James A. Bacon
Governor Glenn Youngkin, not known for his political pugilism, punched back today against Senate Democrats who nixed six of his nominees for the boards of George Mason University, the Virginia Military Institute and the state School Board.
For his first three years in office, Youngkin eschewed contentious rhetoric — at least regarding the issues that I was tracking. Perhaps he’s concluded that adopting a temperate political tone has gotten him absolutely nowhere.
“For three years, my administration has stood for excellence by appointing outstanding leaders to Virginia’s university and state boards,” he said in a press release issued late this afternoon. “And yet today, Senate Democrats rejected highly qualified, nationally recognized individuals who have already been serving with distinction on a volunteer basis. What reasons did they offer for their actions other than their own extreme partisanship? None. Repeatedly, they could not articulate a single substantive reason to reject them.”
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Dems Delete Six Youngkin Appointees
by James A. Bacon
Last August, Governor Glenn Youngkin submitted the names of hundreds of appointees to state government boards and commissions for confirmation by the General Assembly. Traditionally, legislators accommodate the wishes of the chief executive, but occasionally they flex their political muscles by nixing someone they especially dislike.
This year the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections pushed the delete button for two nominees to the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors, three to the George Mason University board, and one to the Board of Education.
Unless Senate Joint Resolution 275 is amended to add new names, Youngkin’s other appointees to Virginia’s public colleges and universities — and that includes five appointees to the University of Virginia board — likely will survive the legislative session intact.
Senate Dems gave only the vaguest of reasons for deep-sixing the six board members, all of whom have been actively serving pending their confirmation or rejection.
“We found their nomination to be inconsistent with the expectations, goals and values we hold for those boards,” said Senator Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria of the rejected nominees. When pressed repeatedly by Republican members of the subcommittee, Ebbin repeated the same phrase without further elucidation.
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Virginia’s New Jersey Problem
Updated Jan 27 @ 16:30
by James C. Sherlock
New-found evidence points to New Jersey-operated business plans that may result in severe threats to patient health and safety in up to 56 Virginia nursing homes. At least one person has already died.
Current government allegations in the wrongful death scandal surrounding Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights) specify that a patient, lying helpless with cerebral palsy and diabetes, was criminally neglected at Colonial Heights (Medicare view) resulting in her death. She died in late October last year after prolonged suffering from sepsis alleged to be a result of that neglect. Criminal charges were filed in December against 18 members of Colonial Heights staff.
This month a physician with responsibilities at that hell hole has been arrested and charged with abuse and neglect of a vulnerable adult.
Strong evidence in both cases points to deliberate operating decisions made by the New Jersey private-equity firm and owners that control Colonial Heights. Colonial Heights is the harbinger of a much broader problem.
Those 56 facilities are operated by small New Jersey groups using a business model that maximizes profits by severe understaffing.
- Affiliated entities (chains) and their investors/owners in the towns of Lakewood and nearby Brick in central New Jersey control 37 including Colonial Heights;
- another chain headquartered and owned in Lakewood controls four; and
- yet another with managers and owners in Montvale and Clifton controls fifteen more.
Virginia has 291 nursing homes certified for Medicare and Medicaid. Those guys control almost 20% of our total state portfolio.
They run absolutely awful nursing homes in Virginia and elsewhere.
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The Endless Appetite for Giving Away Free Stuff
“Hey, kids, free food for everyone!” Image credit: ChatGPT by James A. Bacon
Last week I highlighted calls for state-funded grief counseling as an example of the potentially limitless demand for mental health services. If your vision for society is “no more sad people,” that requires an open-ended commitment from the commonwealth. Today I bring your attention to another case of infinitely elastic demand for government succor: free breakfasts for all. Including rich kids.
This initiative, as I shall make clear, is not about addressing hunger. It’s about addressing self-esteem. The vision: no more sad children.
Senator Danica Roem, D-Manassas, and Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria, submitted bills to provide free breakfast to public school students across the state, according to The Virginia Mercury. Schools would be required to join the federal National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explains the Mercury. Free breakfast would be offered at no cost to any students who request it.
“Children cannot learn if they are hungry. This bill is an investment in their education and would maximize all of the other education investments we are making,” Bennett-Parker said during a House Education subcommittee meeting Tuesday.
“We know that when a child shows up to school and is able to have a full belly, they are able to learn better,” said Emily Moore, a senior policy analyst for Voices For Virginia’s Children. (This was the same outfit plugging for Medicaid-funded grief counseling.)
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AI Guardrails Will Shape Society. Here’s How They Work.
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
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.
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The Expensive Triple Whammy If Dominion Wind Dies
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
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
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
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)
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
