Bacon's Rebellion

  • Dominion Hides Huge Offshore Wind Cost-Risk

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by David Wojik

    The offshore wind industry is suffering a runaway cost crisis, but Dominion Energy says the cost of its monster project will not go up. Apparently, there is not even a risk of it going up. This preposterous claim is worth exploring.

    On the crisis side, I recently wrote about it in general terms. See my https://www.cfact.org/2023/07/26/offshore-wind-has-a-cost-crisis/.

    The financial magazine Barron’s has done some work on this crisis situation. Here is a telling quote from a recent article:

    But behind the scenes, the news about wind power is more sobering. Financially, the industry is teetering, with a parade of companies planning to renegotiate or pull out of contracts, jeopardizing plans for projects that were expected to provide electricity for millions of homes. Inflation is erasing profits, causing some of the largest energy firms in the world to back away. “Returns on offshore wind are becoming more and more challenged,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan told Barron’s last month, just days after a Shell joint venture said it would pull out of a power contract in Massachusetts. Shell won’t build renewable projects that can’t earn initial returns of 6% to 8%, he said. (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    From The Bull Elephant

  • Richmond’s 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Needs Better Judgment

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. Acroterion/Wikipedia

    by James C. Sherlock

    Federal judges are supposed to call balls and strikes in relation to the Constitution and the law.

    President Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act into law on June 3.  Sec 324 of that law, Expediting Completion Of The Mountain Valley Pipeline,

    1. blocked any court from hearing cases about permits for the pipeline; and
    2. gave to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals jurisdiction over any other cases about that pipeline or about the law itself.

    Judging federal agency decision cases is a traditional role for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    The 4th U.S. Circuit in Richmond, soon after the law was signed in Mountain Valley Pipeline, Llc V. Wilderness Society, Et Al. violated both key Sec. 324 provisions.

    The Fourth Circuit had for years assumed for itself the role of federal and state regulator for pipelines in Virginia and wasn’t going to surrender that authority.

    Having already multiple times rejected permits granted to the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Corps of Engineers, among other federal and state agencies, it decided on July 10th and 11th to block construction once again while it reviewed challenges to yet more permits.

    The Supreme Court overturned the decision very quickly and unanimously.

    That was not an anomaly. The Conservative-Liberal split on the Supreme Court is 6-3.  Supreme Court rejections of 4th Circuit actions unanimously, 8-1 or 7-2, are becoming all too common. (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

  • Shocking Omission at Sank Roo Doo Noo

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Sank Roo Doo Noo.

    Now that is an easy address in Paris to memorize, and that phonetic spelling for 5 Rue Daunou (a few blocks from the Opera stop on the Paris Metro and the main Galeries Lafayette) has long replaced the official address.  Anything associated with Ernest Hemingway and the other American expatriates in Paris is on my check list, and this trip I found Harry’s New York Bar.

    Now I need to ask an important question to others who may have been there before me.  The interior décor is dominated by the banners of American colleges and universities, hundreds of them.  But as hard as I looked, I could not find banners for either the College of William and Mary or the University of Virginia.

    Virginia Tech, George Mason, Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee – they were all there, and other Virginia schools.  Some I actually saw on the walls, and then I saw them again when the waiter gave me a plastic-coated listing with agate type so small it comes with a magnifying glass.   Again, I didn’t see them on the list, not W&M or UVA.

    If I just missed them and others can confirm their presence or know where they are, please advise.  It is a surprisingly small place, just a couple of rooms, for all the history it has (they claim George Gershwin wrote American in Paris there.)  It is not the bar that Hemingway famously “liberated” in August 1944.  That one was at the Paris Ritz, a favored Nazi haunt during the occupation.

    But this is a famous American hangout and I want to be sure those schools are represented.  If nobody can testify their colors are there, that is reason enough to mount another expedition to the Second Arrondissement.  (Not that we can’t find another excuse go back yet again in a couple of years.)

    — SDH

  • No Boys in Girls Sports. Period.

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Good news for mediocre male athletes in Virginia: tired of getting cut from the boys’ teams? Slap on some lipstick and play with the girls. The governing body of high school sports has your back!

    Yep, the Virginia High School League this week gave the middle finger to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policy that biological sex should dictate which sports teams kids can join.

    These wokesters just announced that they will continue to follow the policies of the Northam administration that allowed boys pretending to be girls to take coveted slots on the formerly all-female teams. Ralph Northam didn’t give a rat’s patootie about girls’ sports and neither do they. (more…)

  • New CMS Hospital Quality Rankings – Virginia Facilities Ranked Exceptionally High

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    UVa Hospital

    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday released its latest annual hospital quality rankings .

    Only 10.4% of the rated hospitals in the country were awarded the top ranking of five stars.  Of Virginia’s 74 rated hospitals, 13 received that top ranking. Almost 18%.

    Nationally, 28% received one of the top two rankings.  In Virginia, 58%.

    As a whole, Virginians are exceptionally well served.

    By Hospital.  I have taken Virginia’s hospitals from the new national list and sorted them descending by star-ranking, 5 stars though 1 star.  The results are here.  

    The footnote dictionary is here.  For the column header dictionary, see here.

    By Hospital System.  Categorized by system and with computed system hospital averages, the system ranking is here, sorted, like the individual hospitals, descending from best to worst.

    By Region.  See here.  Northern Virginia, with all of its hospitals 5- and 4-Star rated, may be the only region of its size in the country that can make that claim.

    Regional wealth or poverty, and the attractiveness of the location to staff and management still matter.  Especially management.

    The new rankings show significant changes.  We’ll take a look.

    (more…)

  • Youngkin at the Border

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Governor Glenn Youngkin looks over the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas, July 26, 2023. Official Photo by Christian Martinez, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin

    Yeah, yeah, I know, Governor Glenn Youngkin is angling for a spot on the Republican presidential ticket next year, and he doesn’t do anything without considering the political implications first. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Even politicians can do the right thing once in a while.

    Such is the case with Youngkin’s decision to send Virginia national guardsmen to the Texas border to assist Texas in holding back the flood of illegal border crossings. It is reasonable to ask whether this state-led intervention has accomplished anything tangible and is worth the funds expended. But the principle is sound: when the federal government fails utterly and absolutely in this core responsibility, the states are justified in stepping in. Youngkin’s visit to the border sends a powerful message: don’t mess with Texas — or Virginia. — JAB

  • Virginia’s Forced Technology Hits a Speed Bump

    Posted on

    by

    Bob Rayner

    by Bill O’Keefe

    The Virginia General Assembly, as a result of past Democrat control, has mandated through the Clean Economy Act and a 2021 law a low-emission and zero-emission motor vehicle program for model year 2025 and beyond.  In the process it has demonstrated the folly of using technology to force through large subsidies, as well as  the arrogance of legislators who believe they know more than consumers and providers.

    It is becoming ever clearer that these mandates are based on wishful thinking and a failure to understand innovation technology, the importance of cost, and the sources of global emissions. Back in 1980, President Carter and Congress established the Synfuels Corporation to develop alternatives to oil. Its initial funding was $20 billion, but fortunately it wasted only $960 million while making OPEC stronger. The history of government attempting to pick winners because it is smarter than the private sector is littered with failed efforts. But politicians never learn. (more…)

  • Youngkin Bans State Endorsements of Websites Targeted at Kids’ Sexuality That Do Not Require Parental Consent — WAPO Oobjects

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    The Washington Post editorial board, like its news pages, has stubbornly and selectively ignored a lot of big news:

    • the ongoing emergence of testimony under oath of whistleblowers recounting the IRS and Justice Department’s handling of all things Biden;
    • evidence like strings of single-purpose bank accounts used by and for current residents of the White House to launder and distribute to the family a great deal of foreign money; and
    • the collapse of Hunter Biden’s plea deal.

    Such things do not rise to be the subjects of editorials. Except one on June 20 that was not a proud moment. The title:

    Why Hunter Biden’s plea deal is justified

    A quote from that editorial:

    The outcome appears similar to what other defendants might have gotten for similar violations of the law.

    Another editorial praised the Justice Department as “steeped in a tradition of political noninterference.” Seriously. They wrote that.

    But the same board is in full dudgeon today about Glenn Youngkin taking “vital resources away from LGBTQ+ youth.” So, did he cut funding to some important program? Did he ban something?

    No, he:

    quietly authorized the removal of a resource page for LGBTQ+ youths on the Virginia Department of Health website.

    “Quietly”? Clearly not.

    But for very good reasons. (more…)

  • Nursing Homes – What Could Go Wrong?

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Mt. Vernon Healthcare Center Alexandria

    by James C. Sherlock

    I have written a lot recently about staffing shortages in Virginia nursing homes and the Commonwealth’s national ranking near the bottom of the states for staffing measures.

    It is appropriate to ask why that matters.

    Federal analyses of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data offer the answer.

    In proposing to adopt the Total Nursing Hours per Resident Day Staffing (Total Nurse Staffing) measure for the FY 2026 program year and subsequent years, the rule-makers offered this:

    Staffing is a crucial component of quality care for nursing home residents. Numerous studies have explored the relationship between nursing home staffing levels and quality of care. The findings and methods of these studies have varied, but most have found a strong, positive relationship between staffing and quality outcomes.

    Specifically, studies have shown an association between nurse staffing levels and hospitalizations, pressure ulcers, weight loss, functional status, and survey deficiencies, among other quality and clinical outcomes.

    The strongest relationships have been identified for registered nurse (RN) staffing; several studies have found that higher RN staffing is associated with better care quality. We recognize that the relationship between nurse staffing and quality of care is multi-faceted, with elements such as staff turnover playing a critical role.

    Remember, the surveys are conducted both for CMS certification and Virginia licensing by the Office of Licensure and Certification (OLC) of the Virginia Department of Health.

    I have always found that office to be staffed by exemplary public servants, even while there have never been enough of them.

    But we’ll get specific about Virginia nursing homes and survey deficiencies as the answer to the question:

    “What could go wrong?”

    (more…)

  • UVa Donations Skewed More Democratic Than Ever in 2022

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Graphic credit: Daily Progress

    by James A. Bacon

    You’ve finally heard it from someone other than The Jefferson Council: political donations by University of Virginia employees skew overwhelmingly to the left. In the 2022 election cycle, found Daily Progress reporter Luke Fountain, “UVa faculty and staff favored Democratic candidates over Republican candidates, based on donations, by a ratio of 30 to 1.”

    “During the 2022 election cycle, Democratic candidates received 96.1% of donations, Republican candidates received 3.3%, and Libertarian candidates received 0.6%,” writes Fountain in an article exploring the implications of a discussion during the June UVa Board of Visitors meeting regarding the desirability of tracking viewpoint diversity at the university.

    Campaign donations are only one way of measuring viewpoint diversity. In 2018 the University of Virginia conducted an extensive survey of attitudes among students, faculty and staff that measured, among other things, respondents’ left-right political leanings. If it is impractical to conduct such an extensive and expensive survey every year, tracking political donations is a readily available proxy for attitude surveys. (more…)

  • Heat Wave? Here In Southeastern Virginia We Call It July.

    Posted on

    by

    Robin Beres

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Stop the presses. It’s July 26th. And it’s hot. My trusty iPhone weather app says it will hit 91 today, 94 Thursday and 96 on Friday.

    Who could have predicted such temperatures? Actually, all of us. It’s called JULY.

    And yes, much of the country is in a record heat wave with far hotter weather. It’s not the first heat wave and it won’t be the last. But there is a new breed of “safetyist” afoot. Not the usual alarmists who feel it’s their duty to remind us every summer to wear light clothing, drink water — not tequila — and not to exercise at high noon, as if we are idiots.

    This new bunch is raising the alarm on the dangers of temperatures — get this — above 90.
    (more…)

  • Affirmative Action for the Rich

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    It turns out that, when it comes to admission to elite universities, kids from rich families have not only the advantages that are inherent with their background — top prep schools, tutors, an upbringing full of varied experiences, etc.— they have one more advantage — simply being rich.

    A recently released study shows that in applicant pools for the Ivy League universities, Stanford, Duke, M.I.T., and the University of Chicago, of those applicants with the same SAT or ACT scores, those from families in the top 1 percent income bracket were 34% more likely to be admitted. Those from families in the top 0.1 percent were twice as likely to be admitted.

    All the celebrating over the recent Supreme Court decisions amid declarations that “admission should be based on merit” may have been premature. Those decisions may just result in more rich White kids getting admitted.

  • Staffing Has Collapsed in Many Virginia Nursing Homes, Creating a Health Crisis for Our Most Vulnerable Citizens

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I am seldom surprised by Virginia’s nursing home staffing problems, but new government data show no progress on staffing since October of last year.

    Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show that the number of significantly understaffed facilities has not budged in seven months.

    The numbers don’t lie.

    And it undeniably represents a health crisis for our most vulnerable citizens.

    The questions are: what are the facility operators and the Virginia Department of Health going to do about it? (more…)

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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