Bacon's Rebellion

  • The Energy Policy Minefield Facing a New Virginia Governor

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    When the smoke clears on the November elections and Virginia has a new governor and a different House of Delegates, energy policy will still head the list of crucial issues. It is in the state’s best interest to highlight those issues during what’s left of the campaign season and force candidates to state their intentions.

     Virginia is a net energy importer, approving electricity-sucking data centers faster than it can put up power plants and power lines to serve them.  The power plants that our major utilities are directed to build by state law are mostly vast solar farms, plagued by low operational reliability, while the more reliable hydrocarbon generation is still scheduled by law to disappear. The threat of shortages is growing. 

    If recent history is the guide, a solution to the demand-supply disconnect will be difficult because of the revenue produced by the data center industry and the public appetite for our digital economy. The same history indicates a Democratic victory in November will leave solar and wind as the preferred (basically mandatory) generation choices, with a nod toward more nuclear power at some point. A mandate for huge spending on batteries will probably resurface, but they do not power anything unless charged first by a real generator.  

    Dominion Energy Virginia is seeking a green light from the regulatory State Corporation Commission to build new natural gas-fired generation, with both problems in mind. The SCC is in the final stages of evaluating a 15-year integrated resource plan (IRP) for the utility that includes several new gas plants in the next few years, but opponents of using hydrocarbons have argued the utility has failed to prove that gas is the only choice.  

    The final round of written arguments following the long public hearing weigh heavily against the utility’s plan, with most case participants arguing it should now be rejected. Even Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares told the SCC his office merely had “no objection” to the IRP, hardly a ringing endorsement. Should the SCC decide Dominion did not make the case for gas, the utility’s corresponding application to build the first such plant in Chesterfield County will face a higher hurdle.   

    (more…)

  • Bits and Pieces

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    I have always thought that local government was the most interesting level of government to watch. Officials from two jurisdictions made the news (not in a good way) last week.

    Martinsville. A member of city council, Aaron Rawls,  filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the city manager and a deputy sheriff had violated his First, Fourth, and 14th Amendment rights. The suit stems from an incident at a council meeting in March when Rawls, while criticizing a salary increase that had been given to the city manager and the management in general, was interrupted by the mayor and warned about insulting the staff in public. Shortly after that, a deputy sheriff approached Rawls, asked him to leave, and escorted him out of the council chambers.

    Rawls claims that the city manager signaled to the deputy to remove him. The city manager denied signaling the deputy. She said, “No one signed [the deputy]. She is a court deputy and acted as trained in her court role. While the moment was difficult I do not have the authority to remove a member as city manager. While I serve as clerk the mayor is the chair and is the only [one] with the authority to request the removal of someone who is out of order.” 

    The mayor claims that he never gave such a signal. He explained that, instead of removing Rawls, he would have given him additional warnings and, if they were not heeded, he would have called a recess in the meeting. But he defended the deputy. “I believe that when she looked at everything that was in there, the things he was saying, the responses he was getting from the crowd, I think she took the totality of the circumstances at play…and made a judgement call. I think she did the right thing.” 

    The poor deputy caught in the middle of this has not made any public statement.

    Spotsylvania. Richard T. McGrath, the chief district court judge of the local district, was indicted on a charge of bribery of a public official, a Class 4 felony. The public official who was allegedly bribed was not named in the indictment. This situation is counterintuitive—one would normally think it would be the judge being bribed, rather than being the briber. The members of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors, who apparently were informed of the forthcoming indictment, as well as the State Police investigator handling the case, understandably, are not talking to the press.

    Perhaps LarrytheG can enlighten us.

  • Jeanine’s Memes

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Compiled by The Bull Elephant

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

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    James A. Bacon

  • Youngkin Ramps Up Fight Against Anti-Semitism

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    Glenn Youngkin. Image credit: Restoration News.

    “We’re not anti-Semitic, we’re anti-Zionist.”

    That’s the refrain we hear from pro-Palestinian protesters calling to free Palestine “from the river to the sea” and to “globalize the intifada.” They don’t hate Jews, they say. They hate the Israeli state, which just happens to be populated by Jews. Anti-Semitism, according to this logic, is something that emanates exclusively from the far Right.

    There is anti-Semitism on the far-right, to be sure, although it doesn’t seem to be much in evidence here in Virginia since the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in which torch-bearing white supremacists (mostly from other states) marched down the Lawn of the University of Virginia proclaiming, “Jews will not replace us.” The precise meaning of that exhortation eludes me, as there is no rational scenario in which Jews comprising 2% of the U.S. population will be “replacing” anybody else. But notice what the white supremacists did not say: They did not say, “We will replace the Jews”… which is pretty much what “decolonizing” Palestine from the river (the Jordan River) to the sea (the Mediterranean Sea) does mean.

    In their actual actions, as opposed to their apologetics, it appears that members of the pro-Palestinian movement are less inclined to respect the distinction between Zionists and Jews. When it comes to expressing their rage against the Israeli state, any Jew will do.

    Thus, in recent days, the alleged murderer of two Jews (one of whom was American, one Israeli) in front of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., yelled, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” while a man who set eight Jews afire in Boulder, Colorado, with a makeshift flamethrower, allegedly proclaimed, “Free Palestine.”

    (more…)

  • The Next Social Media Star?

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    From pink pussy hats to anti-Israel chants, Democrats and leftists have long excelled at performative politics. Republicans and conservatives tend to be the ones to uphold convention. Admittedly, no one can put on a show like President Trump, and the shaman with the bull-horn hat during the January 6 riot made a lasting impression. But as a generality, you don’t hang out with conservatives with the expectation of enjoying raucous entertainment.

    I don’t know if Shamcar Connors is the exception who proves the rule or a sign that conservatives are mastering political performance art at long last, but the man knows how to grab peoples’ attention. By the throat. And not let go.

    Connors, whose travails we described three years ago when his refusal to take the COVID vaccinated blocked him from getting a kidney transplant, has always been outspoken. When he delivered public comments critical of transgender girls in the girls’ bathroom to the Stafford County School Board, he stood out from the crowd. A weightlifter gifted with a muscular physique and bass voice, he came dressed as a “transgender female Olympic swimmer.” In a swimming suit. With bright rainbow colors. View video of his comments above.

    Some in the audience were undoubtedly appalled. His satire stomped on delicate sensibilities and left them bleeding on the ground. But it appears that many Stafford residents agree with Connors, and they let him know it. He says students attending the hearing asked to pose with him for photos. And when asked if they wanted “boys using the girls’ bathroom,” he adds, “the girls screamed NO!”

    In the age of social media, we’ve come a long way from the quiet dignity of Norman Rockwell’s classic painting, “Freedom of Speech.”

  • The Vanishing Starter Home

    Posted on

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    When I moved to Richmond in the early 1970s, fresh out of graduate school, my wife and I rented a house for a couple of years. Then, with the help from my in-laws with the down payment, we purchased a “starter” home—a three-bedroom, one-bath, brick rancher, much like the one we had been renting.  We did this on only one income, mine, as we had a small child and my wife wanted to be a stay-at-home mother.

    Such a scenario is probably inconceivable today. There has been much concern and discussion, nationally and on this blog, about the cost of housing and the need for “affordable” housing. The Wall Street Journal had a recent article that neatly summarized many of the underlying causes for the lack of affordable starter housing. For those BR readers who do not have access to the Journal, following is a summary of the main points made, along with the charts provided.

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  • D-Day, June 6, 1944

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Into the Jaws of Death. Credit: Chief Photographer’s Mate Robert F. Sargent

  • Dress Rehearsal for Boomergeddon

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    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Chat GPT

    by James A. Bacon

    Judging by the headlines in Virginia’s newspapers, one might think that federal budget cuts are causing widespread devastation to government services and the economy. Here is a sampling from just the past couple of days:

    NASA Langley workforce slashed by 40% in Trump budget plan — The Virginian-Pilot

    “‘A smack in the face:’ Vouchers holders fear federal housing cuts” — The Virginia Mercury

    Earle-Sears’ silence on Medicaid cuts ‘speaks volumes,’ Charlottesville Dems say — The Daily Progress

    An after-school program in Trump’s backyard struggles to survive DOGE cuts — The Washington Post

    Kaine, Warner condemn closure of Old Dominion Job Corps Center — News & Advance

    I could go on… and on… but it would be tedious. The point is that Virginia’s wellbeing is funded to an extraordinary degree by the federal government — not just defense, entitlements, and payroll for government employees but innumerable programs underwriting everything from medical care and job training to daycare and housing for the poor.

    (more…)

  • PIPP Electricity Subsidies Finally Flowing

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    Steve Haner

    By Steve Haner

    The subsidy program to help low-income customers of Dominion Energy Virginia with their bills, funded by involuntary contributions from all the other customers, is beginning to show signs of growth. It is called the Percentage of Income Payment Program, or PIPP.

    In its most recent filing on the program with the State Corporation Commission, the utility reported that it had provided bill subsidy payments to almost 23,000 eligible customer households as of this past March. PIPP began helping people with bills in February 2024, almost four years after this new entitlement was included in the omnibus Virginia Clean Economy Act of 2020.

    The slow start was the subject of an earlier report on Bacon’s Rebellion. Having reached 22,822 enrollees by March 31 of this year, the program had provided about $14.5 million in benefits. The launch has been so slow the money being spent was already being held, because the utility began assessing the mandatory “universal service fee” on its customers in 2021, long before the first beneficiary enrollments and payouts.   

    Because of the accumulated balance, the universal service fee on all customer bills moved back down to zero for this year and Dominion has proposed to keep it at zero for the next phase of the program, which kicks off November 1. That request is now subject to the SCC’s review. Dominion projects that during the 12 months beginning November 1, annual bill subsidies will reach $20 million, with another $6 million in overhead costs split between the Department of Social Services and the utility itself. 

    Appalachian Power Company in the western part of Virginia is running the same program but has not filed a fresh report or application with the SCC. Last summer the SCC allowed it to charge its customers $1.32 per 1,000 kilowatt hours of electric usage. Appalachian’s underlying bills are higher and perhaps its customer base is more economically stressed.

    PIPP is designed to cap the amount of money low-income households must pay for electricity out of their monthly income. The cap is 10% in households using electricity to heat, and 6% in households using another heat source. About 3,300 of the Dominion customers who are being subsidized by PIPP heat with another source.

    Another interesting tidbit in the report is that a fair chunk of the money being transferred from non-PIPP participants to PIPP participants (after the healthy overhead cut) is going to pay off their overdue bills. One way or another, the money all flows into Dominion’s coffers — for current billing, for overdue billing or for the administrative task of paying itself.  The house always wins. 

  • UVA Improperly Preserved Bodycam Video Used to Embarrass Board Member

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    University of Virginia officials violated the University’s own document-retention policies when it preserved bodycam videos of a University Police Department (UPD) encounter with Board of Visitors member Bert Ellis in March 2023. The videos were posted online in a Washington Post article critical of the activist board member this March, two years later, in the run-up to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s firing of Ellis.

    A University Police written directive states that video from “body worn cameras” are to be downloaded daily to www.Evidence.com, a law-enforcement cloud storage system. Unless needed for investigations, trials or training purposes, video is to be “automatically … purged 90 days within creation.”

    Furthermore, the guidelines put tight controls on access to the videos, stating that “accessing, copying, or releasing files is strictly prohibited except as approved by the Chief of Police.” Officers who deviate from the guidelines set forth,” the document says, “may be subject to disciplinary action.”

    Retaining video for the purpose of embarrassing a board member critical of the University administration is not one of the exemptions permitted by the guidelines.

    The videos came to the public’s attention March 24 when the Washington Post broke the story that Youngkin wanted to remove Ellis, a board member he had previously appointed and had become a lightning rod for criticism. Ellis backed Youngkin’s goals to cut spending, pursue intellectual diversity, and dismantle the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion infrastructure, but the Governor found his style unbecoming of a UVA board member. Ellis had been organizing board opposition to policies enacted by President Jim Ryan and had clashed openly on at least once occasion with Ryan board ally, Rector Robert Hardie.

    In the article, the WaPo recounted past quotes and actions that had embroiled Ellis in controversy. The only new material came from video footage from two bodycams of Ellis taken April 1, 2023, which amplified the message that Ellis was a hothead.

    (more…)

  • The Case of the Disappearing VPAP Data

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Shannon Taylor, Candidate for Attorney General

     By Steve Haner

    Revised June 5

    The pro-green energy activist group Clean Virginia has announced a live television attack advertisement in opposition to Shannon Taylor, one of two Democratic candidates seeking the nomination for Attorney General. The ad (see it here) was authorized by the other candidate, Jay Jones. 

    Taylor, currently Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney, accepted $300,000 in donations from the utility in the past few weeks. Jones, a former state delegate, has taken the pledge against Dominion bucks and was rewarded during the same period by Clean Virginia with $200,000 cash.  Democrats are choosing their nominee in a primary, with the polls open June 17.

    The in-kind donation of the advertising for Jones will show up in a future report, presumably. The ad will could also inject a healthy debate on energy costs into the 2025 campaign. The focus is on the utility’s pending rate increase request, and the role played by the Virginia Attorney General as the designated counsel for the state’s consumers in front of the State Corporation Commission. Clean Virginia believes the money is disqualifying.

    During the same period, Dominion gave the current Consumer Counsel, Attorney General Jason Miyares, another $300,000 for his campaign for a second term. Clean Virginia will be attacking him later this year, one expects, but that will be harder to do if Taylor is his opponent. Did I mention this is a rate-increase year?

    Now here is the story within the story. All this was kicked off by a very useful report on fresh campaign donation documents from the Virginia Public Access Project. That information has now disappeared from their website, poof it’s gone. The links at the end of the post are dead. Luckily one reporter, Brandon Jarvis of Virginia Scope, did a detailed report on the information while it was still live yesterday. 

    (more…)

  • And Then They Came for the Intellectuals

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    Dark clouds over Harvard. Image credit: Fights of Our Lives

    by David J. Toscano

    “Our colleges [have] become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.”
     — Donald J. Trump, July 17, 2023

    “We need to … aggressively attack the universities in this country; the professors are the enemy.”
     — J.D. Vance, November 2, 2021

    Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has mounted the most aggressive and sustained assault on American universities in our history, targeting not only the values of intellectual freedom but also the institutions that drive innovation and economic growth. This campaign will shape the battle for democracy and could have grave consequences for the nation’s future.

    Attacks on intellectuals are not new. Think of Galileo, whose endorsement of Copernican heliocentrism earned him an Inquisition and house arrest by the Catholic Church. Because intellectuals frequently raise difficult questions and challenge authority, those in power often make efforts to silence them. But rarely have institutions of intellectual life themselves come under such organized threat. Trump understands that undermining the economic vitality of universities can also choke off dissent and critical thought.

    Americans hold sometimes conflicting views about higher education, especially our prestigious institutions. A college education is celebrated as a gateway to economic success and social mobility. But some schools such as Harvard, Columbia, and even the University of Virginia (UVA) are labeled elitist, often resented for their perceived liberalism, high costs, and admissions practices. This has made them vulnerable to political attack.

    (more…)

  • A Champion of the People… or the Elites?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Jay Jones image created by Restoration News

    by Jacob Grandstaff

    Democrat AG candidate Jay Jones pretends to support social justice while cozying up to fat-cat elitists who exploit the poor.

    In the race for Virginia’s Attorney General, Democrat candidate Jay Jones pitches himself as a defender of justice, but his record paints a different picture — one of a politician rolling out the red carpet for corporate elites who exploit struggling Virginians. From casinos to predatory lenders to debt collectors, Jones shows he’s more comfortable with the powerful than protecting the little guy. His legislative history and affiliations raise a critical question: Whose side is he on?

    Let’s start with the gambling industry, where Jones has shown genuine allyship with fat-cat casino developers.

    In 2019, as a delegate, he voted to allow local communities to authorize casino gambling, despite evidence that it compounds economic inequality by preying on and profiting from low-income, elderly, and vulnerable populations, weakening family structures and exacerbating health problems.

    Later that year, he championed a casino resort on Norfolk’s waterfront with a nearby Indian tribe, ignoring community concerns about the lack of an independent impact study and the tribe’s inexperience with casinos.

    (more…)

  • As Governor, Spanberger Would Impose Carbon Taxes

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Restoration News

    Skyrocketing “cap and trade” costs could be added to existing green energy mandates.

    by Kevin Mooney

    Virginia voters, taxpayers, and ratepayers should know that if Abigail Spanberger becomes their next governor, they will pay higher energy costs that will show up on their utility bills and everyday purchases.

    Spanberger made that clear during a podcast last year when she told a political science professor that as governor she would have the state rejoin a climate change initiative built around “cap and trade” regulations and carbon taxes. 

    While Spanberger is committed to the carbon tax plan, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, her Republican opponent, supported Gov. Youngkin’s decision to withdraw. Given how costly RGGI was to Virginia residents, and how costly it could become in the future, the candidates’ divergent positions could become a major campaign issue. 

    Glenn Youngkin, the incumbent Republican governor, withdrew Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in 2023 after describing the program as a “regressive tax on families and businesses.” A circuit court judge ruled last November that Youngkin’s actions were unlawful. But the state will remain outside of RGGI pending Youngkin’s appeal of that ruling. The outcome of this year’s gubernatorial election could also determine RGGI’s future in Virginia.

    (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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