Tag: VCEA
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Taking a Knife to the Democrats’ Green Energy Dream
By Steve Haner Wielding irony like a razor-sharp butcher’s knife, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has proposed a series of amendments on bills intended to mandate renewable energy that basically reverse the impact and do just the opposite. One amendment would even repeal the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which is central to Virginia Democratic…
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Key Energy Issues of Customer Cost, Reliability Often Ignored
By Steve Haner The Virginia General Assembly has approved a long list of bills to reinforce its previous commitment to ending the use of hydrocarbon fuel in Virginia. It ignored warnings that natural gas is essential for energy security from the regional electricity marketplace, the Virginian who now chairs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and…
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Battery Bills Still Charging Toward Passage
By Steve Haner The Virginia General Assembly is still poised to pass a vastly expanded mandate for future utility battery storage systems, but the bills are no longer passing unanimously. At least some discussion of the ratepayer cost impact has come up in committee and floor discussions since being raised by Bacon’s Rebellion. Most Republicans…
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A $29 Billion Virginia Battery Bonanza, Unanimous in VA Senate
By Steve Haner Based on current pricing for the present-day energy storage projects, legislation pending at the Virginia General Assembly could cost ratepayers of the two largest electric utilities between $18 billion and $29 billion over the next 20 years. That capital cost, based on the current $300,000 to $500,000 price per megawatt hour for…
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Making VCEA Even More Expensive and Onerous
By Steve Haner The 2024 General Assembly ended with a promise from its majority Democrats to review and perhaps revise the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA), which mandates the end of hydrocarbon electricity. The revisions are now pending at the 2025 General Assembly and are uniformly bad. One positive development this session has been an…
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The Real Cost of the RPS Mandate? $609 Million, Money for Nothing
by Steve Haner 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,…
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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…
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Dominion Sells Solar Power at a Loss Just to Earn the RECs
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. …
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Yes, Deficiency Payments May Happen, Dominion Reports to SCC
By Steve Haner Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) in his State of the Commonwealth Address last week described the Virginia Clean Economy Act as a “quagmire.” Later that same day, the director of his Department of Energy warned that the state’s premier electric utility might soon begin making “deficiency payments,” in effect paying fines for failing…
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Is Dominion Facing Fines Over Green Energy Goals?
By Steve Haner The enforcement mechanism for the Virginia Clean Economy Act is a cash fine imposed on the electric utility if it fails to utilize the mandated percentage of wind, solar or battery power. The statute calls it a “deficiency payment” and has set the penalty at $45 per megawatt-hour. The first of such penalty…
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Big Solar’s Proposed Zoning Override Bill Still Opposed
By Steve Haner The 2025 General Assembly is expected to consider another proposal to create a state-level approval process for certain large renewable energy projects, overriding local zoning authority. Based on recent public debates about the proposal, it is facing severe headwinds. Similar bills were proposed and failed in 2024. The legislative Commission on…
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Poll Shows Partisan Divide on Natural Gas, Solar Site Approvals
By Steve Haner Virginia registered voters are strongly in favor of allowing utilities to build new natural gas generation plants, a key issue facing Virginia because current state law mandates the complete elimination of that fuel source for electricity generation in 15 years. On another key energy issue likely to face the 2025 General…
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Outside Study Confirms Natural Gas Must Remain for Data Centers
By Steve Haner Another analysis of the energy dilemma facing Virginia, this one commissioned by a Democrat-controlled legislative panel, has concluded that the use of natural gas to make electricity is going to have to grow over coming decades, not shrink. Virginia’s anti-hydrocarbon energy laws are doomed to fail because of the data center industry. …
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Trump Energy Policies Face Hurdles in Virginia
By Steve Haner Once inaugurated, President-elect Donald Trump is expected to immediately mount a major effort to roll back the anti-hydrocarbon fuel agenda of the Biden-Harris years. The positive impact on Virginians will be limited because of our own similar anti-hydrocarbon laws at the state level. The centerpiece of Trump’s multiple energy campaign promises is…
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Want Energy Both “Green” and Reliable? Send Natural Gas and Money
By Steve Haner With the release of its latest 15-year plan to expand energy generation in the Commonwealth, Dominion Energy Virginia has increased the projected cost of residential electricity in 2035 to almost $216 per 1,000 kilowatt hours, a 24% increase over the same projection in its 2023 planning document. If the $216 comes to…