Author: Steve Haner
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Spanberger Retreats on Weed Market to Get Budget
by Derrick A. Max Governor Abigail Spanberger announced her support for a deal to create a legal retail cannabis market in Virginia — only weeks after vetoing a bill to do much the same thing. That should give Virginians pause. Virginia has yet to pass a budget and is only two weeks from a government shutdown. While…
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Spanberger Administration Wants Your Energy Input
The Spanberger Administration is preparing to draft the state energy policy required by law and has created a public survey form to seek your individual or corporate input. You will find the survey form here. It is five pages, with not a lot of depth, but there are plenty of open panels to provide comments on…
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Why NextEra Wants to Buy Dominion, What it Gets
by Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia and NextEra Energy are expected to file the necessary Virginia application for the sale of Dominion to the Florida company soon, probably in early July. Under present Virginia law, the State Corporation Commission will have six months to say yea or nay. Readers should first understand this is an…
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Rebating Spanberger’s RGGI Tax Won’t Erase RGGI’s Cost Impact
by Steve Haner Virginia’s return to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) will produce such an explosion of new tax revenue and will cause such major increases in consumer electricity costs, a political feeding frenzy is beginning to erupt over the money. A legislative study panel heavily controlled by Democrats who voted for Virginia’s return to RGGI…
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Virginia’s Deceptive Gas Tax Continues to Confuse, Rises Again
By Steve Haner, Virginia’s gasoline taxes rise again on July 1, a continuing legacy of former Governor Ralph Northam’s most taxing term. He signed the 2020 bill calling for annual gas tax adjustments for inflation, so the combined taxes will rise from 41.6 cents per gallon to 42.4 cents per gallon. It was a bipartisan…
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RGGI Will Cost Typical Dominion Customer $13 More Per Month
By Steve Haner, Dominion Energy Virginia is proposing to delay until March 2027 to bill its customers for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon allowances it must buy starting July 1. When the cost hits, however, it could be $13 a month or $156 per year for a typical residential customer. The final decision…
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With Tax Now $35 Per Ton, Are RGGI Rebates on the Way?
by Steve Haner The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) held its second 2026 carbon allowance auction last week and the bidding cleared at $35 per ton, the group announced Friday. That price was a 40 percent increase over the $25 per ton set for the carbon tax just three months earlier and was 78 percent higher…
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The Many Ways to Measure Virginia’s Electricity Poverty
by Steve Haner Is Virginia really the number one importer of electricity, the state most dependent upon others to keep the lights on and the servers humming? Yes and no. The go-to source of data on the electricity industry (and other energy industries) is the federal Energy Information Agency, or EIA. EIA data shows Virginia had…
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Gas Plant Approval’s Appeal Tests VCEA, Environmental Justice Law
by Steve Haner The ongoing fight over the future of natural gas power generation in Virginia has now moved to the Virginia Supreme Court, with environmental activists asking that court to reverse the State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) decision from six months ago approving a new gas project in Chesterfield County. The National Association for…
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Will Dominion Sale Solve Virginia’s Growing Energy Challenges?
by Steve Haner Assuming Dominion Energy Virginia is indeed absorbed into an expanded NextEra Energy, the more things change the more they may stay the same. The average consumer might see no real difference in their service or their cost. This step was probably inevitable. Credit (or blame) the massive electricity demand growth facing Virginia,…
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Assembly and Spanberger Made Zero Progress on Virginia Energy Challenges
by Steve Haner In advance of the 2025 election, the Jefferson Forum outlined in this June commentary the energy challenges facing Virginia. New Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and the General Assembly have now concluded work on the 2026 energy legislation and Virginia has made zero progress – and may be losing ground. Ignore the political posturing coming…
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Spanberger Right to Veto Public Employee Unionization Bill
by Derrick A. Max Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, the sponsor of a sweeping public-sector collective bargaining bill (Senate Bill 378) said Governor Spanberger told him Wednesday that she planned to veto the legislation. If she does, she will be making the right decision for Virginia taxpayers, local governments, students, public employees and for her status as the…
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Dominion’s Fantasy PIPP Application Should Be Rejected or Resubmitted
by Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia has asked the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to allow it to begin collecting the cost of a low-income energy subsidy program, adding a small monthly charge to all its customers. The application should immediately be dismissed because it fails to recognize how the 2026 General Assembly expanded the program.…
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Fuel Price Spike Hits Your Dominion Bill Next. Pow!
by Steve Haner The typical Dominion Energy Virginia electric bill could rise another $22 this summer to cover the rising cost of the fuel it uses and the cost of its purchased power, according to the company’s latest filing on its fuel charge with the State Corporation Commission. The utility’s costs of fuel and purchased…
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The Source of All Evil: Data Centers!
Jefferson Forum’s President Derrick Max puts out a Sunday morning summary that only some of you probably see, and I cannot really link to it for you. But today’s email had a useful and entertaining riff on the ongoing efforts to demonize Virginia’s data center industry, a clearly coordinated hit job from the left and…