Category Archives: Business and Economy

The Virginia NAACP Has Proven Itself an Obstacle to Improving the Educations of Black Children in Virginia Public Schools

Posted on May 23, 2023 by | 44 comments

Courtesy Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce

by James C. Sherlock

I just read that the NAACP has issued a warning against traveling to Florida.

Which must have come as a surprise to the 3.5 million Black citizens of that state.

It did not surprise the NAACP board of directors chairman Leon W. Russell, who lives in the Tampa area. His defense: “We haven’t told anybody to leave.”

I decided to check the Virginia NAACP agenda for education.

I checked to see what they advocate to change the lives of the tens of thousands of Virginia Black public school students who can neither read nor perform math at grade level. Some of these public schools in inner cities have not provided a basic education to Black students for generations.

Certainly the NAACP must be pushing hard for basic changes. Not just pressing for more funding, but also for measures to ensure that children go to school and giving parents alternatives to schools that have failed them and their children.

Right?

Wrong. Continue reading →

44 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Children and families, Culture wars, DEI, Education (K-12), Entrepreneurialism, Excellence and grace

Renewables? Fossil Fuels? Americans Want Both.

Posted on May 23, 2023 by | 35 comments

by Steve Haner

Given a choice between an energy future that is dependent on a) generation using sun, wind or falling water; or b) thermal generation sources using fossil fuels or uranium; or c) a combination of both, which do Americans prefer? Should it surprise anybody that the answer is both?

Reliance on both, the need for at least a substantial amount of electricity not depending on weather, is at the heart of the recommendations coming at Virginians from many directions. It came recently from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, including the Virginian on that panel, Mark Christie. It is the premise for both Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s (R) 2022 Energy Plan and Dominion Energy Virginia’s new integrated resource plan.

The message is being disputed by advocates for the rapid retirement of existing coal and natural gas generation, many of whom are (sadly) also strongly anti-nuclear. But a recent poll shared with the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy indicates the message of maintaining traditional baseload strongly resonates. It does so across party lines.

The American people are receptive to the message because they already believe that fossil fuels will continue to be around, and surprising percentages of them would like to see their use expanded. The number of Americans dubious of reaching the poorly defined target of “net zero” by 2050 – a shibboleth among Democrats — is higher than the percentage who believe it possible.

A recent poll by Hearts + Minds Strategies of Reston, with the Thomas Jefferson Institute an invited listener to the discussion (watch it in full or read a summary here), underscores this assertion. This was not a confab of climate catastrophe skeptics. Quite the opposite. Continue reading →

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Posted in Business and Economy, Energy, Environment, Regulation, Utilities

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Combining RACs in Base Rates May Be “Bill Relief”

Posted on May 8, 2023 by | 5 comments

by Steve Haner

Simpler is usually better.  Monthly electric bills for many Virginians are about to get less complex, and in the short run also lower.  Will that lower cost be long term?  It is too soon to tell.

On July 1 Dominion Virginia Power will stop collecting separate monthly payments on its bills for three of its newer power plants, all now covered by their own stand-alone rate adjustment clauses or RACs.  This change flows from the major regulatory revision the General Assembly recently adopted and does not need State Corporation Commission approval.  Dominion instead notified the SCC of this change.

This is a different filing than the one about collecting its unpredicted fuel costs, and while they were announced together on May 1, really needed its own analysis. Continue reading →

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Posted in Business and Economy, Energy, General Assembly, Regulation, Utilities

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What’s in a Name?

Posted on May 5, 2023 by | 4 comments

by Joe Fitzgerald

I have previously written much about the Bluestone Town Center from a logistical and political standpoint, much of which can be summed up by saying the people planning and approving the project do not understand logistics or politics. The planners and approvers show an understanding of and ability to manipulate governmental processes, which is a skill on the level of getting a stubborn toddler to give up a favorite toy if you could pick and choose your toddlers through low-turnout elections and rampant cronyism.

Today, however, I am writing about design, marketing, and labeling. First, some background.

The Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority (HRHA), has formed a partnership with EquityPlus (EP) to build Bluestone Town Center. That partnership is an LLC, a limited liability corporation, a legal entity designed to protect the owners of a project from responsibility. The entity is owned 51 percent by HRHA and 49 percent by EP. A wild guess about the split is that having a government entity as the (barely) majority owner adds the shield of sovereign immunity as well as the exemptions to government rules that government entities give to themselves.
Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Blogs and blog administration, Business and Economy, Central planning, Economic development, Land use & development, Planning, Uncategorized

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Putting Off Paying Your Debt is Not “Bill Relief”

Posted on May 5, 2023 by | 12 comments

In this case, for us along with Popeye’s friend, “Tuesday” translates into “after the next election.”

by Steve Haner

Whether customers pay a lot more for one year starting this July, or just a little bit more for ten years starting next winter, Dominion Energy Virginia’s entire backlog of accumulated fuel costs from prior years will be paid in full.   Every dollar will come from customers, with annual interest tacked on in the case of the long-term approach.

The second approach, the “put it on the credit card and pay the minimum” approach, is not bill relief.  Paying less now in order to pay more for ten years is not bill relief.  It is bad enough that a major newspaper is helping to sell the con.  The story was then shared on Twitter as an example of “Republican-led utility reform,” and Democrats are likely to seek to claim credit, as well. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Regulation, Utilities

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RVA 5×5: Behind in the Count

Posted on April 29, 2023 by | 6 comments

by Jon Baliles

Baseball season is in full swing and I have already been to three games to celebrate spring, sport, and sun. And because this is Richmond, I sometimes wonder how much longer I will be able to repeat this ritual in Aprils in the future. This week, the city announced it had reached final terms with developer RVA Diamond Partners to build a new stadium and the massive Diamond District project. But the news was something of a mixed bag for a variety of reasons.

Baseball is all about timing. When the pitcher starts his motion, when the batter cocks and decides whether to swing or not, and whether you can make contact. But after a few days of looking at the deal and reading about it, I realized something about the timing of it is off. This post is not a deep dive into the financials of the deal (that will come soon but not today).
Continue reading →

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Posted in Blogs and blog administration, Budgets, Business and Economy, Central planning, Economic development, Infrastructure, Uncategorized

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One Case, Five Virginia Energy Reg Failures

Posted on April 20, 2023 by | 7 comments

Dominion solar farm. Photo credit: Dominion.

by Steve Haner

How badly broken is Virginia’s energy regulatory system?  One recent State Corporation Commission decision on Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed next wave of solar projects illustrates several of the problems.  The projects are unimportant, routine.  What matters are the policy failures revealed.

Only the rich can look at the future and yawn. Continue reading →

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Posted in Business and Economy, Energy, Environment, General Assembly, Regulation, Utilities

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Is the Commanders Stadium Coming to Loudoun?

Posted on April 18, 2023 by | 12 comments

by Jeanine Martin

The deal for Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder to sell the team to Josh Harris hasn’t even been inked and yet speculation begins again that the team may move to eastern Loudoun County.

Supervisor Tony Buffington (R-Blue Ridge), is opposed to the stadium moving to Loudoun. He said today that he and his constituents do not want a stadium in Loudoun. However, Chairman of the Board Phyllis Randall is entertaining the idea.

From the LoudounTimes.com:

‘We look forward to welcoming the Washington Commanders to the Loudoun County Board Room to share their vision of a new stadium as part of a multi-use development in an urban setting,’ Matt Rogers, Randall’s chief of staff, wrote in a statement to the Times-Mirror April 15.

‘Loudoun and the Commanders have enjoyed a long business relationship that has proven financially beneficial to both parties. An expansion of their football operations in Loudoun County is an idea we’re eager to discuss, provided that Loudoun County taxpayers will not experience a single cent of tax increase to finance a stadium,’ Rogers said.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Business and Economy, Economic development, Land use & development, Planning, Uncategorized

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The Strike at the AdvanSix Chemical Plant in Hopewell – A Complex Story

Posted on April 17, 2023 by | 16 comments

AdvanSix Chemicals Plant Hopewell Virginia Courtesy AdvanSix

by James C. Sherlock

We don’t see very many industrial strikes in Virginia.

Regular readers know that I have often supported blue collar unions in the private economy.

My family roots are linked to Pennsylvania coal mines. Those miners’ strongest claims were for their own safety. Followed very closely by their demands for living wages.

I started researching the story of the current strike by unions representing some 340 workers at the AdvantSix chemical plant in Hopewell with a bias towards supporting the strike.

Safety. I still do support it to the degree that they are striking for worker and plant safety. They reasonably want the company to prevent excessive overtime of current employees under inherently dangerous conditions that require close attention to detail.

Hopewell employees tell stories of consecutive 18-hour shifts.

They want the company to hire more workers to solve that.

But that workforce is far more skilled — better educated and trained, and higher paid – than I assumed.

AdvanSix has been unable to readily fill the jobs that they already advertise. It is hard to attract skilled workers to Hopewell. The company may need to cut production instead.

Wages. I thought I would also support the union wage increase demands in excess of what the company has offered, but I have found that issue is complicated and the public does not have a clear picture of the differences. Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Environment, Government Oversight, Inflation, Labor & workforce, Manufacturing, Recession, Regulation, Uncategorized, Unions

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Five Questions: An Interview with Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears

Posted on April 11, 2023 by | 108 comments

by Shaun Kenney

Last week, The Republican Standard had the opportunity to follow Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears as she toured the Richmond Slave Trail — which included not only the site of the notorious Lumpkins Slave Jail but also the site where Gabriel Prosser was executed and presumably buried in 1800.

Winsome Earle-Sears brought a narrative rooted in the role of hope in human liberation, whether it was in her own tradition from Jamaica to the hopelessness that seems to infect so much of our political discourse today. TRS was able to sit down with the Lieutenant Governor in order to explore her thoughts on this topic and many others.

We just toured Lumpkin’s Slave Jail site. Clearly this is a place with a lot of hurt and anguish, but a little bit of courage and heroism. Where do you think that resilience — that hope — comes from given the experiences of the past?

People look at me and think that I have courage, but I don’t. I have no special store of courage more than the next guy, but I have counted the cost and what I say and do comes with consequences.
There are times when people believe that I am not willing to take that stand, but God comes along and tells me to pick up my cross. Many people attribute that to me being a Marine, but it is really not: it is attributable to my Christian Faith.
Continue reading →

108 Comments

Posted in Abortion, Business and Economy, Children and families, Civil Rights, Culture wars, Democracy and Western Civilization, Demographics, Education (K-12), Elections, Feminism and women's rights, Freedom, Immigration, Individual liberties, Political Influence, Politics, Race and race relations, Uncategorized

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The More Things Remain the Same

Posted on April 10, 2023 by | 10 comments

by Joe Fitzgerald

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. The Hopewell chemical plant where Kepone was born and raised has been cited 66 times over the past eight years for releasing toxic chemicals into the air and into the James River.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch tells the story better than I do. What makes this latest stream of toxins so poignant is the release this week of the book Poison Powder: The Kepone Disaster in Virginia and its Legacy, by University of Akron history professor Gregory Wilson. (From the University of Georgia Press, or from Amazon.)

Wilson’s work is an excellent history that brings alive what so many of us remember from back then. People we knew, including my brother Tom, worked and suffered at the Kepone plant in Hopewell in the mid-1970s. The James River, the cradle of American settlement, was closed to fishing. People who couldn’t spell “ppm” could tell you how many parts per million of Kepone were in their blood.

Tom died last summer, age 67, of what some medical sites call a rare type of kidney tumor that had also attached itself to his stomach and bowel and maybe a couple of organs I’ve forgotten. Kepone? Nobody will ever know for sure. But Wilson’s book makes sure everybody who wants to will know what happened in Hopewell almost 50 years ago.
Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Consumer protection, Environment, Ethics, Health Care, Manufacturing, Public safety & health, Science & Technology, Uncategorized, Water-waste water

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Too Much Sulfur Dioxide? Ah, Don’t Worry, It’s Just a Little Fine

Posted on April 9, 2023 by | 30 comments

AdvanSix chemical plant, Hopewell. Photo credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch has a story that illustrates the importance and need for vigorous local journalism, while also illustrating the limitations of local journalism due to the lack of seasoned reporters and editors.

The story deals with the violation of environmental regulations by a chemical plant in Hopewell. The plant, a cornerstone of manufacturing in Hopewell, has been there a long time, under at least three owners. It is huge, covering about 200 acres. It is the facility responsible for dumping Kepone into the James River between 1966 and 1975, when it came under court order for the practice. The current owner is AdvanSix, headquartered in Parsippany, N.J.

As reported by the RTD, the plant has been cited 66 times over the past eight years for violations of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the company has violated the Clean Air Act “every month over the past two years.” Continue reading →

30 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Environment, Media, Regulation

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Langley Looks to the Moon

Posted on April 4, 2023 by | 16 comments

by Robin Beres

While mainstream media may be transfixed by the gutter politics going on in New York, exciting, uplifting events are happening in other parts of the nation — including in our very own little city of Hampton.

Located on Hampton’s Langley Air Force Base just off the Chesapeake Bay, the Langley Research Center is NASA’s oldest field center. Established in 1917, the 764-acre facility consists of nearly 200 separate facilities and employs around 3,400 civil servants and contractors.

In the early 1960s Langley was a top contender to be named NASA’s Mission Control Center for manned space flights. But because the Hampton facility was so close to Washington, and Hampton Roads was already home to both military and civilian aerospace and aviation communities, NASA selected Johnson Space Center in Houston over Langley.

Although missing out on the Manned Spacecraft Center, Langley has nonetheless continued to play a vital role in the research and training that has made every space mission from Gemini I to Artemis successful. The historic research facility has had countless scientific breakthroughs and historic firsts. The first crews of astronauts were trained there. Langley’s Rendezvous and Docking Simulator trained both Gemini and Apollo astronauts. It is where the Apollo Lunar Module was tested.

Scientists at the center were instrumental in the development of supersonic flight. Researchers there created the world’s first transonic wind tunnel and developed today’s international standard for grooved airport runways. And, if you saw the fabulous — and true — movie, Hidden Figures, you know that those incredible women worked at Langley.

Today, Langley is very much involved in NASA’s plans to put humans on the moon — and eventually on Mars. The space agency’s Moon to Mars program is no longer just a dream or a science fiction story in Popular Mechanics. The Artemis space program is moving rapidly forward on several goals which include putting a base on the moon and eventually landing humans on Mars.
Continue reading →

16 Comments

Posted in Budgets, Business and Economy, Economic development, Finance (government), Labor & workforce, Science & Technology, Uncategorized

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LifePoint Health Credit Ratings and Outlooks Signal Additional Challenges for its Virginia Hospitals

Posted on April 4, 2023 by | 15 comments

LifePoint’s Sovah Danville Hospital

by James C. Sherlock

One thing I watch about companies in industries I cover is the ratings and outlooks on their credit.

In my experience, the SEC’S three largest nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs), Moody’s, S&P, and Fitch, tend to know as much about company finances as their boards do.

Sometimes more.

I recently wrote about management and staffing issues at Sovah Health hospitals in Danville and Martinsburg. Both are owned by privately held LifePoint Health, headquartered in Tennessee.

Lifepoint also owns in Virginia:

  • Fauquier Hospital;
  • Clinch Valley Medical Center;
  • Twin County Regional Hospital; and
  • Wythe County Community Hospital.

The rating agencies are not in love with LifePoint’s credit.

Yes, it matters. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Government Oversight, Health Care

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Virginia Municipal Bond Issuers Face Higher Costs for Borrowing

Posted on April 3, 2023 by | Leave a comment

by James C. Sherlock

People learn — and relearn- – things over time about investing.

One of the things they have learned over the past three years about investing in municipal bonds, as with all bonds, is that, having experienced the effects of inflation risk for the first time in decades, they will want a higher coupon next time.

Issuing new ones, especially revenue bonds, is likely to prove significantly more expensive than in the past few decades.

Tough market.

That chart is a little tough to read, but it shows that the annualized return on Virginia municipal bonds over the past three-year period is 0.17%.

Total return, tax adjusted, was down 7.36% in calendar year 2022.  If you were a seller, the market price was down 36%.

Using the muni market to fund local government projects and even non-governmental projects like hospital expansions that have access to the muni market will be more expensive, at least for a while.

So, of course, will labor, land, construction-equipment leasing, and construction products and materials.

Reflecting the higher costs to issuers, U.S. municipal securities issuance dropped 20%, from $483 billion in FY 21 to $387 billion in FY 22, while trading volume, reflecting nervous investors, nearly doubled over the same period. Continue reading →

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Posted in Business and Economy, Finance (government)

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