If the Trump administration repeals the Clean Power Plan, what justification is there for an electricity rate freeze in Virginia?
Is it time to reverse the rate freeze on electricity rates in Virginia? If President-elect Donald Trump revokes the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, author of SB 1095, thinks it would be.
Two years ago, no one knew what to make of the Clean Power Plan, an Environmental Protection Agency initiative that compelled electric utilities to reduce emissions of carbon-dioxide in the cause of fighting Global Warming. No one in the 2014 General Assembly session knew what the final regulations would look like or which of four broad regulatory options the Commonwealth of Virginia might adopt. If the plan required Dominion Virginia Power and Appalachian Power to close coal-fired power plants and replace generating capacity with gas, solar or nuclear, the utilities warned that rates could spike higher. On the other hand, the plan might not survive legal challenge.
At the time, it made sense to many legislators to freeze base electric rates until the dust settled. Since then, Trump has declared his skepticism of Global Warming, promised to roll back regulations hurting the coal industry, and nominated a new EPA chief who, as attorney general of Oklahoma, had filed suit to block the Clean Power Plan. However, it is not clear how quickly the plan, was implemented under a novel reading of the Clean Air Act after extensive administrative proceedings, could be repealed.
Peterson says it is time for a second look at the freeze. “You really can’t say, ‘Oh we have a federal government that’s trying to put coal out of business, so we need to give power plants a financial break.’ Sorry, that narrative doesn’t work anymore,” the Associated Press quotes him as saying.
Large industrial customers say the freeze could cost Dominion customers $2.4 billion in unnecessary payments by 2022, when the freeze expires, and Appalachian Power customers another $300 million. But Thomas Wohlfarth, a Dominion senior vice president, said those estimates are based on overly optimistic projections about the true cost of providing electricity.
Moreover, Wohlfarth said, Trump can’t just dispense with carbon regulations with the stroke of a pen. “We’re not of the opinion that carbon regulation is going to go away.”
Update: Well, well, this blog post had the shortest relevance of just about anything I’ve ever published on Bacon’s Rebellion. When I checked Richmond Sunlight a couple of hours ago, the bill was still alive. Now I have been informed that the bill died in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on a 12 to 2 vote.
Update: Peterson is vowing that “the fight isn’t over to stop excessive profits for regulated utilities.” In what may be the most quotable quote so far this session, he said: “If you use electricity in Virginia, you should want this bill. If you live in a teepee, you probably don’t care.”
Update: Yikes, the updates are flowing fast and furious. The rate freeze “has provided direct benefits to low-income seniors and military veterans through the expansion of Energy Share, and saved customers millions of dollars in costs while keeping Dominion’s rates well below the national average, which are lower now than before SB 1349 was passed,” said Dominion spokesman David Botkins.
“The broader issue of uncertainty around how EPA will regulate carbon is increasing, given the current Clean Power Plan may be replaced with an alternative that would then be subject to a new round of challenges,” Botkins said.
Da Bomb. The Virginia Pilot is reporting that Tommy Norment, R-Williamsburg, Republican majority leader of Virginia’s State Senate, was an editor for a VMI yearbook called The Bomb that printed “racist photos and slurs, including blackface”. The yearbook in question was published in 1968. African Americans were allowed to enroll at VMI in the Fall of 1968, presumably just after the “Norment yearbook” was published.
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Barbara Favola Makes Disingenuous Statements about Dominion Funding
Setup. Barbara Favola is the Democratic State Senator from Virginia’s 31st district. That district is centered in Arlington but includes areas of Fairfax and Loudoun Counties as well. Favola is a politician-for-life having served on the Arlington County Board from 1997 through 2012 and in the Virginia State Senate since then. She is seeking to extend her 22 consecutive years in politics to 26 in the upcoming General Assembly election. However, Sen Favola’s well laid plans hit a snag. She will face a challenger named Nicole Merlene in the June 11 Democratic primary. Ms. Merlene has astutely called Sen Favola’s ethics and independence into question based on Favola’s non-legislative position as the head of a lobbying organization representing clients in Richmond. An article in ggwash summarized a debate between Favola and Merlene:
“In her opening statement, Merlene referred to a December 2016 proposal to build a 325-foot tall tower on Virginia Department of Transportation land in Rosslyn. Favola, the sitting state senator for the district, was an advisor for the project.
Merlene said this type of behavior was pervasive, citing her opponent’s relationship with Marymount University and Virginia Hospital Center, which are both clients of a lobbying organization that Favola leads when she is not working in Richmond.“This is an issue where our representative was using public office for private benefit,” she said.”
Favola responded by employing what has become known as “the Saslaw – Norment defense” which holds that no amount of money from any source could ever be corrupting based on the genetic honesty of long time Virginia politicians. Continue reading →
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Posted in Commentary, Elections, General Assembly, Money in politics, Politics, Public corruption, Uncategorized
Tagged Don Rippert, General Assembly