by Steve Haner
The Virginia State Corporation Commission has approved Dominion Energy Virginia’s request to stretch out the back payments on $1.3 billion in old fuel bills from previous years over more than seven years. While the ultimate dollar cost to customers is millions higher because of interest charges, even the SCC news release touted the move as “rate relief.” Continue reading
Posted in Business and Economy, General Assembly, Regulation, Utilities
Tagged Dominion, Stephen D. Haner
The states currently in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative tax compact. Pennsylvania will remain conspicuously absent, and Virginia departs in two months.
by Steve Haner
A state court in Pennsylvania has ruled that the regulatory decision to enroll that state in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) exceeded the authority of state regulators. It ruled RGGI is a tax that could only be lawfully imposed by the legislature.
It was the Republican majority in one of the state’s legislative chambers that brought the legal challenge, so unless or until the political balance changes in that state, a vote to join the interstate carbon dioxide capping program is unlikely.
Adding Pennsylvania would have been a major expansion of the 11-state RGGI compact. Its many fossil fuel power plants would need to buy $400 million or more worth of CO2 allowance credits per year, a third or more than Virginia’s power plants are being taxed.
It is also one of the larger states in the PJM Interconnect regional power marketplace (it is the P) where the power plants do not pay into RGGI, lowering the relative cost of its power when it flows into other PJM states. Virginia electric customers are often using electrons from elsewhere in PJM.
That the money the utilities must pay for operating their fossil fuel plants is a tax is something most RGGI proponents, including those in Virginia, vehemently deny. That was one of the key disputes in the challenge in Pennsylvania, where joining RGGI was a regulatory step initiated by its then-Governor Tom Wolf (D). Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Environment, General Assembly, Taxes, Utilities
Tagged RGGI, Stephen D. Haner
Norfolk Virginian-Pilot photo of the first eight monopiles for Dominion’s offshore wind project, celebrated at a ceremony last Thursday upon their delivery.
The Biden Administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has issued final approval for the construction of Dominion Energy Virginia’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Here is the release. A few more steps remain and should be completed by late January, according to BOEM.
The announcement, fully expected since all previous U.S. projects have been similarly approved, followed by a few days the arrival of the first set of gigantic monopiles, the first eight of the 176 structures Dominion will build about 27 miles or more off Virginia Beach.
The only coverage of their arrival was provided by The Virginian-Pilot. Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) attended and has praised the project all along. The paper provided only an indirect quote from his remarks:
The project is also at the heart of Virginia’s all-of-the-above approach to energy production, which aims to make energy cheap and plentiful by employing fossil fuels, nuclear and growing green energy, said Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who attended the event.
American Institute of CPA’s map of states with a pass through entity tax rule as of this past July. Many of those that haven’t have no state income tax anyway. Click for larger view.
By Steve Haner
When the General Assembly was briefed on the state’s financial status last week, the $412 million in unexpected revenue growth was dismissed as potentially misleading because of some new quirk in Virginia tax law called the Pass Through Entity Tax or PTET. PTET keeps coming up in these discussions.
Approval of the Pass Through Entity Tax in 2022, with some tweaks to the rules in 2023, has indeed scrambled the state’s financial forecasting. Virginia is one of 36 states now offering this tax strategy. The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee got a briefing on it October 17. Before the boring nuts and bolts, here are the headlines.
First, PTET is popularly seen as a way to undermine the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s limitation on the deductibility of state and local taxes (SALT). If you seek itemized deductions on a federal tax return, the limit for state and local taxes paid is $10,000. Now that Virginia and so many other states have adopted PTET, the big loser is the federal government. PTET adds to the federal deficit. Continue reading
Posted in Budgets, Business and Economy, General Assembly, Taxes
Tagged Stephen D. Haner
Finance Secretary Cummings showed this chart to legislators this week and noted the deceleration in job growth, citing that as another reason he and Governor Glenn Youngkin remain cautious despite strong revenues. Click for larger view.
by Steve Haner
First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
Virginia’s state budget grew 90% in the past decade, far faster than in previous decades. After adjusting for inflation and population changes, spending still jumped 4% each year, a high rate of compound real growth. At the same time, the state continues to see explosive growth in its revenue, pointing to cash surpluses continuing for some time.
These facts emerged from two presentations to the Virginia General Assembly this week. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) issued its annual report on state spending growth on Monday. That same day, Secretary of Finance Stephen Cummings reported on the revenue results from July through September, the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024.
In just those three months, revenue exceeded the revenue estimates by more than $412 million. Other months, with larger pots of projected revenue, are still ahead. Should this revenue trend hold, surpluses similar to the historic surpluses of Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 could result next June.
During the elections two years ago, Virginia’s flush financial condition was inspiring debates about tax reductions and tax reform. Some, but not all, of the proposals went on to pass. But with General Assembly elections just over two weeks away, few candidates in either party are promising more tax reform or reduction efforts in the next session. Continue reading
Illustration of planned Equinor offshore wind installation off the coast of New York State. Equinor was one of the developers asking for a price increase, which was rejected.
By Steve Haner
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) last week told several offshore wind developers it would not approve changes in their state contracts, putting several planned ocean turbine projects into jeopardy. The story is important for its contrast to how Virginia faces the same future. Continue reading
Posted in Consumer protection, Energy, Environment, Regulation, Utilities
Tagged CVOW, Stephen D. Haner
by Steve Haner
Virginia’s new electricity bill subsidy program for customers of Dominion Energy Virginia has cleared its final hurdle at the State Corporation Commission and will begin enrolling participants in time for this coming winter. It is largely following the schedule previously outlined.
In a final order issued October 13, the Commission set the rate adjustment clause amount that will be added to Dominion customer bills at 73 cents per 1,000 kilowatt hours. For most residential customers it will add between 50 cents and a dollar per month to their bills. Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Entitlements, General Assembly, Utilities
Tagged Dominion, PIPP, Stephen D. Haner
The states currently in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative tax compact.
By Steve Haner
Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) is defending the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board’s decision to exit a multi-state carbon cap and tax compact as within the regulatory agency’s authority. He has also claimed to the circuit court hearing an appeal of that decision that the plaintiffs were not affected by the action directly and thus have no standing to sue.
The four plaintiffs, all associations, filed a 138-page petition in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County in late August. Miyares’ office used just ten pages total for two responses dated September 13. Continue reading
NOAA data for Virginia, 1900-2020, showing no rising pattern in the number of days with an average high above 95 degrees F.
By Steve Haner
First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
Energy is our economy. Energy is the basis of wealth and a comfortable life. As Virginia chooses a new set of legislators to wrestle with the old and new energy issues facing the Commonwealth, here is a review of some of the key points the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy has been stressing and writing about over recent years.
Candidates in either party would do well to adopt them. Continue reading
By Steve Haner
There is no way House Republican spokesman Garren Shipley used the term “pregnant person” in discussing the ongoing campaign debate over the abortion issue with a Washington Post reporter. The reporter or an editor intentionally broke up his quote to insert the now politically correct term in a recent story.
Here is the paragraph, with a highlight to show the direct and indirect portions of the quote:
“Voters have a very distinct choice,” said Garren Shipley, spokesman for the House Republican Caucus, which paid for what he called a “six-figure” ad campaign. “Republicans have been absolutely clear from the get-go” that they favor a 15-week limit with exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the pregnant person, he said. “But Democrats can’t give you a straight answer about what they want to do.”
Shipley would have referred to the life of the mother or the life of the woman. But, no, The Washington Post could not even use those terms in a direct quote in today’s environment. In woke Post land, people who are not women, who are not born with wombs, can carry unborn children.
The story focused on a new GOP-sponsored 30-second broadcast ad also tied to a website, and having the Post cover the development at all was a boost to Shipley’s team. The story concedes Democrats are less clear about their intentions. That one issue is already dominating the airwaves, with both sides accusing the other of blatantly lying about their plans if given control of the legislature. Continue reading
By Steve Haner
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, when the wave of historical monuments destruction hit three years ago, it was a memorial to Civil War Union soldiers that was toppled by a mob.
There were Union soldiers out in what was then a sparsely populated territory? Yes, the Civil War reached that far. Santa Fe was briefly occupied by Confederate troops from Texas in 1862, for about a month. A couple of battles (skirmishes by eastern standards) were fought on its territory, the final one just 25 miles from town at Glorietta Pass. Continue reading
The SCC’s breakdown of Dominion’s energy price for a home using 1,000 kwh. Click for clear view.
by Steve Haner
When the Virginia General Assembly passed a complicated electricity regulation change a few months ago, the Richmond Times-Dispatch parroted as fact this Dominion Energy Virginia claim in a front-page paragraph:
The compromise on electric bills — in legislation that passed nearly unanimously — would bring an immediate $6 to $7 cut in a benchmark 1,000 kilowatt-hour monthly bill, which now stands at $137.
Posted in Business and Economy, Energy, General Assembly, Regulation, Utilities
Tagged Dominion, Stephen D. Haner
The govt says the wind industry isn't killing whales, but it is. Here's the proof: another dead one, nicknamed "Faith." They found her yesterday at the @Orsted Southfork Wind site (#517), Rhode Island, right next to the (yellow) turbine base. 71st whale killed since last Dec pic.twitter.com/TeMAUisAsL
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) September 6, 2023
Click on the images for the full views. Correlation is still not causation, but the standard industry, utility and Biden Administration line “there is no evidence” is getting thin. Virginia Beach, here it comes.
State Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, new Chairman of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (Image: Virginia Star)
By Steve Haner
State Senator Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, showed today that he had something which the State Corporation Commission now lacks – a quorum. Surovell and the other legislators will gather in Richmond tomorrow to address the state budget but are expected once again to fail to fill the two vacancies on that vital regulatory body.
Surovell, however, was chosen this afternoon to chair the newly reconstituted Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (CEUR), a legislative oversight panel that has not met since December 2017 despite several tumultuous years of change in Virginia’s energy sector. The meeting lasted just a few minutes beyond one hour and never discussed the huge problem the legislators have created by refusing to elect new SCC regulators. Continue reading
The following has been submitted to the State Corporation Commission via the public comment portal it has established for Dominion Energy Virginia’s pending 2023 Integrated Resource Plan. It was drafted by Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy Senior Fellow Stephen D. Haner.
Dominion Energy Virginia is acting reasonably and prudently by planning to maintain most of its natural gas generation and perhaps some of its coal generation for the foreseeable future, despite narrow votes in the Virginia General Assembly in favor of eliminating their use.
That is the only aspect of the pending Integrated Resource Plan review (PUR-2023-00066) on which the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy is offering an opinion. However, the opinion is strongly reinforced by data put on the case record by the State Corporation Commission’s own professional staff and cited below. Continue reading
