How a New State Panel Might Take Control of Local Zoning Permits for Solar Farms
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 Electric Utility Regulation (CEUR), newly energized […]
Governor Youngkin Uses His Veto Pen to Protect Farmers and Lower-Skilled Workers
There is a near-universal consensus among economists that increases in the minimum wage harm low-skilled workers the most. Originally designed to mimic racially discriminatory laws elsewhere, the minimum wage continues to be a means of picking certain classes and geographic locations over others. For example, the minimum wage benefits the high-cost-of-living areas in the Northeast over the lower-cost-of-living areas in […]
Solar installations hasten loss of Virginia farmland
Virginia lost about 2,000 acres of productive farmland per week in 2021, according to data released in February by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There are many reasons why farmers sell off their land, including development pressures, lack of interest by younger members of farming families, and the difficulties of turning a profit in the face of […]
Supreme Court to Review California Standards Imposed on Virginia
How agriculture produces meat in our society, and whether California gets to set the standards for everyone else, is in the balance.
Smithfield’s court loss may spell trouble for large-scale livestock farmers
Murphy-Brown, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, lost a major case on November 19, 2020. With Thanksgiving activities and election allegations, little attention was paid to this loss other than a few environmental groups and farm publications (full case summary here). Federal judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, appointed by President Reagan, indicted the entire industrialized hog […]
That $900 Billion Stimulus Package includes Pork – lots of it!
Congress has passed, and the President has signed, the $900 billion stimulus package. There’s a lot of pork in the bill, and it includes USDA. What is your tax dollar going to support? About $10 million will be made available for gender programs in Pakistan. There will also be a study of the Springfield, Ill., […]
Feds’ Jargon-filled Memo Won’t Help Farmers Manage Wetlands
Back in July USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey, Assistant Secretary of the Army R. D. James, and EPA Assistant Administrator for water David Ross signed an essentially meaningless memorandum on how to determine issues related to the implementation of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Food Security Act (FSA) of 1985. […]
Little for Farmers in Dem Party Platform
The Democratic party released its draft platform for 2020 this month with 10 sections, and not one is on agriculture! The platform has sections on “Building a Stronger, Fairer Economy”; “Achieving Universal Affordable Quality Healthcare”; “Combatting the Climate Crisis and Pursuing Environmental Justice”; “Providing a World-Class Education in Every Zip Code” and “Renewing American Leadership”. […]
What are perennial, intermittent and ephemeral streams?
In an earlier blog, I discussed what is “not” a water of the United States. The issue is trickier when a new definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) is examined for perennial, intermittent, or ephemeral streams. A perennial stream is defined “…to mean surface water flowing continuously year-round.” An intermittent stream in the WOTUS […]
Feds Define What is NOT a “Waters of the United States”
In my many efforts to unravel and explain the federal government’s sometimes baffling efforts to legally define the things that matter most to property owners, I have started by describing the government’s interpretation of a “ditch” (see here). Now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and U.S. EPA (EPA) have published a final rule describing […]