The elections of a Republican Virginia governor and a new Republican majority in the House of Delegates have not changed Virginia’s status as one of the greenest of Green New Deal states in the country. Every effort to reverse the course set during the previous period of Democratic hegemony has...
It was a Richmond City Council resolution back in the fall, expressing a desire to shut down its municipal natural gas utility, that triggered pending (and now struggling) Virginia legislation to prevent localities from prohibiting natural gas. Less attention has been given to the “climate action” plan by Virginia’s largest local government...
Should the governor of Virginia have the power to unilaterally declare an open-ended state of emergency that indefinitely restricts Virginians’ civil and constitutional rights without a recorded vote by the General Assembly? The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns raised this serious question. But so far, nobody has answered it definitively. One of...
Read how they’ve already started this effort in Richmond by visiting: https://jeffersonpolicyjournal.com/richmond-city-may-cancel-gas-service-for-its-citizens-henrico-and-chesterfield This would cost homeowners $26,000 to retrofit to electric. Legislation in Virginia would create and protect a right to use natural gas. However, the Senate version of this bill would prohibit banning natural gas for businesses … but...
The argument now dividing the General Assembly on partisan lines is not whether to cut the state income tax, but for whom. The House of Delegates goes big with a broad tax cut that brings Virginia into line with other states, but the Senate only wants small changes aimed at...
Virginia’s House of Delegates Republicans have passed a series of bills retreating from Virginia’s rush toward a fossil-fuel free future, but they were party-line votes and Democrats in the Virginia Senate, who hold a majority on that side, may promptly kill them all. Two bills aimed at repealing or amending...
Virginia government is flooded with cash, tax revenues far in excess of what is needed to maintain its current level of services and a fair reserve. Key votes have now been taken and the House of Delegates is poised to return much of the excess money back to taxpayers. The...
By 2050 Virginia’s transition to wind and solar power under the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) could add almost $200 a month on average to a residential electric bill. Previous estimates of the consumer cost of dumping all fossil fuels from power generation have focused on the next ten years...
With several localities in Virginia having passed ordinances allowing government unions a monopoly on representing public employees, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy today released results of Mason-Dixon poll commissioned to measure certain provisions commonly contained in those ordinances. Those provisions are unpopular with Virginia voters. The results may...
The highest priority on a Virginia energy reform agenda proposed a few weeks ago was restoring State Corporation Commission oversight over decisions on massive renewable energy investments. Under current law, the General Assembly has basically dictated billions of dollars in such future investments, responding too often to donor demands. Several...
