State Budget

Barbara Hollingsworth
September 16, 2022

Most Virginians are painfully aware ­­­­that it’s becoming much more difficult to make ends meet. Prices for fo­­­­od, housing, gasoline and other necessities have soared. Inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June, the largest yearly increase since January 1982. And a recent study from the University of...

Stephen D. Haner
September 13, 2022

Despite Dominion Energy Virginia’s complaints that the Virginia State Corporation Commission has exceeded its authority, a legal analysis provided by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy finds that the SCC’s proposed performance standard for an offshore wind project is proper. The analysis was provided by Institute Senior Fellow Dr....

Stephen D. Haner
September 6, 2022

Virginians may be finally waking up to the consequences of the headlong rush to adopt utopian energy policies under our previous governor. The issues are getting more attention than ever before, and now people need to realize all the issues are really just one issue.  A California regulatory board’s decision...

Stephen D. Haner
August 27, 2022

Now comes applicant Dominion Energy Virginia, petitioning the Virginia State Corporation Commission to reverse its recent decision to impose actual financial risk on the company and its stockholders. If a hurricane blows down its planned offshore wind farm in a few years, the related costs should be imposed 100% on...

David Wojick
August 24, 2022

A funny thing happened on the way to the Senate. It is all about the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which really should be named the Inflation Act. Only Democrats can believe that raising taxes reduces inflation. The Democrats writing the IRA decided that since tax credit subsidies do a...

Stephen D. Haner
August 22, 2022

Does last week’s glowing report on Virginia’s state tax collections presage additional tax relief for struggling families? The first question is, was the news really glowing? Less than 18 months ago, in April 2021, the Virginia General Assembly and then Governor Ralph Northam (D) agreed upon a set of revenue...

Stephen D. Haner
August 8, 2022
Rejecting an agreement that its own staff reached with Dominion Energy Virginia, the State Corporation Commission has imposed at least some level of financial risk on the utility’s shareholders should its $10 billion offshore wind project fail to match the company’s promised performance....
Stephen D. Haner
August 5, 2022

And now, from our “I’ll believe it when I see it” department, comes the expectation that passage of President Joe Biden’s new corporate tax hike and green energy incentives package will be followed by a smooth path to completion for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for natural gas. The topic...

Barbara Hollingsworth
July 26, 2022

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...

Stephen D. Haner
July 22, 2022

Researchers at the University of Virginia are part of an ongoing effort to redesign wind turbines to be both more efficient and better protected from storm-scale winds, as described in this video you can find on a university website. What is the problem to be addressed? Says one of the engineers: As...