The Jefferson Journal
Commentary
“The Department of Energy, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Quality, shall analyze the life cycle of renewable energy facilities, including solar, wind, and battery storage components. The analysis shall assess the (i) feasibility, costs, recycling and salvage opportunities, waste strategies, and liability for the decommissioning of materials; (ii)...
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) will proceed to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon tax compact by the same route Virginia entered it: He will push to repeal the underlying regulation. As with much else in his promised “Day One” agenda, it will actually take time. What he...
Dominion Energy Virginia’s November announcement that its proposed offshore wind project has jumped almost 25% in cost to $10 billion, with years to go before construction even starts, has put Virginia’s energy policy and its response to claims of climate disaster on the front burner for 2022. Dealing with these...
One of big financial winners with the May 2021 and then January 2022 Virginia minimum wage increases is the state itself, because the entire raise is subject to a 5 percent state income tax. With its low standard deduction and personal exemption amounts, Virginia squeezes income tax out of even...
In 2020 the Virginia Assembly changed a decades-old law and allowed local governments to collectively bargain with most public employees. The law went into effect on May 1, 2021 and gives “a county, city, or town… [which includes] any local school board” the ability to adopt a local ordinance or...
(Author’s Note: Eight years ago, we suggested incoming Governor Terry McAuliffe pursue a bold education funding reform that would modernize and supercharge Virginia’s education infrastructure. He chose not to. We offer it again, verbatim, to Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin … because we believe the idea crosses ideological lines and party divides...
The projected consumer cost of Dominion Energy Virginia’s conversion to wind and solar power rises steeply in the utility’s latest capital spending plan. Although slightly reduced from earlier estimates, the utility told the State Corporation Commission its residential customers may see prices jump more than 50% by 2030 and 70%...
Virginia’s leaders are no longer debating whether to cut state taxes. The argument now will be over how to cut state taxes. Outgoing Democratic Governor Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that his final introduced budget will include $2.1 billion in lower taxes, created by a one-time rebate to all taxpayers, a...
Virginia’s automotive sales market is now officially controlled in Sacramento, with the likelihood that no new internal combustion engines can be sold in the Commonwealth after 2035. The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board, acting not with discretion but on orders from the General Assembly, voted December 2 to adopt Advanced...
Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin told a business group audience Wednesday afternoon that he intends to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. His decision came two days after Dominion Energy Virginia filed a petition to increase the RGGI tax on its bills by 83 percent next year. “RGGI describes itself as...