Youngkin's team is looking at options for curbing Dominion's contribution to the increased cost of living through RGGI
Regulators approved a $2.39 increase earlier this year for Dominion customers because of RGGI.
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The Charlottesville City Council voted early this morning to donate their Robert E. Lee statue to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. The center is planning to melt the statue in order to create a new piece of public art. Read More
On the national level, more voters say they want the Supreme Court to leave Roe v. Wade in place than not, but the issue isn't a key motivator heading into the midterm elections, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. Read More
Youngkin’s team is looking at options on RGGI
A transition aide to Glenn Youngkin says that the governor-elect and members of his transition team are concerned with the latest Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction data that was recently was reported. RGGI is a market-based cap-and-invest initiative. Within the 11 states participating in RGGI, regulated power plants must acquire one RGGI CO2 allowance for every short ton of CO2 they emit. The RGGI states distribute allowances at quarterly auctions, where they can be purchased by power plants and other entities.
After joining the initiative in 2020 with 10 other states, Virginia made more than $227 million during the first year. Last week, the latest quarterly numbers were released showing Virginia bringing in $85.6 million.
The Virginia Mercury published a story on Monday about RGGI and how Democrats made it a priority and what the money is intended to be spent on. “The 2020 law authorizing Virginia’s participation in the market directed 50 percent of all auction proceeds to go toward low-income energy efficiency programs and 45 percent to go to a new Community Flood Preparedness Fund to assist communities and local governments affected by recurrent flooding and sea level rise. The remainder goes toward administrative expenses.”
Democratic lawmakers tout this bill, but they also quietly advanced legislation in 2020 to help certain utility companies in Virginia receive protection from this new law. The Virginia Mercury reported on this in February of 2020. “As Democrats bring home one of their top-line energy goals of the session, joining Virginia with the cap-and-trade Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the caucus is holding firm against one company’s efforts to bring down its compliance costs even as it’s quietly cleared the way for two power producers to pay less.”
According to a transition aide for Youngkin, his team is looking at what options the future governor would have to address what they consider to be Dominion’s contributions to the higher cost of living in Virginia.
Virginia Mercury reported Monday that electric utilities are able to pass off the increased costs from the program to customers. “Nevertheless, amendments may be possible. Several of the state’s independent power producers such as LS Power have complained that the 2020 law unfairly preferences the electric utilities by allowing them to pass on the program’s costs to customers but not controlling compliance costs for non-utility producers with preexisting contracts. During the 2020 session, LS Power unsuccessfully fought for the addition of a provision to Virginia’s RGGI law that would cushion the amount such generators would pay for allowances during the term of their contracts. "‘Other states enacted such provisions to avoid creating an unfair competitive disadvantage for their home-state power generators,” wrote LS Power Media Relations Director Steven Arabia in an email. “With the news that RGGI proceeds, and thus the costs to generators with these contracts, are double what was anticipated, we hope policy makers will take a fresh look at the issue and find a way to level the playing field.’”
And another article from Virginia Mercury in February of 2020. “The measure from Sen. Lionell Spruill, D-Chesapeake, would order the state to give carbon allowances to any new electric generating plant that received an air permit and a certificate of public necessity and convenience before the state’s carbon regulation went into effect this summer. Only two facilities — the privately owned Chickahominy Power Station and C4GT facilities being developed within a mile of one another in Charles City County — appear to be affected by the measure, because though they were permitted prior to the rule, they have yet to be constructed.”
Regulators approved an increase to Dominion Energy customers of $2.39 earlier this year.
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Swing Voters Don’t Explain Why Youngkin Won - New York Magazine
Commentary by Ed Kilgore
Now comes some more granular data from political scientists Seth Hill and Dan Hopkins via FiveThirtyEight, and it seems to confirm that poor turnout by Democratic base voters defeated Terry McAuliffe more than ambivalent swing voters. “It was heavily pro-Biden precincts that delivered the governor’s seat to the GOP,” they write. More specifically, analysis of every Virginia precinct shows that McAuliffe underperformed Joe Biden’s 2020 margins by 592,000 in precincts Biden carried with at least 70 percent of the vote, while in those same precincts Youngkin fell short of Trump’s vote by only 124,000 votes. Both candidates had significantly slighter (and more equal) falloff from their presidential-candidate predecessors in more competitive and Trump-dominated precincts; indeed, Youngkin actually got slightly more votes than Trump in precincts the former president carried with at least 70 percent of the vote. This latter data point, however, confirms the general impression that the election was a battle of the bases that Youngkin handily won. And that’s exactly what the exit polls showed.
This is at best cold comfort for Democrats in Virginia and elsewhere who worry about 2021’s lessons for 2022, since off-presidential-year falloff for Democrats could well persist (unless hard-to-turn-out voters, particularly young people, who lean Democratic, are galvanized by subsequent events — like, say, a Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v. Wade). But it’s likely that in 2024, disparate turnout patterns will end, and the blue tendencies Virginia has exhibited in the past four presidential election will reemerge.
Republicans eye gains with female voters after Virginia rout - The Hill
by Julia Manchester
Republicans are looking to make further gains with female voters, particularly in the suburbs, in next year’s midterm elections after a strong showing in Virginia suggested they had made inroads with the group.
But Republican Glenn Youngkin’s inroads with female voters helped him, in part, to become the first Republican to win a statewide election in Virginia since 2009. Exit polling shows that white women in particular swung back to Republicans in the commonwealth last month.
Richmond Public Schools teachers are first in the state to gain collective bargaining rights - Richmond Times-Dispatch
by Kenya Hunter
In an 8-1 vote, the board formally recognized teachers' rights to negotiate contracts, ending a decades-long restriction. Jonathan Young cast the lone dissenting vote in a meeting that was at times contentious.
Dozens of Richmond Public Schools teachers packed the auditorium at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School wearing red shirts to signal their support for collective bargaining. State Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, also showed her support for collective bargaining during a rally prior to the meeting. During the debate, school division staff questioned whether the School Board really wanted to approve collective bargaining.
Loudoun County asks parent to pay $36K for FOIA request for documents regarding 'sexual assault' or 'rape' - Washington Examiner
by Elizabeth Faddis
A parent was told by Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia that it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to gain access to all the public records relating to sexual assault and rape incidents across several months this year.
The parent, Michelle Mege, was informed $36,000 would be the tab for the county to respond to her Freedom of Information Act request fully on Oct. 18, according to the Daily Caller . In particular, she requested access to "all communications, including press releases, statements, emails, or other correspondence in any format within the LCPS possession" that contained the words "sexual assault" or "rape" between May 1 and Oct. 18.
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