Right after the 2023 gubernatorial midterms here in Virginia, State Senator David Marsden of Fairfax asked me to help him get a better understanding of where the Commonwealth is in meeting the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act.
Admitting to Marsden that my own understanding of the VCEA was limited, I agreed to get an assessment from Virginia FREE members and any other business organization willing to offer their thoughts.
I conducted around eighty interviews mostly during last year’s General Assembly Session. Many were in Marsden’s Richmond office while others occurred over the phone or via Zoom.
At the conclusion of these candid, frank, and sometimes lengthy conversations I called Sen. Marsden’s office to let them know that there was only one problem with the VCEA.
“What’s that?”
“Math.”
Last Monday, during the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation (CEUR), a legislative commission, a draft bill was taken up to mitigate that math.
Given the partisan composition of CEUR, it should have sailed out and onward to legislative committees of jurisdiction.
While it passed out, it is limping and on life support with a 7-5 vote.
And for good reason.
One local government leader called the bill “a massive power grab.” (irony noted)
The Cardinal News reported on the hearing and CEUR member Senator Mark Obenshain of Rockingham:
Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, opposed the draft legislation and said it would represent an “enormous shift of decision-making authority” from local governments to an unelected volunteer board.
“We are creating a review board with truly extraordinary powers”
and Speaker of the House Don Scott:
Virginia Speaker of the House Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, questioned why it was necessary to create a new state board and require localities to adopt ordinances that match a state model.
Although he voted to recommend the bill to the General Assembly for consideration, he said he “would do everything in my power to kill this bill if it comes before the body like this.”
Dean Lynch, Executive Director Virginia Association of Counties (VACo) provided me with this quote:
VACo opposes the current draft bill due to its numerous problematic aspects. Fundamentally, the bill seeks to preempt local decision-making authority over land use for facilities that span areas ranging from several hundred acres to several square miles.
Now, if I was back in the House of Delegates representing my rural district I might be inclined to submit legislation that would require Northern Virginia residents who commute into Washington to do so on Metro in order to relieve congestion, mitigate auto emissions, reduce EV charging load, and Make Metro Great Again. (TM)
Alas, I am not.
No doubt Speaker Scott sees the political problem of giving Republicans an issue to drive GOP turnout in the upcoming 2025 elections.
(See column: Virginia Special Elections - Rural Turnout Problem for GOP)
One only has to look at Germany to see how quickly energy policy can impact voters.
In Geopolitical Futures Bad Timing for a German Government Collapse - Irreconcilable differences on economic policy have consequences for foreign policy.
Germany – the political and economic heart of the European Union – is in the throes a major political crisis. Earlier this month, Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the head of the Free Democratic Party, over their irreconcilable differences on how to manage Germany’s poor economic performance. The move resulted in the breakdown of the governing coalition, which included Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the FDP, and thus a government collapse.
Seems Linder wants to go in market friendly direction per Clean Energy Wire’s Finance minister’s leaked paper drives German coalition to the brink as budget deadline looms.
The paper’s title?
Economic transition for Germany – economic concepts for growth and inter-generational fairness
Walter Russell Mead offers this from his column today (1/7/25) Nations Prepare for a Post-European World - Trump recognizes that the Continent has abdicated its role in history:
Economically, our European partners and friends are failing the test of the digital age, generating neither the new technologies nor companies that the 21st-century demands. Their embrace of ruinous climate policies reduces their competitiveness. Their NIMBYism throttles growth, and their unsustainable welfare states further diminish their prospects.
Back to my survey of business leaders and the VCEA.
Almost to a person they expressed support for the goals of a cleaner and greener economy as well as their desire to help achieve the VCEA’s goals.
However, the VCEA’s goals need to be reviewed by a bipartisan commission that honestly considers all the changes that have occurred since its original passage.
Those changes include but are not limited to:
Data center growth
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
Global energy markets
National Security - Virginia ain’t Wyoming, folks
Internet and Grid Security
Artificial Intelligence
Chinese competition
New technologies - hydrogen etc.
Inflation (the non transitory kind) impact on consumers
Energy Industry supply chain, logistics, and time tables
The National League adopting the Designated Hitter rule (oh good, you’re still here…)
Siemens Smart Infrastructure CEO Matthias Rebellius in WSJ article Data Centers Need to Look Beyond Green Energy, Siemens Executive Says Matthias Rebellius says energy sourcing is one of the main factors holding back data centers, which provide computing power for AI models
The world needs a new plan. It’s just a question of speed and how much can be done at the same time.
And that doesn’t include the intentions of the Chinese Communists:
The message from President Biden’s national security adviser was startling.
Chinese hackers had gained the ability to shut down dozens of U.S. ports, power grids and other infrastructure targets at will, Jake Sullivan told telecommunications and technology executives at a secret meeting at the White House in the fall of 2023, according to people familiar with it. The attack could threaten lives, and the government needed the companies’ help to root out the intruders.
What no one at the briefing knew, including Sullivan: China’s hackers were already working their way deep inside U.S. telecom networks, too.
C.S Lewis in Mere Christianity:
If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.