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Atlantic Coast Pipeline cost estimates surge to $7 billion
Steve Haner at Bacon’s Rebellion has a good breakdown of a recent Dominion Energy earnings call in which CEO Tom Farrell said the company’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s cost estimates had ballooned to $6.5 to $7 billion. Per the transcript, Farrell blamed a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stop-work order and delays in obtaining permits for the […]
Report: Federal fines rare in gas pipeline explosions
An E&E News analysis out today finds that the federal Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration sought no fine in 90 percent of the 137 pipeline fires or explosions since 2019. The article quotes Bath County landowner Bill Limpert, who has fought Dominion Energy’s proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which plans to cut through his property, Pipeline […]
U.S. Supreme Court will hear Virginia redistricting case
The United States Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Virginia Republicans challenging a lower court’s decision that found 11 state House of Delegates districts were racially gerrymandered. It was not immediately clear how the decision might affect the process of redrawing the districts by a court appointed special master, which was planned to be […]
Ørsted, Dominion’s partner on Virginia offshore wind project, completes acquisition of U.S. wind firm
The Danish energy giant that is partnering with Dominion Energy on a Virginia offshore wind pilot project has finalized its $510 million acquisition of Deepwater Wind, which built the first — and for the time being the only— offshore wind farm in the U.S. in Block Island Sound. The new entity, Ørsted US Offshore Wind, […]
Decision day: Brush up on the candidates and the issues before you head to the polls
It’s Election Day, and you’ve probably already made up your mind. But if you’d like to brush up on the candidates and the issues on the ballot in Virginia today, here are some links to the Mercury’s coverage over the past several months: The four congressional races seen as most competitive: The 2nd District race, a […]
Problems voting? Contact Electionland
With Nov. 6 fast approaching, the Virginia Mercury is partnering with ProPublica’s Electionland collaborative journalism project to help shine a light on problems that might prevent people from voting. That means we want to hear about long lines, registration problems, purged voter rolls, broken machines, voter intimidation and changed voting locations in Virginia. Here’s how […]
State Corporation Commission endorses Dominion renewable energy projects, including offshore wind test turbines
The State Corporation Commission has endorsed a pair of Dominion Energy renewable energy projects: two offshore wind test turbines and an agreement to purchase power from an independent 80-megawatt solar facility in Halifax County. The approval of the wind turbines, which are to be built about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach at […]
The new Know Nothings: Trump’s vile brew of nativism and conspiracy theory
I have heard it a million times and the story still makes my sides split. My grandmother, an aspiring Boston nurse of Irish and English ancestry, who grew up in the nearby seaside town of Quincy, had started dating a Harvard medical student with a funny last name and was at last convinced to meet […]
The con at the heart of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
It can’t be said enough, and it’s something that’s easy to lose sight of amid the labyrinthine legal and permitting debates around the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which could be getting federal approval to start full construction in Virginia any minute now. The need for Dominion Energy’s 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline is far from proven — […]
Atlantic Coast Pipeline gets final Virginia approvals
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has cleared the way for Dominion Energy’s 600-mile, deeply divisive Atlantic Coast Pipeline to begin construction here. The agency has signed off on plans for how workers will manage erosion, sediment and stormwater along the route, which will cross hundreds of waterways and some of Virginia’s steepest terrain, the […]
Virginia’s unemployment rate hits lowest level in 11 years
Virginia’s unemployment rate fell for the third month in a row, hitting the lowest number since 2007, Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration announced. “The September 2018 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Virginia was down 0.7 percentage point from a year ago and is the lowest rate since the June 2007 rate of 2.9 percent,” Northam’s office […]
Virginia’s pipeline projects and the aura of inevitability
This week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave Dominion Energy permission to begin cutting down trees in Buckingham County to clear the way for a massive compressor station the company wants to build as part of its Atlantic Coast Pipeline. FERC’s letter Tuesday allows “non-mechanized” tree-felling — that means using handheld chainsaws — at the […]