Will Someone Explain The Progressive Fatwa Against Dominion?

Shaun Kenney May 4, 2017 3 Comments

Blue Virginia was positively giddy about Dominion being “in the hot seat” this morning as Gregory Schneider over at the Washington Post did an article on Dominion’s pro-Perriello opposition group called Activate Virginia:

Josh Stanfield, a former Sanders delegate who started a grass-roots group called Activate Virginia, settled on Dominion as a way to unite a crop of Democratic candidates being recruited to challenge incumbents for House of Delegates seats all around the state.

While Stanfield said it’s “unrealistic” to expect candidates to refuse all corporate donations, his group crafted a pledge to take a symbolic stand against contributions from Dominion. Nearly 60 Democratic challengers have signed up.

Stanfield and his young organization have not yet endorsed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, but he’s bothered by aspects of both candidates. Perriello’s financial disclosure shows a sizable investment in Fluor Corp., a major infrastructure firm that works for big energy companies. And Northam’s relationship with Dominion – both owning stock and taking donations – is “a major red flag,” he said.

Interesting that Stanfield didn’t mention the Avaar Foundation’s close connections to George Soros… nor did he mention Soros’ investments in Keystone XL as a “major red flag” in his attempt to be kinda-sorta-impartial…

…nor did the WaPo’s Schneider dive very deeply into the 50-odd-plus Democratic challengers to Republicans, many of whom are in primaries against themselves and none of whom are current Democratic delegates.

So what gives?

Frankly, you have three dynamics going on here:

(1)  As a public utility, Dominion is a social institution with a corporate culture that gives back to the community in social ways.  Bike tournaments, the arts, social functions, charitable institutions, and yes — bi-partisan political contributions that straddle the political fence line… this is the nature of being a private company that produces a state-regulated public resource — is it not?  Health care — close to the heart of many a Democrat — certainly does this… and yes, energy firms do the same.

(2)  Such institutions are easy to galvanize against for short-term political gain.  Let’s be very honest about where all of this is coming from folks.  One year ago, was there an Activate Virginia?  Of course there wasn’t… and why not?  Because there was no Tom Perriello for Governor.

Does anyone care to explain the co-incidental rise of Perriello’s candidacy and Activate Virginia?  Why aren’t we investigating that?  Why aren’t we asking the tough questions as to why Keystone XL interests would be so heavily invested — we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars on the books and no-idea-how-much tucked away through shadow groups — in killing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and making the Port of Virginia less attractive as a destination on the Eastern Seaboard?

(3)  The hard truth is this: Dominion is the social institution that will power Virginia’s economic recovery.  So much of everything else we talk about is predicated on the existence of plentiful, cheap, clean, and abundant energy resources. And as a state-regulated corporation, Dominion is ultimately answerable to one set of shareholders — the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Yet as a privately-run firm bringing our resources to bear in the energy market?  Whether that is nuclear or solar, whether that is wind in the Appalachians or natural gas going into post-Panamax containers in Hampton Roads, as the Virginia economy moves away from government as a primary driver in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads?  As we continue to move towards capital investment in the Dulles Tech Corridor and turning the Port of Virginia into an international-class facility?  All of these opportunities — all of them — are dependent upon cheap clean energy.

Whether you are Amazon or Google, a mid-sized distributor, or a small business just trying to keep the lights on… if we don’t have the complete and full array of energy resources at our fingertips?  The cost of doing business in Virginia becomes exponentially more expensive.

Soros knows that.  Perriello knows that.  Activate Virginia probably doesn’t know that at all… but Virginians ought to know it — because these guys are playing games with our economic future.

Virginia’s economy is predicated on the sinews of what keeps businesses running, and the progressive fatwa on cheap clean energy hurts Virginia’s working families.  

For one, I don’t understand the progressive line on all of this.  They claim to want cheap clean energy (solar, wind, etc) but then spin around and do everything possible to make energy more expensive.  They claim to want to protect the natural environment, but in doing so make the economic environment downright poisonous.  In short, these guys can’t claim to cheer the effort for cheap clean energy while hamstringing Dominion’s efforts to do precisely that.  “Save the trees; shutter your businesses” is a terrible campaign platform.

Not a single sitting Democratic state senator or delegate has decided to follow up on the progressive fatwa against Dominion.  Certainly the peals of laughter from the Republican bench are loud enough to be heard — if for no other reason than Dominion’s generosity to Democratic candidates has far outstripped the institution’s giving to Republican causes.

Yet more to the point?  One really can’t create the sort of economic renaissance Virginians deserve by ripping at the backbone that predicates the rest — cheap clean energy.  The policy makers and legislators in Richmond know this; why aren’t groups like Activate Virginia shooting straight with the progressive base?

Maybe we will see a follow up from the WaPo regarding Activate Virginia’s *ahem* connections to Soros and Keystone XL money?  Or maybe not… but either way, the progressive fatwa on cheap clean energy is anti-Virginian and anti-common sense.

  • frank papcin

    is it just me or have others come away with more questions after reading this, than the information given, satisfying me curiosity in reading it?
    —-needs explaining— in killing the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and making the Port of Virginia
    less attractive as a destination on the Eastern Seaboard?— how?
    —-why does the port need the energy?–turning the Port of Virginia into an international-class facility? All
    of these opportunities — all of them — are dependent upon cheap clean
    energy.– explain
    with all of the taxpayers subsidies, how can you say this—–They claim to want cheap clean energy (solar, wind, etc) but then spin around and do everything possible to make energy more expensive. solar & wind is not cheaper–yet
    if ever it could be
    — yet it’s people fighting to keep those types of energy producing projects ‘ OUT OF THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS.’ ??
    Democrats use Dominion’s donations to Republican candidates as a weapon, and dominion donates more to Democrats?
    —-and why doesn’t this group do a update for those that really want to know the rest of the story– THAT NO ONE IS TELLING?Maybe we will see a follow up from the WaPo regarding Activate
    Virginia’s *ahem* connections to Soros and Keystone XL money? Or maybe
    not… but either way, the progressive fatwa on cheap clean energy is anti-Virginian and anti-common sense.
    maybe it’s just me?

  • The Jaded JD

    First, as to your third point, Dominion is not “ultimately answerable to one set of shareholders — the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.” Dominion is publicly traded. Unlike, say, ABC, Dominion’s profits are not revenues of the Commonwealth. Dominion’s shareholders get Dominion’s profits, but most Virginians don’t own Dominion stock (except loosely and indirectly, if they own mutual funds that likely do) and most of Dominion’s shareholders aren’t Virginians.
    As to the overall issue, Dominion (and its shareholders) are guaranteed by law not just enough money to break even, but a statutory rate of return. That means Virginia taxpayers, including those who aren’t Dominion shareholders, have guaranteed dividends to Dominion’s shareholders, including those who aren’t Virginians. Those dividends are paid by Dominion’s ratepayers (again, this is not a 1:1 match with Virginians, because some Virginians are outside Dominion’s service area, and Dominion services areas outside of Virginia).
    As far as those charitable activities? They are tax deductions, just like for any corporation. All those community events they sponsor? Every time Dominion is listed as a donor, it’s an advertisement. (In the case of a monopoly like Dominion, the purpose of advertisement isn’t to solicit new customers but to make the captive ones feel a little less alarmed that they’re captive.)
    And when it comes to political contributions, the comparison between Dominion and health care is a false one because health care isn’t a monopoly. Despite hospital consolidation, there were still choices (at least in metro Richmond the last time I checked). If you don’t like a Bon Secours hospital, you can go across the street to an HCA one. If you don’t like Dominion, I hope you’ve stocked up on D-cells. So what you have is a monopoly entitled by law to a statutory rate of return that uses part of the profits it makes off its captive ratepayers to make political contributions to the governor and General Assembly who enact the statutes that not only control the rate-making process used by the rate-making authority (here, the State Corporation Commission) to set the rates the monopoly can charge its captive ratepayers, but the statutes that set the amount of the guaranteed rate of return in the first place.
    That seems a little, eh, incestuous, doesn’t it? Using the profits that are protected by law to make political contributions to the lawmakers who control how much profit you make. And that’s why Dominion’s practices aren’t troubling just for Democrats but for raving leftist progessives like Ken Cuccinelli.
    And, by the way, although you imagine Dominion is the foundation on which the economic growth model is built for Virginia to reduce its dependence on federal government spending, Dominion’s corporate customers are among those who are most vocal in opposing the General Assembly’s increasing deference to it. Businesses need electricity. Those in Dominion’s service area have only one place to go to get it. When the General Assembly eliminates the State Corporation Commission’s ability to review Dominion’s rates, Dominion can overcharge those businesses for the electricity they use. That shifts those businesses’ profits to Dominion. That is as big a brake on economic growth as an increase in gas prices or a tax hike.
    So this comment isn’t as much an explanation for progressives’ concern about Dominion as it is a case for why economic conservatives should be concerned too.

    • …and yet health care is a monopoly. No, you can’t go across the street and get another hospital — COPN takes care of that problem nicely so as to remove competition (same as any other public utility).

      Guaranteed rates of return? Not hardly… because the SCC can at any time squeeze that as tight as they wish. No other private firm has to worry about making 20-30% profit… whereas Dominion can only make about 8% tops. That’s it — nothing else.

      The fact of the matter is that we have a world-class port at Hampton Roads that can carry energy resources wherever we want them to thanks to the cheap cost of transport — a resource the funds 1/10th of the state budget.

      Like it or not, Dominion kicks off the entire ball for everything else we want to do in Virginia, precisely because it is a private firm that deals with the most elemental of public resources: energy.

      Of course, all of this is fundamentally secondary to the question as to why progressives seem fanatically intent on making their job more expensive to do. The real question is why progressives are so easily bought by the shareholders of other energy firms — TransAmerica, Keystone XL, and George Soros specifically?

      No good answers there once the curtain is pulled back.