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Ivy Main: “For low-cost electricity, Virginia needs renewable energy — not gas plants”

By
Blue Virginia
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0

Another day, another great post by Ivy Main over at Power for the People VA

Southwest Virginia leaders are up in arms over electricity rate hikes. It’s understandable: Appalachian Power, which serves residents in 34 counties, has raised rates by over 46% since July 2021, and its rates now rank among the state’s highest. Last March, it sought another increase that would have resulted in residents paying $10.22 more per month on average. Although the State Corporation Commission’s November ruling granted APCo a much smaller rate hike, customers are raising a ruckus about the high bills.

Complaints have reached such a fever pitch that Del. James Morefield, a Republican who represents parts of five southwest Virginia counties, filed legislation this month to cap the rates APCo can charge. Over in the Senate, another southwest Virginia Republican, Travis Hackworth, has launched a direct attack on APCo’s monopoly: His legislation would allow any residential customer of APCo whose monthly bill exceeds 125% of the statewide average to buy electricity from another provider.

These bills might be more performative than serious. But in this case, legislators themselves are at least partly to blame. In 2023, another Southwest Virginia Republican, Israel O’Quinn, drove legislation that excused APCo from having to write integrated resource plans (IRPs) – those pesky documents that tell regulators how a utility plans to comply with state laws and meet the needs of customers at least cost. Both Hackworth and Morefield voted for the bill.

In 2024, O’Quinn also championed legislation that allows APCo to charge customers for costs of developing a small modular nuclear reactor. Hackworth also supported this new burden on ratepayers, though Morefield did not.

This year, the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation is promoting legislation to reform the IRP process, including making APCo file plans again. That may help. Fundamentally, though, the primary reason APCo’s customers are paying so much is that the utility remains so dependent on fossil fuels. As of the date of its 2022 IRP, APCo relied on coal and fracked gas for 85% of its electricity. Prices for both fuels spiked so high in 2021 and 2022 that utilities were left with huge bills to pay.

In 2022, APCo told the SCC it had spent an extra $361 million over budget on gas and coal. Virginia law allows fuel costs to be passed through to customers, so the SCC couldn’t prevent bills from rising to cover the outlay. Instead, the SCC allowed the company to recover the excess fuel costs from its customers over two years by charging roughly $20 more per month to residents, spreading out the pain but also extending it. O’Quinn’s 2023 legislation let the company finance the costs, which meant customers pay interest on top of the fuel costs.

APCo was not the only utility passing along high gas costs. Dominion Energy Virginia also got caught off guard and asked to spread its excess fuel costs out over three years, adding an average of $15 to residential customer bills. Dominion customers are not happy either.

Gas prices have since dropped, and the remarkably short memories of legislators have led them to think they will now stay low forever. Having learned precisely nothing, they also insist that the only way to ensure an adequate supply of reliable, low-cost energy to serve the data center boom is for Virginia to increase its reliance on gas instead of transitioning away from it.

The evidence does not support this fantasy. Contrary to Republican orthodoxy, new renewable energy is cheaper than new fossil fuel generation. That’s why in 2024, 94% of all new power capacity in the U.S. came from solar, batteries and wind energy. Fossil gas made up just 4% of new generating capacity. Yes, many states are now proposing to build new gas plants, so the trend could reverse, but that’s only because the rush of data centers and new manufacturing has made large users desperate for more energy at any cost.

It’s true that solar, Virginia’s least-cost resource, only produces electricity when the sun shines. But even adding battery storage to solar energy, allowing it to serve as baseload power or a peak power resource, still results in lower electricity costs than the gas combustion plants that are used to produce electricity at peak times. (In Virginia, Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Fairfax, has introduced legislation to expand storage targets for Dominion and APco, including for long-duration storage.)

The era of low-cost renewable energy is fairly new, but it is already impacting utility bills across the country. Virginia used to boast of its low rates; now there are 22 states with lower residential electricity rates than Virginia. And of those, U.S. Energy Information data shows that all but five generate a higher percentage of their electricity from renewable energy.

With data centers proliferating across Virginia unchecked, utility rates are under even more pressure now. The Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission data center study, released last month, warns that ratepayer costs will inevitably rise under an “unrestrained growth” scenario that reflects current policy.

It’s too early to tell whether any of the many bills to protect residential ratepayers and put guardrails on data center development will pass. For now, the governor and many Republicans seem to prefer to use the crisis to crush the transition to renewable energy. As in past years, Republicans have introduced bills to repeal the Virginia Clean Economy Act or undermine it in various ways.

Making solar more difficult and expensive to build is also part of the strategy. The party that used to stand for individual liberty and personal property rights now instead champions local governments that deny farmers the ability to put solar on their land.

Talking up fossil fuels and dumping on solar may make for good politics with the folks in rural districts. That doesn’t mean it’s in their interests. If high utility bills are what really matter, legislators should be pushing renewable energy and storage, not expensive gas plants.

 

This article appeared in the Virginia Mercury on January 20, 2025. Interestingly, today writers at two other publications, Cardinal News and Bacon’s Rebellion, took up one aspect of this topic that I only alluded to, the fact that Virginia “imports” more electricity than any other state. Virginia politicians have been exercised on this topic for as long as I’ve been writing, and it has always struck me as strange. It’s not like we need to worry about the political ramifications of a trade imbalance with Pennsylvania.

But as Duane Yancey noted, those electrons coming into Virginia from elsewhere in PJM do tend to be dirty. That’s especially the case for APCo, which operates coal plants in West Virginia and has been ordered by the West Virginia Public Utilities Commission to run those plants at a 69% capacity factor, regardless of the economics. I have not been able to find out anywhere the percentage of APCo’s generation that comes from coal as opposed to gas, but the West Virginia PUC order unquestionably means APCo’s Virginia customers are paying too much.

One other thing to note on the topic of imports: when I wrote that APCo’s resource mix is 85% fossil fuels, that did not mean the other 15% is renewable. In fact, most of the rest is purchased power, meaning mostly fossil fuels also.

By the way, readers may notice a few discrepancies among the articles, which is worth explaining. Both Yancey and James Bacon cite figures for Virginia electricity rates and how they compare to other states that are different from my numbers. The reason is that they are working from combined rates for residential, commercial and industrial, where I’m using residential only. Virginia’s combined rate compares more favorably to those of other states than does its residential rate because our commercial and industrial rates are lower.

Virginia’s low commercial rates have been a major draw for data centers. But if you’re a residential customer right now, maybe that’s pretty cold comfort.

Friday News: Judge Blocks Trump’s “single most unconstitutional action”; “Trump’s rapid changes…stun federal workers”; “Violent masculinity is shaping the Trump administration”; “The Sick Message…Trump Is Sending to MAGA America”;VA Gov Race a “Tossup?”:

By
lowkell
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6

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Friday, January 24.

Video: Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) Says “the January 6th pardons and commutations are some of the worst things Donald Trump has ever done”

By
Blue Virginia
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1

From Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08)’s office:

Beyer Floor Remarks [With Video] From Special Order Hour On Trump January 6 Pardons

January 23, 2025 (Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Don Beyer, who represents a Northern Virginia district that was home to many of those who protected the Capitol on January 6th including Officers Sicknick, Smith, DeFreytag, and Fanone, spoke this evening on the House floor on President Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations for the perpetrators of the violent January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Beyer’s remarks, which came during a special order hour led by Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), follow below, and video is available here.

Mr. Speaker, I represent many of those people who protect us on Capitol Hill: members of the Capitol Police, of the Metropolitan Washington, DC Police force, the Arlington County Police, police who live in my Northern Virginia district. 

January 6th was not some distant abstract event for my constituents. 

Democracy was on the line that day, but so were their lives, their bodies, their physical safety and wellbeing. 

As events spiraled out of control on January 6th, calls for help went out on police radios, and they were answered by men and women in uniform throughout the metropolitan Washington, Virginia, Maryland area – some of whom were off duty – many were off duty – and they chose to get dressed, jump into their cars, and race here to protect us, to protect our Capitol, to protect all who work here. 

Hundreds of those officers still bear the wounds, seen and unseen, that will never heal. 

The January 6th pardons and commutations are some of the worst things Donald Trump has ever done.

With these pardons, Trump embraced lawlessness and violence.

Trump pardoned the people who beat and tazed my constituent, Officer Michael Fanone, tazed repeatedly in the neck. And he described it as being like torture, and it led to him having a heart attack at that very time.

Trump pardoned the people who gave a brain injury to my constituent Officer Jeff Smith days before he died by suicide. Congressman Himes mentioned how he was beaten in the head with a pole.

His wife, Erin Smith, said those injuries changed him during his final days, he was a different person. Officer Smith’s death was later ruled a line-of-duty death because it resulted from the injuries suffered here on our behalf.

Trump pardoned the people who attacked my constituent, Officer Brian Sicknick. They sprayed him with pepper spray hours before his death from two strokes.

The medical examiner said his death occurred from “natural causes,” but what happened to Brian before his death, during the attack on the Capitol [played a role].

Trump pardoned people who chanted Nazi slogans, who yelled racial slurs at our Black police officers, who called for the assassination of elected leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump’s own Vice President, Mike Pence.

Trump pardoned a man who was charged with throwing an explosive device at the police in the Capitol. He was a man who had previously been convicted of domestic violence battery by strangulation.

Trump pardoned a man who stomped on an officer’s head, beat other officers with a flagpole, a crutch, and with pieces of furniture, and sprayed officers with pepper spray.

Trump pardoned a man who ripped off the gas mask of a police officer, beat him in the face, and then crushed him in a door.

Trump pardoned hundreds of people who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement, many of them with deadly weapons.

He pardoned or commuted the sentences of over a dozen violent criminals convicted of seditious conspiracy. 

By pardoning those who carried out these heinous crimes, Trump made our country less safe and betrayed law enforcement heroes who protected the Capitol at great personal cost. 

These pardons sent a message that violent crime, even against law enforcement, will be sanctioned by Trump’s government if it is carried out in his name.

I urge my colleagues to remember the families of the five officers who died after defending the Capitol on January 6th: Officers Brian Sicknick, Jeffrey Smith, Howie Liebengood, Gunther Hashida, and Kyle DeFreytag.

I urge you to remember the many officers who defended the Capitol on January 6th – who put themselves at risk to protect us – and who will carry scars seen and unseen as long as they live.

These scars were inflicted by people who will face no further legal consequences for those acts thanks to President Donald Trump.

This injustice is a gross betrayal of their service and sacrifice, but it does not diminish their patriotism.

After January 6th, many of my colleagues posted messages of support for law enforcement and the Capitol Police. It was on their doors, it was on their walls in the halls of Longworth and Rayburn and Cannon, and it was on social media.

Members like Speaker Johnson, who called for the prosecution of the criminals who committed those acts of violence against the police who guard the Capitol, let me quote Speaker Johnson: “to the fullest extent of the law.”

Republicans went on to hold votes on symbolic, non-binding resolutions expressing support for police.

“Back the blue,” they told us. “Back the blue.”

Their silence – or worse, their defense of Trump’s pardons – are unforgivable.

They can never again claim to back the blue with any credibility.

Finally, a warning.

With these pardons Trump put violent, dangerous people back into our communities.

Many of them did terrible things on other days besides January 6th, 2021. But all of them have just been emboldened by receiving “get-out-of-jail-free” cards from this president.

Who knows what other criminal acts they will perpetrate next?

Unfortunately, we’re all about to find out.

Video: Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) Says Trump “and his people told us exactly what they were going to do in Project 2025 – and they’re doing it.”

By
lowkell
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11

Excellent job by Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA04) on the show “Mornings with Zerlina” – see below for video and highlights, including about how she’s “tired” and “angry,” and we all can acknowledge that, “but do not give up, because if you give up, we are lost.”

  • “…one of the things [Trump’s executive order] did was rescind the Equal Employment Opportunity executive order that President Johnson signed in 1965, which also extended non-discriminatory practices to employees of US government contractors. So when you combine the over 200,000 federal employees and contractors that live in Virginia in the name of ending ‘wokeness’, what the president has done is said you can now can be fired for anything really. And it’s very concerning. Even if you look at the purpose of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, they were designed to recognize the fact the federal government workforce should reflect the diversity of the people that it serves, that the Civil Rights Act was not a magic wand that erased 300 years of the impact of slavery and Jim Crow, and that we had to ensure that the federal workforce made all of our employees feel welcome so that we could attract the best and the brightest. And he has now, President Trump has now turned all of that on its head, made it more difficult for us to meet the needs of the American people. And when you combine that with the general hiring freeze, now in my district our VA hospital had a meeting yesterday, concerned about the fact they now have to rescind job offers that they have given to employees to meet the needs of our veterans, the health care needs of our veterans, they cannot now open a new VA hospital in Fredericksburg because of a hiring freeze, and we already aren’t meeting the needs of our veterans. So that’s one concrete example of how these broad orders are impacting people. But they’re going to roll back over 60 years, if not 150 years, of civil rights progress to protect people from discrimination based on who they are.”
  • “Well, the president, I mean he straight up lied, because he said, oh I don’t know anything about Project 2025 – he might not have known but he signed it. I mean he did not know that in his pardons – and he admitted this when asked by a reporter – he didn’t know that he pardoned someone convicted of brutally attacking a Capitol police officer. He straight up said, oh I didn’t know; he thought he commuted the sentence. So he and his people told us exactly what they were going to do in Project 2025 – and they’re doing it.”
  • “I think there are couple of couple of ways we have to approach it, because this is all-hands-on-deck moment. And we are working with our allied partners to attack this in the courts, because many of these orders – and I think the way they would want to enforce the Comtock Act arguably would be unconstitutional or against federal law. So where we can, we have got to take this fight to the courts. In Congress, though, they proved they could not govern with a five-person majority in the House, let alone a one-person majority. So House Democrats are going to stand united to protect reproductive freedom to protect the American people from the worst impulses of this Administration. And I, now, as the chair of the abortion access task force of the reproductive freedom caucus, will be focused on first uplifting stories, because again when you look at some of the language used and the title of these EOs or or in their explanation of what they’re doing, it sounds fine on its face. But buried in there, for example, in his EO declaring that there are only two genders, a man and a woman, he snuck in personhood, because he defined male and female based at conception. So we have got to be vigilant reading them all. We have got to take our time, because he is trying to overwhelm us with the fire hose effect. But we need to make sure that we are uplifting stories about how these actions are impacting the people that we represent. And when people see how they’re being impacted, they’re not going to be happy about it.”
  • “I think there are issues where we can find common ground – the devil’s in the details. And I follow the lead of Hakeem Jeffries. They are going to find out very quickly, because they fight amongst themselves, that with a one-seat majority in the House and they don’t have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, they can’t get anything done on a lot of issues without Democrats voting for them. And if they want Democrats to vote for them, they are going to have to work with Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. You know, if they want to cut Democrats out of the discussion and completely ignore us and barrel ahead, then they’re not going to get anything done, and I think they’re going to find that out very quickly.”
  • “I think we have to remember that the history of America is progress and backlash. And we are in the backlash now. And I’m tired and I’m angry. I am fighting the same fights that my parents, my grandparents, my great-grandparents fought. But what keeps me going are two things: I’m fighting that fight from a position of more strength and power than they could ever have dreamed of, because they didn’t give up; I’m fighting these fights so that my children and my grandchildren don’t have to…I mean, feel what you feel, acknowledge that you’re tired, but do not give up, because if you give up, we are lost. John Lewis said democracy is not a state, it is an act that requires every generation to do its part to build the Beloved Community. If he had given up, if Dr. King had given up, if Shirley Chisolm had given up, we wouldn’t have gotten the progress we’ve gotten. We’ve got to fight to keep it.”

Americans for Contraception Calls Out Virginia Republicans for Voting Against Protecting the Right to Contraception

By
lowkell
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3

The following press release, from Americans for Contraception, “call[s] out Republican lawmakers for voting against Virginia’s Right to Contraception Act, vital legislation aimed at protecting the fundamental right to contraception for all Virginians.” Fortunately, the bill passed the House of Delegates today by 53-44 margin, but the fact that 44 Republicans voted against it tells you everything you need to know about today’s Republican Party.

Americans for Contraception Calls Out Virginia Republicans for Voting Against Protecting the Right to Contraception
RICHMOND, Va. — Americans for Contraception (AFC) today called out Republican lawmakers for voting against Virginia’s Right to Contraception Act, vital legislation aimed at protecting the fundamental right to contraception for all Virginians. By opposing this bill, Republican lawmakers signaled their continued willingness to undermine the basic reproductive freedoms and health care rights of the people they serve.

HB 1716 from Delegate Marcia “Cia” Price (D-Newport News) today passed the Virginia House of Delegates by a vote of 53-44. Nearly every House Republican voted against the legislation. Meanwhile, the Senate bill, SB 1105 from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Richmond), advanced through the Senate Education and Health Committee earlier today by a party-line vote of 9-6, with every Republican on the committee voting against the right to contraception.

Katie Baker, Virginia spokeswoman for Americans for Contraception, said:

“By voting against the Right to Contraception Act, the overwhelming number of Republican lawmakers in the Virginia House and all the Republicans on the Senate Education and Health Committee turned their backs on the people they represent. Contraception is a basic health care right that allows individuals to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures. Republicans’ continued opposition to this legislation reveals a consistent pattern of prioritizing extremist ideology over Virginians’ reproductive freedom.”

Senator Hashmi and Delegate Price reintroduced the Virginia Right to Contraception Act to safeguard the fundamental right to contraception and ensure legal protections for all Virginians. The proposed legislation would enshrine the right to use FDA-approved contraceptives, including condoms, birth control pills, IUDs, and emergency contraceptives.

This renewed effort follows Governor Glenn Youngkin’s veto of the legislation in May 2024. This year’s push to pass the Virginia Right to Contraception Act comes amid national uncertainty over reproductive rights. President Donald Trump’s statement that he is “looking at” restrictions on contraception and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ call for his colleagues to “re-consider” Griswold v. Connecticut have raised alarms about the future of contraception rights nationwide.

###

Americans for Contraception is a leading advocacy organization committed to protecting and expanding the fundamental right to contraception nationwide.

Video: Sen. Mark Warner Rips Trump’s Pardon of People Who Assaulted Cops; Attempts to “Traumatize” Federal Workers; Potential Immigration Raids on Schools; etc.

By
lowkell
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1

See below for video and highlights from Sen. Mark Warner’s press availability yesterday afternoon – *lots* of questions on some VERY important issues (e.g., Trump’s assault against federal workers, immigrants, etc.; also, Trump’s pardoning of violent 1/6/21 insurrectionists), and Sen. Warner had a lot to say, so check it out!

  • “It feels like it’s been quite a week already. I attended President Trump’s inauguration on Monday, frankly to show support for a peaceful transfer of power…Even I was a bit surprised though when I saw some of the wealthiest people in the world lined up having better seats than anyone that was proposed by Mr. Trump for his cabinet. So the wealthy folks first, then the Cabinet. And to the extent that, you know, folks like Republican Governors including our governor were in the overflow room rather than where the inauguration took place. Listen, I celebrate success in America, I’m proud of my own business success. But it was a bit unsettling to say the least that you had the wealthiest people in the world so prominently positioned. And what kind of signal does that send to the American public, who I think at the end of the day elected Mr Trump because they thought he was going to cut grocery prices and find ways to make America stronger.”
  • “The speech itself…sounded to me like more of a campaign speech. I wish we would have seen even a small gesture of grace, for example to President Biden on the the work that was done jointly, for example on bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza and starting the release of the hostages that have been so brutally taken by by Hamas.”
  • “We’ve gone from that action on Monday to then a a huge flurry of executive actions. One of the most prominent was his unconditional pardoning of the rioters who assaulted police officers and took over the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. That speaks volumes in terms of Trump’s respect for law officers…He says he wants to be tough on crime, and one of his first actions is to pardon people who physically assaulted police officers and assaulted our Capitol. And remember, there were five deaths directly related to that tragedy, most of them were Virginians.”
  • “We also saw a flurry of other executive actions, some things just plain unconstitutional. The idea that he can write away part of the Constitution by eliminating Birthright Citizenship. You don’t show respect for the Constitution by thinking that a presidential executive order can somehow override what the Founders put in place.”
  • “So there’s so much action, I feel like he’s a little bit flooding the zone, maybe to take the eyes off of of some of these horribly unqualified nominees. But we’re going to have to sort through all of this. And I want to work with President Trump, I want him to be successful – he is the president of the United States, and if he is successful and America’s successful, I’m all for it. I’ve already voted for a couple of his his nominees. But where there are people that are clearly unqualified or clearly have interests that I think are adverse to our country… I’m going to stand up.“
  • “One of those individuals I had a chance to question this morning in the budget committee, Russell Vought, who is the President’s nominee for OMB. This is a man whose resume looks like it reads right out of the description of somebody that comes using Republican terminology from the swamp. This guy has never managed anything, he’s not run a business, no private sector experience, worked on Capitol Hill, worked as a bureaucrat, worked as a right-wing think tank. But it’s a little curious that he for draining the swamp that does not seem like a drain the swamp kind of guy. But what concerns me more and I think is the thing that is deter this positive to me it’s not his it’s not his background is the fact that he literally used terms such as he would hope that all federal workers would be traumatized, they need to feel the trauma, they’re villains. He seems to measure success by how many people he can make quit the federal government. And again, this was the guy that was deeply involved in the Project 2025. In that in that missive, it laid out ideas to try to break up the intelligence community. I tell you, as somebody who’s worked so closely with the intelligence community is as chairman of the committee and long serving member, it would weaken America’s national security if we were to somehow take the CIA and break it up and put it all over the country. There is value and efficiency involved by having for example all of our intelligence agencies close together in the greater capital region. In my mind, that kind of mismanagement approach means that I will not be supporting him in terms of his willingness to break up the intelligence committee, in terms of his willingness to frankly politicize all federal employees with the so-called Schedule F effort. We created the Civil Service in the first place to make sure that government service was not going to be political, it was going to be protected, it could be independent. And Mr. Vought, unfortunately, represents a complete reversal on those issues. My good friend Tim Kaine followed afterwards, he uses some of the language that Mr. Vought uses about ‘weaponized governments’ and ‘woke government’ and as Tim Kane said, what is woke or or weaponized government in terms of assistance to to kids, in terms of food stamps for example. So clearly Mr. Vought will be one in a number of nominees that I will strongly oppose.”
  • “I have supported two of Mr Trump’s nominees so far – John Ratcliffe for the director of CIA and I believe he will be confirmed tomorrow, Scott Bessent as the Treasury Secretary. I was not totally pleased with his hearing presentation but I do think he has the financial background skills to be an able Treasury Secretary.”
  • “And finally, I just want to touch on on immigration. I voted to support the Laken Riley Act. I wish it had been further amended. But the notional idea that if you violate the law and you are in this country illegally,  that could and should lead to deportation, is a theory that makes sense; frankly, it’s already partially enshrined in law. But let me be clear, that does NOT mean that I’m going to end or stop my career-long support for legal immigration and for the contribution that immigrants make to Virginia to our country. It means I’m not going to support getting rid of temporary protective status for our Salvadoran community or Sudanese community where I’ve been working very closely to try to end that conflict in Sudan or others who’ve come here under legal programs that are not yet fully citizens but are here legally. And if Mr. Trump or his actions start doing these mass deportations that have with no regard to the law, I will stand firmly opposed against that.”
  • “But again, I’ll close with what I opened  – I want Donald Trump to be successful, but I hope he will understand he’s got to meet people halfway. That’s not been his approach in the past. But I want you know this is a second Trump presidency, I want to give him an initial benefit of the doubt. But I am deeply deeply concerned about the volume and tenor of these executive orders that he’s launched and in particular the notion of pardoning individuals who’ve assaulted police officers in the riot on January 6 2021.”
  • “I have supported a return-to-work policy. I’ve agreed frankly with Mayor Bowser on this, we need to get federal employees back to work in offices. Not criticizing remote work, but I think the expectation of being in the office is something that makes sense. But I also believe if we go back to the pre-COVID policies, there are a number of jobs where telework made sense. Matter of fact, the champion for telework for many many years in Congress was Frank Wolf, a Republican member from Northern Virginia. So my hope is in the return to work that there will still be legitimate telework exemptions, but the kind of broad-based approach right now where people can only show up in some areas one day in the office for every pay period I think is too far on the other end.”
  • “In terms of the kind of treatment why I’m going to not support support Mr. Vought, the idea that it is a good idea to try to get federal workers to quit or to put them in trauma, you know, I was a business guy, that would be you know malpractice in management if you’re trying to intimidate and traumatize your workforce. And so I’ve got legislation along with Gerry Connolly and Tim and a number of of the Virginia delegation to make sure that you don’t politicize the workforce with this Schedule F effort. So I’m going to stand up against any effort to get rid of the Civil Service protections for federal workers.”
  • “I am waiting with some anticipation on what the so-called DOGE effort that now I guess is simply led by Elon Musk. If there are ways to bring efficiency to our government, count me in. And one of the things I was proud to of when I was governor was Virginia got named best-managed state. And we found a host of ways to leverage our purchasing power to cut back on our auto fleet, to try to bring smoother operations. There’s plenty areas in the federal government where we can find greater efficiency. But that starts by actually respecting your workforce and not demonizing them. And so far, we’ve seen from Trump and from some of his potential appointees, this notion of demonizing the federal workforce. That may be a political sound bite for some, but that is I can tell you as a former Governor as a former business guy, that’s not the way you make your workforce the most effective. Reform, count me in. Wholesale attack on federal workers, politicizing our workforce, eliminating any flexibility in the workforce I will stand strongly against.”
  •  “I am concerned about that, and one of the reasons why I think law enforcement itself took these positions a number of years back was because law enforcement does its job best when it works with the community. And if anybody of Hispanic heritage, citizen, green card holder or not, suddenly fears that any police officer could potentially detain them or deport them, then you don’t drive crime down, you break off all kind of relationships between law enforcement and immigrant communities. So I want to talk again with the both the prosecuting and Commonwealth’s Attorneys in some of those jurisdictions, I want to talk again with law enforcement to get their views on this, but again, this is an example of kind of a sledgehammer approach as opposed to a scapel. You know, if President Trump simply does what at least some of his folks say, which is if you are here illegally, undocumented, and you commit a crime then you should be deported, I think one that’s already law, but two I’m supportive of those policies. But the idea of turning every local cop or sheriff’s deputy into an immigration enforcement officer, I think that would actually really undermine their top priority, which is keeping our community safe.”
  • “I think at the end, particularly with his family members, President Biden overused his pardon ability. Pardons by presidents in the past have been used selectively, targeted and on an individual basis. This across-the-board pardon of rioters, regardless of how violently they assaulted police officers, is irresponsible; it sends a awful signal about respect for rule of law. It also frankly, for those individuals on the far right who think, and in the militia groups that are out there, we’ve seen threats against elected officials increase dramatically. What signal does that send, if you can assault a cop and not have to serve time because Donald Trump will have your back, as long as you’re a political supporter, what does that say to more violent extremists, particularly on the right, but on either end of the political agenda, about a warning in terms of what consequences they’ll face? It sounds to me like the the underlying message is, if you got Donald Trump’s back, he’s going to have your back regardless of what you do. That is something that should concern all of us, no matter who we supported for president.”
  • “My hope is working with the balance of the Virginia delegation, because you know we think about federal workers in Northern Virginia, but we got a ton of federal workers down in Hampton Roads as well. We also have a huge number of contractors. And while the venom has been approached at federal workers, there’s also been kind of ad hominem attacks against contractors as well. We’re trying to get those answers as quickly as possible. It is my hope before the end of the week that we can have better guidance. There were so many of these executive orders, and so many of them will obviously be contested in court. But this puts what’s so concerning to me is that this is exactly what the guy I questioned today, Russell Vought, who wants to be the head of OMB, and remember that’s budget and management, and using his own words that he wants to have do as much as possible to chase people away from the the federal workplace, to put ‘trauma’ and have federal workers feel ‘trauma’. They’re feeling trauma right now. And if we look at their past actions, I pointed out to him, you know last Trump Administration they moved the headquarters of Bureau of Land Management out of our region. The number of vacancies went up 170% and the General Accounting Office, the kind of independent auditor, said it dramatically degraded the service. This kind of action that seems more on a political vendetta as opposed to you know efficiency, this flies in the face of efficiency. You want to have a federal workforce that’s ready to go to work, that works hard, that is held accountable – count me in on the accountability piece. And if there’s ways to make it more efficient, particularly using technology, I’m wide open to that. But unduly bringing trauma, Mr. Vought’s own words, to the federal workforce is again management malpractice in terms of how you operate, I say that as a former business owner.”
  • “I do believe obviously you they have not been able to change the law in terms of civil service protections. Whether…if somebody who was serving as a DEI officer has the ability to be terminated simply because of the nature of their job, truthfully I need to check that out in terms of what rights – I think you still have some appeal rights, but I want to, that’s a fair question, and I want to check it out. And…again, an area that I spend a lot of time on in terms of national security and our intelligence community, you know, I don’t care what you call some of these programs, but to have programs that our workforce actually looks like America, I think means you’re going to have a better level of service. Or one of the things that that I spent a lot of time with are folks at the CIA. The fact that if we have spies in Africa or Latin America or in Asia, they ought to look like the populations where they’re working. I don’t care what you call that, I call that good spy practice. I call that good intelligence hygiene. And I’m just so worried that under these kind of actions, you know there may have been times where where these programs went overboard, but to throw it all out and somehow go back to a workforce that’s simply made up of a bunch of folks that look like me, I’m not sure that’s in the best interest of our country, I know it’s not in the best interest of our country.”
  • “I think Richmond, I had the opportunity to live there back when I was governor. Richmond is a great city, it is a hot city in terms of how it’s viewed around the country, it ranks so high on quality of life – and not just Richmond but the surrounding suburban counties…I do feel like the idea that the kind of COVID work schedule was going to last forever was probably not feasible. I do believe that there is value in working in the office that sometimes you can’t measure… especially for younger employees to learn and and be part of a culture. But it ought to be done with some level of flexibility. And I hope people wouldn’t leave federal government employee, but there are obviously I think a lot of job opportunities open in the Greater Richmond market. But at the same time, I’ve known folks that have made that commute for years long before we had this remote work process. My hope and belief is that the ability to do that commute is actually going to improve dramatically as we construct what’s called Long Bridge from the district to Virginia that will double the amount of rail capacity coming into Virginia. The ability to get on a regular, convenient and fast train from Richmond that could get you to DC quickly could be the best of both worlds. I mean, you could end up still having the benefits of living in the Richmond region, but hopefully in a commute that’s feasible. That is one of the outgrowths of the infrastructure bill…that 700 million dollar plus project on this bridge is one of the biggest achievements we got for Virginia out of the infrastructure bill so far. So that increased rail will help…And it goes back to my first answer though, which is you know for a long time we promoted some level of telework as long as it didn’t you know as long it was it was in certain areas and it didn’t degrade the quality of the output. I do worry that we may have during COVID where we went so much the other way. Bringing it back to a kind of pre-COVID balance makes sense. At the end of the day, that doesn’t mean… getting rid of all the pre-COVID telework policies. I do think you have to make the case and show that you can still be as effective. And that’s why I’m fearful,  that in the effort to kind of get a headline, that any kind of nuance or any kind of non-sledgehammer approach to a lot of these issues I think is not going to work. And again, the focus on these activities, where’s President Trump’s effort to try to lower grocery prices to bring down inflation – I don’t think we’ve heard barely a word on those subjects. We’ve heard more about renaming bodies of water or trying to take over other countries or some of these efforts going against our federal workers. I don’t believe that’s what Virginians expected whether they voted for Trump or didn’t vote for Trump.”
  • “In terms of naming these drug cartels as terrorist organizations, being able to bring fuller power against them, I’m supportive of. And I go back again, these drugs are not coming for the most part over actually on undocumented individuals, they’re coming through our ports of entry. And I really think the the bipartisan immigration bill we had last year would have made sure that those ports of entry had much better protections. I also think we need to continue to hold China accountable  – the precursor chemicals that go into fentanyl still come in many cases from China. And so the ability to bring further resources, I can tell you, particularly in the realm that I have a lot of oversight…the intelligence community understands you the power of these drug organizations to not only destabilize Mexico or potentially destabilize Central America but this is an assault on America. And bringing our full resources to bear I think is the right move.”
  • “I’ve had a very strong working relationship with Governor Youngkin and particular on economic development; we’ve worked on a lot of projects together. And we worked very closely together to make sure that Virginia got the kind of emergency relief that we deserved after Hurricane Helene – and we were very successful there. On this one, I just disagree with the governor. I think the federal workforce is a critical part of our economy. These are folks that are well educated, well trained, I think do their job well. Matter of fact, if you look at the number of federal workers all in today it’s about the same number as it was in the 50s and 60s. The federal workforce has not expanded…at any dramatic rate with the growth of our economy… our population growth. If there are ways to be more efficient, again count me in; that’s why I’m not going to you know criticize the DOGE effort until I see what they’ve got, and I would I’m willing to work with them, I’ve even had contact with some of the leadership there. But the federal workforce and then the contractor workforce as well you know are what not only keep our economy strong but we disproportionately have federal workers that are involved in the defense area, we have contractors involved in the defense area. Willy-nilly cuts to those individuals or trying to bring ‘trauma’  -again, not my words, the potential OMB director’s words, he wants to ‘traumatize’ and ‘bring trauma’ to the federal workforce and he wants them in effect not to go to work so they’ll quit. That’s not good management and that’s sure as heck not good for Virginia and in terms of trying to get a workforce that’s going to be more productive, I’ve run enough businesses to know that you don’t demonize your workforce if you want to get more production from them.”
  • “This is a challenge we’ve been struggling with for a long time in Virginia, and it’s one of the reasons why we do need a tighter border. And I do think one of the areas I was quite critical of President Biden, the border was too open for too long. But the notional idea that you were to have kids at schools, documented or not, that somehow might be singled out just because of their ethnic heritage or what they look like or their color of their skin or the idea that you would have local law enforcement potentially coming to raid schools, that just goes way too far. Let’s tighten up the border. If people are here undocumented and they’ve committed a crime and been convicted of that crime, there ought to be a deportation process. But the idea that you’re going to simply spread fear across communities – and one of the communities that I think a lot about in disproportionately in Northern Virginia, it’s the El Salvadoran community. We’ve had folks from El Salvador in large numbers in our region going back to the early 90s when there was a brutal civil war there. They have been in our country, many of them for 25 to 30 years, they’re deeply ingrained and a valuable part of the community, most all of them have kids that have been born here or or so that the idea that they are suddenly thrown into this level of trauma and fear, you know I’m going to do everything possible to make sure that we keep schools safe and not places that are subject to any kind of raids that are not appropriate or not about law breaking.”

Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Pleads with GOP Colleagues Not to “Rush” Defense Secretary Nomination, Given “the gravity of behavioral challenges that have been demonstrated” by Hegseth

By
lowkell
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0

Great stuff by Sen. Tim Kaine – more of this from every Democratic member of Congress!

*******************************

VIDEO: KAINE SPEAKS ON SENATE FLOOR REGARDING HIS STRONG OPPOSITION TO SECRETARY OF DEFENSE NOMINEE PETE HEGSETH

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2013 who has previously voted to confirm five Secretaries of Defense nominated by Democratic and Republican presidents, spoke on the Senate floor regarding his opposition to President Trump’s nominee for that position, Pete Hegseth. Kaine’s remarks followed the release of a new affidavit—or sworn statement—from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, in which she says Hegseth’s behavior caused his second wife to fear for her safety.

“…I rise to oppose the nomination and urge my colleagues to oppose it or at least take the time to really understand the gravity of behavioral challenges that have been demonstrated by Mr. Hegseth during his career. I have multiple problems with this nominee for this position. And this position, Secretary of Defense, is the position that I view – and many Virginians view – as the most important cabinet post,” Kaine said.

Kaine then expressed the reasons for his opposition.

  • Kaine discussed Hegseth’s pattern of infidelity and said, “Because he wouldn’t meet with members of the committee on the Democratic side, we didn’t get a chance to talk about that in a closed setting, which would have been most important.”
  • Kaine then mentioned reports of Hegseth’s poor management at two veteran service organizations. He said, “Mr. Hegseth has been the leader of two nonprofit organizations that are veteran service organizations… Women were made to feel they were second class in the organization, and alcohol abuse was common in workplace events.”
  • Kaine also brought up allegations of sexual assault, including a 2017 incident in Monterey, California. Kaine said, “I will call it an undisclosed sexual assault claim because Mr. Hegseth never told the Trump Transition Team about this event when he was being considered and vetted to be Secretary of Defense… He says it was consensual – not a sexual assault or rape… but he acknowledges that [the event] occurred…The survivor went to local law enforcement [and] filed a sexual assault claim. The claim was investigated over a period of time. The prosecutor ultimately decided not to pursue criminal charges against Mr. Hegseth, but there was a civil claim as well that later led to a settlement with the victim, payment of cash to the victim, and the entrance into a non-disclosure agreement with the victim.”
  • Kaine then continued about his concerns with Hegseth not disclosing this 2017 case to the Trump Transition Team and said, “None of this was disclosed to the Trump Team as they were examining him to be Secretary of Defense. He didn’t disclose the event. He didn’t disclose the criminal sexual assault claim. He didn’t disclose the fact of an investigation. He didn’t disclose the civil claim. He didn’t disclose the settlement. He didn’t disclose the cash payment. He didn’t disclose the non-disclosure agreement… When I asked him why, he didn’t really have an answer, and I told him I know the reason why. You were worried that if you told [the Trump Transition Team] about this, they would not nominate you to be Secretary of Defense. The relationship between a Secretary of Defense and a President is a very important relationship that demands complete candor… I don’t want a Secretary of Defense who is unwilling to be candid with the Commander-in-Chief, and he’s already demonstrated grave reason to doubt whether he will be candid…”
  • Kaine then discussed the recent affidavit from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law and said, “An affidavit was filed yesterday by… the former sister-in-law of the nominee revealing publicly facts suggesting spousal abuse in Mr. Hegseth’s second marriage… I haven’t talked to her. I was not aware of that allegation, but it didn’t surprise anyone on the committee who had reviewed the record. Why not? Because there are already facts in the record raising this very question.”
  • Kaine brought up Hegseth’s nomination hearing last week. He said, “I found it very unusual that when I asked Mr. Hegseth at the hearing – a sexual assault would be disqualifying to be Secretary of Defense? He would not agree with me. Spousal abuse would be disqualifying to be a Secretary of Defense? He would not agree with me. Being impaired by alcohol while on the job would be disqualifying to be Secretary of Defense? He would not agree with me. These are not hard questions. That they are clearly disqualifying behaviors, and the fact that he would not agree that they were disqualifying behaviors suggested to me as I was watching that testimony that they evinced a little bit of a guilty conscience.”
  • Kaine continued to discuss the lack of a thorough FBI investigation into Mr. Hegseth, which all nominees go through. He said, “The FBI didn’t even interview the wives – even after a mother’s letter had said that [Hegseth is] a serial abuser of women, including [his] two wives. The FBI did not even go out and interview the wives. Why not? …Was it an investigation or was it just … a box checking exercise? A lot of us when we heard it sort of raised hell about it… After the fact, [the FBI] went out and did a very cursory discussion with one of the wives… I have not seen that material. I have not been allowed to see it. That in itself should shock my colleagues and the public.”

“…My request of my colleagues is a simple one. Why rush? Why rush? Why would we rush to put through a nomination for a position of this importance that is freighted with so much baggage and so much evidence of glaring character and judgment errors? Do we want to have egg on our face? Do we want to rush and have this blow up later? Do we want to rush and then have other witnesses come out as Danielle Hegseth did yesterday? Is that what the Senate’s Advice and Consent process mandated by the Constitution for a very important reason has come to – [a] cursory investigation that doesn’t get to the underlying facts even when they’re sitting right out there before us and we’re going to rush to confirm someone? For what reason?” Kaine concluded, “Let’s take the time, and when we cast a vote on confirmation, cast it with the confidence that we have complete information about the man who has been nominated to be our Secretary of Defense.”

During Hegseth’s nomination hearing last week, Kaine asked Hegseth if he had committed sexual assault or spousal abuse. Hegseth denied both. Kaine also asked Hegseth if committing sexual assault or spousal abuse or working under the influence of alcohol would disqualify an individual from being Secretary of Defense, and Hegseth refused to answer. Kaine’s questions followed public reporting of an email that Hegseth’s mother wrote to him in 2018, in which she said he had routinely mistreated women for years.

Kaine has never before voted against a nominee to be Secretary of Defense.

Thursday News: Trump’s “Retreat From Global Climate Leadership”; “Trump’s war on DEI is not about ‘merit'”; “Trump’s Executive Order Power Grabs”; Trump’s Nonsensical Definitions of Male and Female; “Youngkin and Miyares fall silent as Trump pardons violent Jan. 6 rioters”

By
lowkell
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17

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, January 23.

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07): “Thanks to Trump, over a thousand violent criminals, some of whom have been convicted of assaulting a police officer, now walk free. What happened to law and order?”

By
Blue Virginia
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2

From Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07)’s office:

Vindman Addresses President Trump’s Inability to Deliver for Working Families and Lower Costs

WASHINGTON – Congressman Eugene Vindman (Va.-07) released the following statement:

“Our national security, basic freedoms, and ability to get ahead is under threat thanks to 200 executive orders signed by President Trump. What stood out to me about his first day is not what he did but what he didn’t do: offer any plan or take any meaningful action to lower costs for hard working families.

“Thanks to Trump, over a thousand violent criminals, some of whom have been convicted of assaulting a police officer, now walk free. What happened to law and order?

“Thanks to Trump, over a thousand families, including unaccompanied minors, had their flights cancelled to reunite with their loved ones. President Trump deserted them, leaving them stranded. These are folks that stood shoulder to shoulder with our warriors for 20 years in Afghanistan.

“Thanks to Trump, America will no longer lead the world in health and disease prevention, and are now less prepared to withstand a global pandemic.

“He is not concerned with lowering costs for hard working families, he’s using his pen to make it harder for folks like us to get ahead.

“In case you’re wondering if Trump really threw law and order out the window, let me be clear:

  • Steven Cappuccio, who ripped off Officer Daniel Hodges’ gas mask and beat him in the face while he was stuck in a door, is now back on the street. Cappuccio held his phone in his mouth so he could beat Officer Hodges with both hands.
  • David Dempsey climbed over other rioters during the Insurrection so he could stomp on at least one officer’s head. He continued his violence by beating officers with a flagpole, a crutch, and a broken piece of furniture.
  • DJ Rodriguez drove a stun gun into an officer’s neck at the Capitol. Proud of his assaults and violence that day, he bragged in a text: [I] tazed the f— out of the blue.

“This is who President Trump stands up for, not you, your family, or your friends. These actions show he does not care about strengthening our country’s national security or the welfare of American citizens.”

Five of the worst executive orders:

  • The “Betray Our Allies” Executive Order that cancelled existing flights for Afghan families and U.S. Military personnel attempting to build new lives in the United States. These are folks that stood shoulder to shoulder with our warriors for 20 years in Afghanistan. President Trump has also suspended all refugee resettlement programs.
  • The “I Didn’t Read the Constitution Before Taking the Oath of Office” Executive Order that would end birthright citizenship which is protected and guaranteed by the 14th Amendment in the Constitution.
  • The “Leave Americans Behind” Executive Order which enacted a federal hiring freeze, without consideration of the ability to mitigate fires raging in Los Angeles and deliver services folks rely on like veterans’ benefits, Medicare, and Social Security.
  • The “Kill the Bears in Alaska” Executive Order which would open oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and National Petroleum Reserve. Thousands of grizzly bears, polar bears, caribou, and birds would die, and the local ecosystems would cease to exist.
  • The “Get Sick Quick” Executive Order which would withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization.

###

Video: Sen. Tim Kaine Presses Trump’s Nominee for OMB Director on His Extreme Comments, Including “a gleeful speech about traumatizing the federal workforce”

By
lowkell
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3

See below for video and highlights, courtesy of Sen. Tim Kaine’s office, of “today’s exchange between [Kaine], a member of the Senate Budget Committee, and President Trump’s nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought during Vought’s nomination hearing before the committee.” This guy is as extreme as – or worse than – many other Trump nominees, and for a very important/powerful job, OMB Director. In a sane world, Vought would get ZERO votes for confirmation, but unfortunately, we don’t live in a sane world at this point… 🙁

During the hearing, Kaine pressed Vought about disturbing comments he made about the federal workforce. “…You gave a speech that got a lot of attention when you said: ‘we want bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning. We want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains’… I’ll go to a New Testament Luke 6:45: ‘from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.’ ‘We want people to be traumatized. We want people to be traumatized.’ I’ve heard a million people in this room give speeches about ‘we want to cut the budget, we want to reduce federal spending, we want to deal with the deficit.’ But I haven’t heard anybody give a gleeful speech about traumatizing the federal workforce,” Kaine said.

Kaine then asked Vought if he was a fan of President Abraham Lincoln. “Lincoln spoke to a nation at war, and he said, ‘with malice towards none and charity towards all.’ And he was saying that to the North and the South. He didn’t say, ‘We want you to be traumatized.’ He was a bridge builder and a unifier, and that’s what public servants should be. They shouldn’t gleefully be wishing trauma on people who are trying to serve their fellow man,” Kaine continued.

Kaine also asked Vought to explain why he supports cuts to Pell Grants, food stamps, Medicaid, Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, and the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program. “You were the president of the Center for Renewing America, and the think tank produced a 2023 budget proposal calling ‘A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government’… it’s 104 pages of details to end woke and weaponized government, and it proposes deep cuts to the SNAP program. Is providing nutrition assistance to low-income kids woke and weaponized?” Kaine asked. Vought refused to explain.

“You can say it’s not woke and weaponized, or you can tell me why it’s woke and weaponized. I don’t think SNAP programs or benefits for kids are woke and weaponized. You agree with me?” Kaine continued. Vought refused to answer the yes or no question.

“…You proposed deep cuts to Pell Grants. Is helping kids pay for college and helping their families that woke and weaponized?” Kaine continued.

Vought again refused to answer the question, saying: “Again, I’m not here to defend the Center for Renewing America’s budget.”

“I get it that you’re not here to defend that work product, and I can understand why. You propose deep cuts to Medicaid for millions of low income families. Why is that woke and weaponized? You propose undermining health insurance. Why is that woke and weaponized? Eliminating tenant based rental assistance, why is that woke and weaponized? Eliminating the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program. This was all in your document about ending woke and weaponized government. Okay, let’s see. We want to traumatize federal employees, and then we want to take all these programs that help everyday people who are struggling and cut them because they’re ‘woke and weaponized.’ Those are your words, not mine. ‘From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks,’” Kaine concluded.

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