Tag: dominion energy

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In brief: Newspapers threatened, anti-vaxers out

aerial photo of UVA hospital
UVA Hospital PC: Skyclad Aerial

Vultures circle Virginia newspapers

A feature story in The Atlantic last month dubbed Alden Global Capital “the hedge fund killing newspapers.” On Monday, Alden announced that it’s hoping to acquire Lee Enterprises, which owns 13 newspapers in Virginia, including The Daily Progress, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and The Roanoke Times.

The acquisition should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about local news. In a letter announcing the offer, Alden wrote, “our interest in Lee is a reaffirmation of our substantial commitment to the newspaper industry and our desire to support newspapers over the long term.” The firm’s actions over the last decade suggest the exact opposite is true.

Alden owns more than 200 newspapers. After acquiring a paper, it follows a standard model: “Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring out as much cash as possible,” McKay Coppins writes in The Atlantic. That plan turns a quick profit for Alden, and has turned venerable institutions like The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune into hollow husks of their former selves.

In recent years, Progress staff have unionized, in an effort to maintain some autonomy as the newspaper industry further consolidates. “Lee Enterprises is pretty terrible,” tweeted Nolan Stout, a former Progress reporter, “but this would be even worse.”

Atlanta’s Dewberry rots, too

The pile of steel on our Downtown Mall isn’t the only half-finished building owned by John Dewberry that’s rotting on prime real estate. In Atlanta’s desirable Midtown neighborhood, a 21-story office tower called the Campanile has been falling into disrepair for the last two years. “The neglect is starting to show,” reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week. “Weeds grow through a chain link fence. Sheets of protective plastic wrap are peeling off the building’s exterior.” Sound familiar?

PC: Ashley Twiggs

Dewberry says construction on the project will resume by Christmas. But Atlantans are skeptical: Dewberry has developed a reputation there for leaving desirable properties unfinished, earning himself a 2017 Bloomberg profile dubbing him “Atlanta’s Emperor of Empty Lots.” Meanwhile, here in Charlottesville, the peeling advertisement on the front of the downtown building still says “Coming spring 2009.”

In brief

Anti-vaxers out at hospital

UVA Health lost 121 of its more than 7,000 employees because they refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine, which was required by November 1. Thirty-nine employees resigned, 64 were fired, and 18 were suspended without pay for refusing to comply. In total, the system has lost 38 nurses and two doctors, reports Charlottesville Tomorrow. UVA Health’s spokesperson says the system anticipated some degree of noncompliance and has been able to manage the losses.

Dominion pays up

The State Corporation Commission and Dominion Energy have agreed on a settlement in which Dominion will dish out $330 million in refunds to customers. The average Dominion Energy user is in line for a $67 refund (in the form of bill credits), and will see their monthly bill decline by 90 cents in the coming years. The settlement averts what could have been a contentious case between the corporation and the state attorney general’s office, which alleged that the energy company had been taking in excess profits over the last three years.

Students protest Rittenhouse verdict

About 200 UVA students and members of the Charlottesville community chanted “no justice, no peace, no racist police” as they marched from the UPD station on the Corner to Carr’s Hill on Saturday afternoon, in protest of the verdict in Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial. Rittenhouse was acquitted Friday on all five counts brought against him after he shot and killed two men and injured a third during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020. Saturday’s demonstration was organized by student groups such as the Black Student Alliance and the Young Democratic Socialists of America at UVA, and included a series of speakers.

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Bill blues

Carolyn Johnson stands in her kitchen showing her Dominion energy bill
Carolyn Johnson is one of millions of Virginians burdened by costly energy bills. PC: Annabel Jones

By Caroline Challe

For Carolyn Johnson, a Charlottesville homeowner and care worker, the financial strain of the pandemic has been exacerbated by her high energy bill—almost $300 last month.  

“Water bill and electric–them the highest thing I got. It’s really hard. I am struggling trying to get it done,” Johnson says. Though her household’s energy habits are typical, Johnson says, “by the time we pay up everything, we end up with maybe $200 left.”

Johnson is one of the three-quarters of Virginians who have an unaffordable energy bill according to federal standards, says Cassady Craighill of the climate advocacy organization Clean Virginia. 

“We have a real crisis in Virginia where our energy bills are too high. They’re the sixth highest in the country,” Craighill says. 

The prices are all the more galling given that Dominion, Virginia’s energy monopoly, has an enormous cash stockpile. Dominion has near-total control over swathes of the Virginia energy market. In exchange for that power, its profits are traditionally limited to a rate agreed upon with the state—in recent years, 10 percent. Profits above that threshold are supposed to be refunded to customers. 

In the last three years, however, Dominion pocketed $500 million more than that rate of return, because a 2018 law allows it to keep excess profits as long as it invests the profits in clean energy projects. 

Delegate Sally Hudson believes that over-earnings leave Virginia residents economically vulnerable. 

“I’ve met lots of constituents struggling to make ends meet, and between sky-high rent and utilities, just affording safe shelter is a major struggle,” say Hudson, who represents Charlottesville and part of Albemarle County. “The burden of electric bills also hits hardest for the families that already struggle most, because they typically live in units without the more modern energy efficiency measures like improved windows, insulation, and thermostats.”

Despite the astronomical over-earnings, Dominion claims that its rates are low, and consumer error is the reason many are facing astronomically high prices.

“Hopefully, people you know, set their thermostat at the right temperature so that they’re not driving those bills up,” said Rayhan Daudani, Dominion’s manager of media relations. 

Daudani says the company’s re-investment of the over-earnings winds up benefiting customers. “Instead of charging customers the costs of the projects, we would take the extra revenue and offset those costs, so that they get the benefit of the project without seeing any rate increase.”

I’ve met lots of constituents struggling to make ends meet, and between sky-high rent and utilities, just affording safe shelter is a major struggle.


Delegate Sally Hudson

Dominion opponents have concerns about those clean energy projects, however. One of Dominion Energy’s newest projects involves building wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach. The company says the project  requires large over-earnings in order to produce this expensive form of clean energy.

“Dominion receives a 10 percent annual rate of return on anything that they’re building. So instead of cost-efficient renewable energy like rooftop solar that is distributed all over Virginia, they’re going to choose to build a much more expensive renewable energy project so that they can get that rate of return as high as possible,” says Craighill.  “And that’s how a monopoly works.” 

As the pandemic rages on and millions of citizens struggle, a bill was proposed that would have required the State Corporation Commission to return 100 percent of the amount of a utility’s earnings back to customers’ bills. On February 1, that bill was killed by the Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor committee. In an 11-3 vote, the bill was “passed by indefinitely,” effectively terminating its chances. Eight Democrats and three Republicans decided to tank the bill, while three other Democrats voted in favor of it. 

When the bill failed, many advocacy groups like Clean Virginia cited Dominion’s hefty donations to state officials as the reason why. Dominion has long been the largest contributor of campaign funds to both political parties in the state, although recently some Democrats have sworn off its contributions.

“When you have a company like Dominion giving those same legislatures hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, that’s a huge conflict of interest since clearly, those legislators are going to have a hard time convincing their voters and constituents that they’re acting in the best interest of them when they’re routinely passing legislation that favors Dominion,” says Craighill. 

Hudson, who works with many legislators who have accepted Dominion’s donations, believes the company uses its capital to maintain influence over the General Assembly. 

“The state guarantees that Dominion will recover its costs for those projects anyway. The company doesn’t need to over-earn to make clean energy investments,” Hudson says. “Dominion writes its own rules, and some legislators just sign off. They don’t want you to understand why you’re not getting a fair deal. Fortunately, there are fewer and fewer of those legislators every year.”

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Pipeline voices: Activists look back on a historic victory

In 2018, Dominion began cutting down trees to make way for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which has now been canceled. Photo: Pipeline CSI

On July 5, Dominion Energy abruptly canceled the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, an $8 billion project that would have carried natural gas 600 miles from West Virginia to North Carolina. Environmental activists of all persuasions spent six years fighting the project before finally prevailing over the gigantic power corporation. As the victory set in, C-VILLE caught up with some of central Virginia’s anti-pipeline activists, giving them a chance to reflect—and look ahead. The following interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

 

John Laury

John Laury is the secretary of Friends of Buckingham. He lives in Union Hill, a historically Black community in rural Buckingham County that would have been disrupted by the pipeline.

C-VILLE: Where were you when you heard the news? What was that moment like?

JL: It was amazing to me. I have been praying about this. We have been in the struggle for—working on our sixth year. Really, I was elated. I felt the load was lifted off of me. But at the same time I wasn’t sure that what I heard was true.

Then my mind began to reflect back, to one of the Board of Supervisors meetings two years back, when our pastor Paul Wilson spoke. Dominion was in control at the time. 

He gave the example of David and Goliath. David, a little shepherd boy, with smooth stones and a slingshot, going against Goliath and all of his weaponry. But David was going in the name of God, and Goliath was going on his strength. 

We were always talked to as if this was a done deal. We were even told, “you’re wasting your time. You can’t go against Dominion.” This is what we were against.

Can you describe your home in Union Hill a little bit? What role do you think Union Hill played in the victory against the pipeline?

From where I live now, I was raised across the road. I would be the third generation raised on that 52 acres. We grew greens, and always a garden every year. Fruit trees. That generation believed in raising their food, preparing in summer for the winter.

I enjoyed the four seasons. I enjoyed the people and the natural earth. Spent a long time in the woods. Ate a lot of fruit off the trees the other generation had planted.

We depend on an underground water source, we have wells, that’s the source of water for our home.

As we spoke on panels in different areas of the state—some out of state—we realized that there were other states dealing with similar issues that were detrimental to them as well. The pattern was in the areas of people of color, and the poor, lower income areas…When we raised awareness as to what was happening here in Union Hill, that made a difference.

It’s not just a Union Hill issue. It’s a people issue. And as one of the quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King tells us, if people are hurting anywhere in this world, it should be the concern of all of us.

 

Alice Clair

Alice Clair is a local musician who grew up in Nelson County. Her childhood home is less than a mile from where the pipeline would have run.

C-VILLE: What was your reaction to the news?

AC: I was screaming and crying. No exaggeration, I was screaming and crying. Just, ultimate elation—and also relief. I always said it wasn’t going to happen. But for that to come true is a relief.

You’re a musician. You wrote some songs about the pipeline. What role do you think music played in the effort over the last six years?

Robin and Linda [Williams] are songwriters in Augusta County, and they wrote “We Don’t Want Your Pipeline.” And that has become a classic for us in Virginia, and maybe across the U.S., fighting pipelines.

When I was in high school, Dominion would set up information sessions for the public in our gym. We would go in and be protesting in my high school, people would bring their guitars and play that song. 

I think music, it motivates in every kind of way. If you can get a bunch of people together singing a song, that’s a great way to energize people towards a common good.

Can music help translate this victory into something even bigger?

I had friends travel out to fight against the Keystone and the DAPL pipelines. There’s been so much music that’s come out of that. Not only using old folk songs of protest, but making new ones. 

The fight is not over even though I won at home—I’m so lucky that I was one of the few that could win at home. My land out in Nelson is not going to be affected anymore. Time to turn our eyes to the next one. We’re looking at the Mountain Valley Pipeline now. It is not over, but we’re feeling darn good. 

This is how it should work. If our country may turn to a true democracy one day, that’s what it’s all about. The people using their voice. If the majority don’t want it, it shouldn’t be there. 

 

Ben Cunningham

Ben Cunningham is the field director of the Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative, a group that used technology and community volunteers to document the construction violations Dominion committed as they started building the pipeline. 

C-VILLE: Where were you when you heard the news?

BC: I was about to bite into a really killer sandwich at 3:12pm on Sunday when my intern with my Pipeline CSI program, Virginia Paschal, texted me, all capital letters, CONGRATULATIONS!…Then she sent me a link to an article about it. Then I spent the next half hour just crying in joy and disbelief. 

What was the final straw for Dominion? 

We would never claim that this was all one group or all one strategy’s effort. Death by a thousand cuts—we all believe that’s what it took. It’s gone from Supreme Court hearings and all sorts of different legal battles, to people [protesting] in the trees trying to stop this and other pipelines, to science-and-technology-monitoring programs like ours, as well as strategies like political pressure. Really, community organizing is the bottom line.

…The story of environmental work in this country is the project never dies, people get burnt out, and so on. So I’ve just been plugging away at it, as have hundreds and maybe a thousand other people in various different ways.

Can the win against the ACP set an example for activists fighting other projects?

We’ve got, now, an example that we can win, against the largest political contributor to both parties in our state, arguably the most powerful corporation in our state, and one of the most powerful utilities in the country.

There are countless injustices around the world. I believe in starting where we live—it’s what we’re most familiar with, where we can be most powerful, and where we can effect the most change.

 

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In brief: People power, tech takeover, bye-bye bikes, and more

The old Monticello Dairy building will house at least two big tech companies. PC: Skyclad Aerial

People power

Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline scored a huge victory last week when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals repealed Dominion Energy’s permit to build an invasive compressor station in Buckingham County’s historic Union Hill neighborhood.

“Today we showed that our community, our community’s history, and our community’s future matters more than a pipeline,” said Buckingham activist Chad Oba.

Union Hill became a flashpoint for the pipeline fight when activists began emphasizing the area’s long history. Free black people and former enslaved people founded the neighborhood just after the Civil War. The story of a historic community threatened by an energy monopoly attracted

Al Gore to speak in Buckingham last February. The former vice president called the pipeline a “reckless, racist rip-off.” 

“Environmental justice is not merely a box to be checked,” the court wrote in its decision. “The [Air Pollution Control] Board’s failure to consider the disproportionate impact on those closest to the Compressor Station resulted in a flawed analysis.”

Anti-pipeline groups have sought to slow down Dominion by tying up the project in litigation. The compressor station permit is one of many that pipeline opponents have contested. In the fall, the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments about whether or not the pipeline could bisect the federally protected Appalachian Trail.

The strategy to slow the project seems to be working—Dominion’s initial estimates said the pipeline would be completed in 2019, but according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, less than 6 percent of the pipe has been laid in the ground so far.

Anti-pipeline protesters gathered in rural Buckingham County last year. PC: Friends of Buckingham County

_________________

Quote of the Week

“This is my life, history. I returned to this area to make sure this story gets told correctly.”

—Calvin Jefferson, archivist and descendant of enslaved people at Monticello, speaking about his family at a panel event this week

_________________

In Brief

You never forget how to ride a scooter

UBike, UVA’s languishing bike-sharing program, has been killed off by the e-scooter boom. The bikes have to be retrieved from and parked in specific docks, making them less convenient than the popular scooters. (Also less convenient: UBikes, unlike e-scooters, don’t have motors.)  

Moving in

PVCC, like other community colleges, is a commuter school—but that could change. As reported in The Daily Progress, plans to sell 17 acres the college owns off Avon Street Extended have been put on hold, as the Virginia Community College System State Board studies whether student housing could be a viable option for some of its community colleges.

Milking it

This town’s tech takeover continues: Two big companies recently signed leases in the Dairy Central office building/retail space currently under construction on Preston Avenue. CoStar, the world’s largest digital real estate company, and Dexcom, which makes diabetes monitoring systems, will together occupy 17,000 feet of office space at the intersection of Rose Hill and 10th and Page, two of Charlottesville’s historically black neighborhoods.

(More) statue drama

With the General Assembly potentially passing a law this year granting localities control over war memorials and monuments on their property, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is seeking public feedback on the future of the county’s Court Square, including its “Johnny Reb” statue. For the next six months, county staff will hold community conversations and “listening sessions” about the space, as well as conduct public tours, reports The Daily Progress. The Office of Equity and Inclusion’s equity working group will draft options for the future of the property, which the BOS will consider in June.

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In brief: Beto’s back, Scott Stadium watering holes, candidate banned, and more

Charles Alexander, aka Alex-Zan, one of the first children to integrate Charlottesville schools in 1959, meets Beto O'Rourke at the historic Jefferson School. Eze Amos

Beto shows up—again

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke made a second visit to Charlottesville August 31. O’Rourke, who is trailing in the crowded Dem field, hit Champion Brewing to support former School Board chair Amy Laufer, who is running to unseat state Senator Bryce Reeves. He visited the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center and said Charlottesville has “an incredibly powerful story to tell” about racism after August 12, 2017—an event former vice president Joe Biden used to launch his campaign. O’Rourke, who attended the boarding school Woodberry Forest in Madison County, concluded his visit with a fundraiser held by some high school buddies.

O’Rourke shows up for Amy Laufer at Champion Brewing. Eze Amos

 

“I am a part of a stereotype, but I also do things people would never expect me to do.”—Corey in the documentary A Different Side, which presents a new perspective of young black men, and was made by interns in this summer’s Community Attention Youth Internship Program

In brief

Credit limits

City Manager Tarron Richardson proposes lower limits on credit card spending by city officials, and tighter oversight on purchases in the wake of the Paige Rice Apple Watch-buying scandal and Progress reporter Nolan Stout’s stories about city spending. In the first half of 2019, city officials put more than $480,000 on credit cards.

We’ll drink to that

UVA will start selling alcohol at home football games in booze gardens at the east and west ends of Scott Stadium. Beer, wine, and hard cider must be consumed in the outdoor bars, and fans may buy no more than four drinks during the first three quarters of a game, after which sales end.

‘Landslide Michie’ dies

Former city school board member Tom Michie, who served during integration and earned his nickname when he won a House of Delegates seat by one vote, died August 27 at age 88, of complications related to Alzheimer’s. Michie carried legislation that led to Charlottesville and Albemarle’s revenue-sharing agreement. He lost re-election to a fourth term in the state Senate, which he attributed to NRA retaliation for his support of a bill to ban assault weapon sales in Virginia.

Banned again

John Hall in 2017. staff photo

Albemarle County schools have forbidden independent City Council candidate John Hall from entering county school property following a disruption at CATEC. Hall, who has said he’s been diagnosed as bipolar, has been banned from City Hall and UVA in the past, and has been convicted of trespassing several times, most recently August 2 at the Haven, the DP reports.

R.I.P. former C-VILLE columnist

Katherine Troyer, who penned a science column during this paper’s early days as C-Ville Review, died August 27 at 64 from cancer.

Early bid

Kellen Squire. submitted photo

Kellen Squire, an E.R. nurse in Charlottes­ville and former Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, announced last week that he intends to run for lieutenant governor in the 2021 election. Squire is the first candidate to announce his campaign for the seat currently occupied by Justin Fairfax.

Change of venue denied

On September 29, an Albemarle County judge denied Common Ground Executive Director Elliott Brown’s request for a change of venue to Charlottesville in the defamation suit against her, filed by Jefferson School Foundation Executive Director Sue Friedman. Friedman is suing Brown for $1 million, plus $350K in damages for comments Brown made at a tenant meeting and in emails.

Breaking the bank

State regulators released a report last week that said Dominion Energy reeled in $277 million in “excessive profits” last year—but that doesn’t mean customers’ prices will be going down anytime soon. The company helped write state legislation in 2018 that protects it from being forced to lower rates even if profits are considered too high.

Gaming connections

State Dem party chair Susan Swecker, who represents Queen of Virginia, called state Senator Creigh Deeds, Delegate David Toscano, and City Councilor Mike Signer to ask what was up with Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania saying the game violates state law, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

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Edging closer: Atlantic Coast Pipeline gets state go-ahead

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline is only one approval away from reality. Construction has already started on its tail ends in West Virginia and North Carolina, and Dominion has applied for permission to start building in Virginia.

Earlier this month, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued the final state approval needed to begin construction on the $6 billion, 600-mile, 42-inch diameter Atlantic Coast Pipeline planned to slice through Nelson County on its way from West Virginia to North Carolina, leaving only one more federal hurdle.

Massive opposition to Dominion Energy’s pipeline has made headlines since the project was proposed in 2014.

So when Governor Ralph Northam held his 2018 Governor’s Summit on Rural Prosperity in Staunton, just two days after the October 19 pipeline permit approval, activists were there to meet him. They say he’s touting “rural prosperity” while “greenwashing” his complicity in environmental destruction. 

When Northam was serving as lieutenant governor under Terry McAuliffe in 2014, he sent a letter to DEQ stating that he wanted to make sure all environmental regulations and complaints were thoroughly evaluated, reviewed, and enforced.

“That indicated to a lot of people that he was serious about environmental regulations and making sure DEQ did the job correctly,” says Kirk Bowers, who’s with the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “Since then, he’s really not followed through on what he said he would do.”

Bowers had been waiting since last spring to know if DEQ would approve the final erosion, sediment control, and stormwater management plans for the pipeline—the permits were granted a few weeks ago.

“It was a bad decision by DEQ based upon what we’re seeing with the Mountain Valley Pipeline,” says Bowers. The MVP is a similar 42-inch natural gas pipeline that’s currently being built from northwestern West Virginia to the southern part of Virginia.

On October 19, the Army Corps of Engineers suspended an MVP permit to build through waterways in two West Virginia counties. It had previously suspended a permit in Virginia, and now the MVP can’t go through any wetland in its path.

More than 500 incidents have been reported during MVP construction, Bowers says, including numerous erosion violations through mountainous areas and steep terrains very similar to those found in Nelson County.

“I strongly contend that the plans [for the ACP] just aren’t going to work and we’re going to have similar problems like we’re seeing in southwest Virginia,” he says.

Among the activists who paid Northam a visit last weekend was Jill Averitt, who has lived on more than 100 acres in Nelson County with her husband and extended family since 2005. Dominion plans to run its pipeline through their Nellysford property, slicing across a large wooded area just yards from her back porch.

She’s invited Northam, who has received $200,000 in donations from Dominion, and Matt Strickler, his secretary of natural resources, “countless times,” to come hear the concerns of landowners. He shook her husband’s hand when running for the Democratic nomination against Tom Perriello—a known ACP opponent who banned campaign contributions from Dominion—and Northam promised to be in touch for a meeting to discuss the pipeline.

“He never followed through with that,” Averitt says. “We have yet to hear from anyone.”

For the first three weekends of October, the Averitts and other activists who oppose the ACP invited the public to their property to camp or visit for a few days of what they call “camptivism,” to learn why Nelson residents are so vehemently fighting to prevent the pipeline’s construction. Approximately 150 attendees heard from environmental experts, impacted landowners, and local historians.

“Northam’s supposed to represent all of us and he couldn’t even give us the courtesy of an hour?” Averitt asks. “He is allowing and participating in this negligent act of allowing these pipelines to be built in the face of every credible source that says they aren’t needed and [are] ill-advised.”

The governor’s own Advisory Council on Environmental Justice has recommended that the pipeline not be built.

At his summit in Staunton, when asked about the ACP, Northam said Virginia is moving in the direction of wind and solar energy, but in the meantime, he approves the usage of traditional energy sources, reports local news station WHSV. His office did not respond to a request for comment.

The pipeline will benefit the environment because it replaces the need for coal with cleaner-burning natural gas, says Aaron Ruby, a spokesperson for Dominion. With the final state approval, he says Dominion is requesting an okay to proceed with full construction in Virginia from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The company has already received a go-ahead in West Virginia and North Carolina, where it’s been building the ACP for months. Dominion expects it to be fully built by the end of next year.

“This project is all about building a better economic and environmental future for our region,” says Ruby. “Public utilities are depending on it to meet the growing energy needs of consumers and businesses.”

Says Averitt, “If these pipelines are developed, we would create a 600-mile development dead zone around them and jeopardize thousands of rural homeowners’ water along the route. I’d like Northam to explain to me how that is good for rural economies.”

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‘Tuesday Chainsaw Massacre’: Wintergreen residents fired up about ACP damage

Locals call the swath of clear-cutting near Wintergreen the “Tuesday Chainsaw Massacre.” Photo Ben Cunningham

A “jumbled mess” of hundreds of clear-cut trees still lie at the entrance to Wintergreen, across Route 664 and up the side of Piney Mountain.

Dominion Energy started knocking them down to make way for its Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Nelson County on March 6, a day the locals now refer to as the “Tuesday Chainsaw Massacre.”

Because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered the company to quell its tree felling until the fall to respect the flight patterns of migratory birds and the state’s population of endangered Indiana bats, it’s been awful quiet in Nelson County—but probably not for long.

Wintergreen resident David Schwiesow estimates that the company building the pipeline has only completed 10 percent of its total destruction in his area.

“Dominion will be coming back to continue the rape of Piney Mountain,” he says, estimating that 7,000 trees, plus rhododendrons, mountain laurel and other ground cover will be cut before it’s all said and done. “So the worst is yet to come at Wintergreen.”

When FERC approved construction of the ACP in October and prohibited Dominion from clearing trees from mid-March to September in Virginia, Dominion agreed. But as the time to stop cutting came closer, the company asked for permission to extend its clearing period by two months—a request that FERC denied on March 28.

“We are cautiously optimistic that FERC will stick to this decision,” says Schwiesow. “In the past, FERC has rubber stamped everything Dominion has requested.”

The clear-cutting has devastated those living near it, he says.

“Wintergreen residents are horrified by the destruction, including many who hadn’t really paid attention to the issue,” he continues. “One neighbor of ours on Fortune’s Ridge told us that she pulled off [Route] 664, got out of her car, looked at the destruction and just started to cry.”

The Department of Environmental Equality has cited Dominion for at least 15 clear-cutting violations, and the Wintergreen resident says he and other pipeline opponents are reporting a couple more from the alleged damage done in their neck of the woods. They’ve measured trees cut within 50 feet of a stream across the entrance to the resort, and also within 50 feet of the south fork of the Rockfish River on the other side of Route 664, aka Beech Grove Road.

“Dominion is arrogant and seems to believe that they’re above the law,” says Schwiesow.

Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby says his company wasn’t able to clear all the trees they’d hoped to this year, so that work will be pushed into the fall and the beginning of next year.

In the meantime, contractors are clearing and grading at ACP compressor station sites, and after they get a few remaining approvals this spring, they’ll start constructing the pipeline along the 200 miles of the route that have already been cleared from West Virginia, through Virginia and into North Carolina. They’re still on track to wrap up construction by the end of next year, he says.

That doesn’t bode well for the heavy opposition that has amassed since the project was proposed in September 2014.

On St. Patrick’s Day weekend, Schwiesow attended a protest at the resort’s entrance with about 100 other pipeline opponents, including his wife, Nancy, who gave a short speech.

“To some, it feels like the end of the fight,” she said to the crowd. “Dominion has won. But that is wrong.
I am more angry, upset and determined to fight Dominion and its despicable pipeline than I ever have been.”­

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Dominion’s win: Bills reduce refunds, thwart SCC regulation

It was a bill that had its own meme.

“When Dominion writes the law: We pay twice. They get richer,” said a post that swept the web with the hashtags #HB1558 #KILLTHEBILL and #STOPTHESCAM before the House of Delegates voted to pass the bill 63-35 on February 13.

The bill was a response to the Utility Rate Freeze Bill of 2015, which froze electricity rates, but also removed the State Corporation Commission’s review of the rates of major utility companies like Dominion Energy until 2022.

Over the past couple years, Dominion has gained massive “overearnings” of several hundred million dollars, says Delegate David Toscano, who represents Charlottesville and Albemarle County in the 57th District. HB1558 and its Senate counterpart, SB966, would require Dominion to give refunds to its customers and lead to major investments in energy conservation.

Toscano has called the legislation some of the most significant of this General Assembly session, and though he voted against the bills, he attached an amendment that would prohibit Dominion from “double dipping” by charging ratepayers twice to update the grid and for investments in renewable energy. Put simply, the utility company won’t be able to take from refunds owed to ratepayers—that’s one dip—and still charge extra to finance the same projects—the second dip.

The same amendment was placed on the Senate bill, which passed the House 65-30 on February 26.

“Few would argue that there are some substantial benefits derived from this bill,” Toscano said in a letter to his constituents. Dominion customers will receive $200 million in refunds over the next two years and an immediate rate reduction of at least $125 million. The bill supports renewable energy and requires the utility company to invest almost $1 billion in grid modernization.

But in Toscano’s dissenting vote, he declares that problems with the bill remain. The SCC’s ability to control rates is restricted, and any future rate reductions could have to wait much longer than if the organization immediately resumes regulation.

Costs incurred for utility undergrounding projects have been deemed “reasonable and prudent” without the SCC knowing the actual costs, says Toscano, and that could make ratepayer refunds less than the $200 million promised by the bill.

“SB966 requires Dominion to refund ratepayers just pennies to the dollar of what we are owed,” says Elaine Colligan, director of the Clean Virginia Project, which is a local independent initiative funded by investor Michael Bills and run out of Tom Perriello’s New Virginia Way PAC.

As for future overcharges, Colligan says the bill postpones SCC review of base electricity rates until 2021, and if the organization finds that consumers have been overcharged, it can only order refunds up to $50 million. In 2016 alone, Dominion overcharged customers an estimated $395 million, she adds.

“This is simply a bad deal,” she says. “Consumers should be refunded 100 percent of what we are owed.”

Dominion Energy, a private corporation, owns the publicly regulated electric monopoly in Virginia and, according to Colligan, it is permitted to spend unlimited amounts in campaign contributions and political gifts.

“The passage of SB966 is symptomatic of Virginia’s unique style of political corruption,” she says. “In the absence of publicly financed elections, a full-time and well-funded state legislature and checks and balances on Dominion’s influence on our representatives, we can only expect that the company would try to ram a utility bill through the General Assembly that is a windfall for their profits.”

If the Senate bill is signed into law, Dominion spokesperson Rayhan Daudani says customers will begin seeing refunds in their July bills. The average bill is about $115.75 a month, and the average customer can expect to see a $6 credit for about nine months. Customers can also expect about $125 million in rate reductions from federal tax legislation, he says.

“When you factor in these rate credits, it’ll lower them down to the same rate [customers] were paying in 2009,” he says.

Dominion has drawn major controversy and criticism because of its efforts to build the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $6 billion and 600-mile gas fracking pipeline that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved in October.

Charlottesville resident Kay Ferguson, who also opposed the utility rate bills, says she’s become familiar with the company in her fight against the ACP.

“It is a big bully,” she says. “It does have a chokehold on the government in Virginia.”

But, says Daudani, “That’s the way the political process is set up. It requires us to make sure our voice is heard alongside other groups that may have their own priorities.”

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In brief: Mental health break, Groundhog Day and more

After it closed in 2003, Western State was a magnet for ghost hunters and daring teens. Now it's going to be a deluxe inn. Photo Daniel Stein

Seeking asylum

He’ll tell you it’s not haunted, but owner and developer Robin Miller acknowledges the twisted history of the new Blackburn Inn, his historic boutique hotel set to open in Staunton this spring.

Originally serving as the Western State Lunatic Asylum in the early 1800s, a hospital for the mentally ill—known for its electroshock therapy and lobotomies—the building became a medium-security men’s penitentiary in the late 1900s, until it was abandoned in 2003.

Where former residents wore straitjackets, inn guests will don complimentary bathrobes after a dip in the “luxurious soaking tubs” that will be available in four of the 49 rooms with 27 different floor plans.

“About 14 years ago was the first time I drove into downtown Staunton,” says Miller. “I looked over and saw the campus here and I fell in love with it.”

The Richmond-based developer with a second home in the same town as his new hotel has an assemblage of projects under his belt, including the recent redevelopment of Western State’s bindery, the building directly behind the Blackburn Inn, which he converted into 19 condos.

“It’s a combination of a beautiful, beautiful historic building with absolute top of the line, luxurious amenities and features,” Miller says about the inn, where he made use of the original wide corridors, hallway arches, vaulted ceilings and a wooden spiral stairwell that will allow guests to access the rooftop atrium. As for whether he expects a gaggle of ghost hunters to be his first customers: “That certainly wasn’t part of our marketing plan, but we don’t care why they want to stay here. We just want them to come and see it.”

Either way, we’re calling it a crazy good time.

Staunton’s former Western State Lunatic Asylum will reopen as a boutique hotel this spring. Among its features is the original wooden spiral stairwell (right), which has been refurbished and will allow access to a rooftop atrium. Courtesy blackburn inn, daniel stein

In brief

Kessler clockers continued

Four people charged with assaulting Jason Kessler the day after the deadly August 12 Unite the Right rally—Brandon Collins, Robert Litzenberger, Phoebe Stevens and Jeff Winder—had their cases moved to February 2—Groundhog Day—because the special prosecutor, Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Caudill, hadn’t seen video of Kessler being chased through the shrubbery. “These things keep coming up,” said Judge Bob Downer. “It’s like Groundhog Day.”

Another construction fatality

A construction worker died at the Linden Town Lofts site after a traumatic fall November 15, according to Charlottesville police. That was also the location of an early morning July 13 fire that engulfed a townhouse and four Jaunt buses. A worker also died from a fall October 21 at 1073 E. Water St., the C&O Row site owned by Evergreen Homebuilders.

Motion to unwrap

staff photo

Plaintiffs in the suit to prevent the city from removing Confederate statues of generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson now want Charlottesville to remove the black tarps that have covered the statues since shortly after the fatal August 12 rally—and for the city to pay hefty fines if it refuses.

Closing the door

The grocery subscription service that bought out Relay Foods last year announced November 17 that it would cease its operations, effective immediately. Door to Door Organics says refunds will be forthcoming for those who pre-ordered Thanksgiving turkeys.

“The only way you’re going to get sexism out of politics is to get more women into politics.”

—Hillary Clinton in a speech at UVA during the Women’s Global Leadership Forum

Pay up

Florida man James O’Brien, an alleged League of the South member charged with concealed carrying on August 12, pleaded guilty November 20 and was sentenced to a suspended 60 days in jail and fined $500. He was arrested while breaking into his own car during the Unite the Right rally, and has since been fired from his roofing job for taking part in “extremist activities,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Switching hands

After 10 years of grooming, lodging and day care services, the owners of Best of C-VILLE Hall of Famer Pampered Pets have selected Pet Paradise Resort and Day Spa to take over operations, beginning November 16.

Dominion’s victory dance

The U.S. Forest Service approved plans for the the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline November 17, giving Dominion Energy permission to run its 42-inch natural gas pipeline through the George Washington and Monongahela national forests. Though Dominion still requires state water permits, spokesperson Aaron Ruby calls it a “key regulatory approval” in the company’s quest for final approval later this year.

By the numbers

Survey says

It costs a little bit more to gobble till you wobble this year, according to a recent survey conducted by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

On average, it will set you back about $50.56 to feed a family of 10 adults on Thanksgiving. This is up from $44.02 last year, with the average cost of everyone’s favorite holiday meal increasing by a total of $11.44 since the federation began conducting the survey in 2003.

What’s on the menu? Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, peas, rolls, cranberries, a vegetable tray, milk and a good ol’ slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Eat up.

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Head to head: Feds approve controversial pipelines

If the pipeline is approved, Richard Averitt will be hit on two fronts—his residential property and a commercial lot he bought with the dream to build a $35 million five-star boutique resort. Photo by Sanjay Suchak

Though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the Atlantic Coast Pipeline October 13, those opposing the $6 billion and 600-mile gas fracking project say they’re not going down without a fight.

“It’s not over by any means,” says Kirk Bowers, a program coordinator with the local chapter of the Sierra Club. Though he’s not showing his hand, he says his organization recently changed its policy against participating in civil disobedience and training sessions have been popping up across the commonwealth.

FERC also just approved the Mountain Valley Pipeline in southwest Virginia, where Bowers says opponents have blocked roads with their bodies, vehicles and gates to prevent surveyors from entering their properties.

In the case of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, he says environmental groups and their attorneys have 30 days to file appeals. And they will.

Dominion Energy sent out a press release late Friday night that the ACP had been issued a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from FERC—the most significant milestone for the project yet, it said.

“Our public utility customers are depending on this infrastructure to generate cleaner electricity, heat homes and power local businesses,” says Leslie Hartz, Dominion’s vice president of engineering and construction, who says the project will result in lower energy costs and a cleaner environment, because the ACP will replace coal-burning power plants.

FERC chair Cheryl LaFleur dissented in the approval, and said the project isn’t in the public’s best interest, but noted that utility customers in Virginia and North Carolina have already subscribed to 90 percent of the pipeline’s natural gas capacity.

To proceed with construction, Dominion still needs water permits from the states in which the pipeline will run—West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.

In West Virginia, where Dominion first asked the Department of Environmental Quality for the water permit, which it was granted, legal group Appalachian Mountain Advocates filed suit—and won—this summer. Now, the energy giant has to go back to the drawing board, according to Bowers, who says Virginia water permit hearings are slated to take place in Richmond in December.

Last week, the Sierra Club filed an appeal with the State Corporation Commission, Bowers says, because Dominion has allegedly contracted the ACP’s gas to its own affiliates without the SCC’s permission, which is required in Virginia.

In early September, anti-pipeline group Bold Alliance filed a property rights lawsuit against FERC, alleging the abuse of eminent domain for private gain.

Dominion has maintained it would only use eminent domain as a last resort. It also asserts that the ACP has undergone 300 route adjustments and one of the most thorough environmental reviews for a project of its scope.

“This unprecedented scrutiny should give assurance to all communities that their voices have been heard and that the project will be built in a way that protects public safety and the environment,” Hartz says.

Nelson County resident and affected landowner Richard Averitt is among 50 plaintiffs in the Bold Alliance suit.

“Hundreds of landowners have stood strong and have refused to negotiate with the pipeline companies,” he says. “We have vowed to fight to protect and defend what is constitutionally ours, and we will win.”