Latest news with #SarahVogelsong
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Feds release delayed infrastructure grants, sending $8.6 million to Virginia
A railroad crossing in Virginia. (Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury) After years of bureaucratic limbo, Virginia is set to receive $8.6 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to support a slate of infrastructure projects that were first announced three years ago. The funding comes as part of a national effort by the administration of former President Joe Biden to clear a backlog of 3,200 unobligated grants that had stalled 'critical investments' in communities nationwide, according to the agency. The department said Tuesday it has now cleared 1,065 of those projects but did not explain why the grants were delayed in the first place. Six awards are headed to Virginia, benefiting Ashland, Smithfield, Petersburg, Richmond and Salem. The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation also received $5 million for Phase II of the Jamestown Scotland Ferry Facility Rehabilitation Project. 'While cynics in the press hysterically warned of doomsday delays, USDOT has been hard at work to get America building again,' U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. 'We've done this by refocusing the department on core infrastructure – not enacting a radical political agenda. With a third of the last administration's unprecedented backlog cleared, we will continue to rip out red tape roadblocks to get dirt moving.' Duffy said the agency is working 'diligently' to distribute these 'long-overdue' funds and prioritize core infrastructure projects. As part of the shift, the agency said it has eliminated several policies supported by the previous administration, including requirements tied to racial equity, climate change, and social justice. 'Removing these requirements will save taxpayers millions,' the agency stated, citing increased road construction costs and mandates to report greenhouse gas emissions. Among the Virginia recipients, the city of Richmond will receive $2 million — the second largest award in the state — for the Broad Rock Boulevard Grade Separation Study and Development. The project focuses on improving rail crossings with the goal of enhancing mobility by eliminating delays caused by blocked crossings. Town of Ashland – Ashland At-Grade Crossing Study – $421,200 City of Richmond – Broad Rock Boulevard Grade Separation Study and Development – $2,704,000 Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation – Jamestown Scotland Ferry Facility Rehabilitation Project (Phase II) Revised – $5,048,650 City of Petersburg – Petersburg's Safety Action Plan – $200,000 City of Salem – SS4A Safety Action Plan – $100,000 Town of Smithfield – Smithfield Safety and Connectivity Plan – $136,000 SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The war on woke…energy?
An electrical substation near Imboden, Va. (Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury) I've been thinking a lot about language lately, and the strange way words that used to mean good things are now attacked as bad, and vice-versa. Diversity, equity and inclusion are radioactive. Mentioning environmental justice or climate change will get your federal program canceled. Coal is clean, even beautiful, and pointing out the connection to global warming makes you an alarmist, because speaking up when your government steers you towards disaster is now a bad thing to do. Recently I received an email excoriating 'woke' energy policy, which seemed especially curious. I can see how awareness of historic racial injustice against Black people might nudge policy makers into greater support for renewable energy, given that pollution from fossil fuels tends to have a disparate impact on communities of color. But judging from the hostile tone of the email, I believe we may have different understandings of wokeness. Sometimes, though, words mean different things to different people without anyone realizing they aren't using the same definition. That may be the case when Virginia leaders talk about the reliability of the electricity supply. Everyone agrees reliability is critical – but they may not be talking about the same thing. We suspected data centers were creating an energy crisis for Virginia. Now it's official. Virginia's need for power is growing at a terrific pace. Data centers consume so much electricity that our utilities can't keep up, causing them to increase imports from out of state. That's okay for now; West Virginia is not a hostile foreign nation. Also, Virginia is a member of a larger grid, the 13-state (plus D.C.) PJM Interconnection, which manages thousands of generating facilities to ensure output matches demand across the region. But even across this wider area, demand is increasing faster than supply, pushing up prices and threatening a shortfall. Unless we tell data centers to go elsewhere, we need more generation, and fast. Democrats and Republicans are divided over how to increase the power supply. Democrats remain committed to the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires Virginia's electricity to decarbonize by 2050. Meeting the VCEA's milestones requires investments in renewable energy and storage, both to address climate change and to save ratepayers from the high costs of coal and fracked gas. Gov. Glenn Youngkin and members of his party counter that fossil fuels are tried-and-true, baseload sources of energy. They advocate abandoning the VCEA and building more gas plants, arguing that renewable energy just isn't reliable. Note that these Republicans are not alarmists, so they ignore climate change. If they were the proverbial frog in a pot of water on the stove, they would consider it a point of pride that they boiled to death without acknowledging the reason. Youngkin takes every chance he gets to slam the VCEA. As I've previously described, the governor sought to amend various energy-related legislation to become VCEA repeal bills, regardless of the original subject matter or how much good it could do. With vetoes and destructive amendments, Youngkin acts to deepen Virginia's energy woes Last month, Youngkin's Director of the Department of Energy sent a report on performance-based utility regulation to the State Corporation Commission. With it was a cover letter that had nothing to say about performance-based regulation, but a lot to say about the big, bad VCEA. The letter insists that 'By all models, VCEA is unable to meet Virginia's growing energy demand' and urges the SCC to 'prioritize ratepayer affordability and grid reliability over long-term VCEA compliance.' Unfortunately for the Youngkin administration, affordability hasn't been an argument in favor of fossil fuels for many years now. A new solar farm generates a megawatt of electricity more cheaply than a new fossil gas plant, and that will still be true even if Congress revokes renewable energy subsidies – though doing so will make electricity less affordable. The argument from fossil fuel defenders then becomes that the cheapest megawatt is not a reliable megawatt. And that's where meaning matters. Reliability is so important that even the decarbonization mandate of the VCEA contains an important exception: a utility can build fossil fuel generation under certain circumstances, if it is the only way to keep the lights on. Dominion Energy is relying on this escape clause as it seeks regulatory approval to build new fossil gas combustion turbines on the site of an old coal plant in Chesterfield. The move is opposed by local residents, environmental justice advocates and climate activists. (No word on whether they are alarmists or simply alarmed.) They argue Dominion hasn't met the conditions set out in the VCEA to trigger the escape clause, including achieving energy efficiency targets and proving it can't meet its needs with renewable energy, energy storage and demand response programs. Virginia Republicans not only side with Dominion on this, they increasingly favor building gas plants over renewables as a general matter, urging the reliability point. It's an argument that never made much sense for me, given that renewables make up only 5% of PJM's electricity. That's way less than the national average of over 21%, and other grids aren't crashing right and left. The light bulb went off for me while I was watching the May meeting of the Commission on Electric Utility Regulation. A PJM representative showed a chart of how the grid operator assigns numbers to different resources according to how they contribute to the electricity supply. Nuclear plants get the highest score because they run constantly, intermittent wind and solar sources get lower scores, with fossil fuel plants in the middle. PJM calls that a reliability score. For some Republicans, that's a slam-dunk: the chart proves renewable energy is unreliable. But in spite of its label, the chart doesn't actually measure reliability; it gives points for availability, which is not the same thing. As I once heard a solar installer testify, few things are as reliable as the sun rising every morning (or rather, the earth rotating). With modern weather forecasting, grid operators can predict with great precision how much electricity from solar they can count on at any given time from solar facilities arrayed across the region. Solar energy is highly reliable, even though it is not always available. Add storage, and the availability issue is also resolved. Obviously, the grid would not be reliable if solar were the only resource operators had to work with. But it isn't. PJM calls on a mix of different sources, plus storage facilities and demand response, to ensure generation precisely matches the peaks and valleys of demand. Reliability is a matter of keeping resources in sync and ensuring a robust transmission and distribution system. The threat to reliability today comes from the mad rush to connect new data centers. PJM has been roundly criticized for not approving new generating and storage facilities' connection to the grid at a fast enough pace to keep up with the increase in demand and retirements of old, money-losing fossil fuel plants. Scrambling to recover, recently it decided to prioritize a smaller number of big, new gas plants over the thousands of megawatts of renewable energy and storage still languishing on its waiting list. Meanwhile, PJM wants utilities to keep operating coal plants even though it will make electricity less affordable and violate state climate laws. In this it is joined by the Trump administration, which wants to require utilities to keep running coal plants explicitly to support the coal industry. Analysts say this is the wrong way to achieve reliability. A recent report from the consulting firm Synapse estimates that PJM's approach will raise residential electricity bills by 60% by 2036-2040. By contrast, reforming its interconnection process and enabling more renewable energy and storage to come online would lower bills by 7%. By Synapse's calculation, Virginia would see the most savings of any state. In other words, Virginia Republicans are pursuing reliability the wrong way. Instead of pressuring Democrats to back away from the VCEA, they ought to be pressuring PJM to reform its approach. Reliable power doesn't have to be expensive, if you take the politics out of it. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
After contributions to Virginia, international students face uncertainty due to Trump's visa changes
The University of Virginia has been a critical benefactor of international students during the 2023-24 school year, according to NAFSA. (Sarah Vogelsong / Virginia Mercury) Virginia's colleges and universities could lose millions of dollars and thousands of jobs after the federal government froze international student visa interviews on Tuesday, mounted efforts to require all foreign students to undergo social media vetting and announced plans to 'aggressively revoke' Chinese students' visas. The actions, spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the behest of President Donald Trump's administration, are likely to disrupt international students considering attending any of the schools in the commonwealth. Over 21,000 international students were enrolled at Virginia colleges and universities in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to the National Association of Foreign Advisors' Association of International Educators. International students contributed $807.2 million to Virginia's higher learning institutions in the same period, NAFSA reported in its latest data. Tim Gibson, president of the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, said the student visa interview pause and other changes could negatively impact international students, who have proven to make positive contributions to U.S. universities and the commonwealth, and deter international students from pursuing an education in America, including Virginia. 'They just want to learn and they come here because they want to learn from us,' Gibson said, 'and they want to learn at American universities because American universities have a stellar reputation around the world for academic freedom, for having resources to support excellent undergraduate and graduate instruction, and for having the kind of freedom of an openness to explore the questions you want to explore and to make the contributions you want to make.' George Mason University, located in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia, was the highest recipient of funding from international students, receiving $207.5 million, ahead of Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, VCU, and Northern Virginia Community College, which rounded out the top five institutions in the commonwealth with the most financial benefit from foreign students during the 2023-24 school year. Student visas are essential for international students to legally enter, reside, and study in the United States, including at institutions in Virginia, which, if foreign students stop attending, could face financial challenges since students from outside the U.S. pay higher tuition fees compared to in-state students. Since Tuesday, the administration has directed U.S. embassies and consulates, who are responsible for issuing visas, to suspend new visa interviews for international students seeking to study in the U.S. until further guidance is provided. The move comes after the administration accused some institutions, including Harvard University, of allowing antisemitism on campus. The administration is attempting to revoke Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which enables the university to enroll international students. A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration's attempt to do so, after Harvard filed a lawsuit to retain the right to admit international students. On Wednesday, Rubio announced the State Department along with the Department of Homeland Security will be revoking visas for Chinese students, including those with 'connections' to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in 'critical fields.' The agencies will be revising visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong, Rubio's statement read. Gibson said the announcement is concerning for many students, especially graduate students, because they often bring their families who attend daycares and schools in the commonwealth. 'Now they're threatened with deportation for no reason other than paranoia, racism, and xenophobia,' Gibson said. 'Even just making a threat has irreparably harmed the international reputation of our universities and colleges.' In a statement on Tuesday, NAFSA said the latest action by the Trump administration is another 'misguided' and 'deeply troubling attack' against international students, who are facing arrests, visa revocations and threats to their ability to enroll in certain U.S. institutions. The association said it's also a waste of taxpayer funding to screen students who are already subject to extensive background checks, compared to business visitors and tourists. 'If the administration believes enhanced scrutiny is necessary, it should be applied uniformly — not selectively to students who have long contributed to American classrooms, communities, and cutting-edge research,' a NAFSA representative said. 'Moreover, there is no urgent justification to halt visa appointments while internal policy updates are considered. This only adds unnecessary delays, fuels uncertainty, and damages our reputation as a welcoming destination for global talent.' This week's actions aren't the first issues concerning international students the Trump administration has weighed in on. In January, the administration directed U.S. diplomats and consulates to refer certain student and exchange visitor visa applicants to its fraud prevention unit for mandatory social media checks, through two executive orders focused on protecting the country from foreign threats and combating antisemitism. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Axios
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Axios
The "unauthorized bun" at Secret Sandwich Society has a history of controversy
The alleged use of an " unauthorized bun" seems to be part of the issue behind a dramatic weekend Instagram post from Secret Sandwich Society. Why it matters: The bun in question might just be the most controversial hamburger holder in recent history. Catch up quick: Last Friday, the Instagram account for the West Virginia-based Secret Sandwich Society restaurant announced that the Richmond location, the only other in the nation, was operating without a legal license to use the SSS brand. The Richmonders' Sarah Vogelsong got the scoop behind the post through troves of court documents. Court filings allege that the Richmond location's owners haven't paid the SSS brand owners required royalties to use the name since April 21, plus a litany of other charges, Vogelsong reports. The intrigue: Perhaps the most interesting detail in the court records centers on the Richmond location's alleged use of the wrong hamburger bun. RVA's SSS allegedly puts its burgers on Martin's brand buns, as opposed to " split top buns from USFoods," which the licensing agreement requires them to use, per The Richmonder. SSS brand owners declined to comment for this story. Phones to the Richmond store weren't answered. Zoom in: The only Martin's brand buns we're aware of are Martin's Potato Rolls, the bun of choice for Shake Shack and the "undisputed heavyweight champ" of all hamburger buns, according to food blogs. It's also the only hamburger bun we're aware has recently been the subject of a nationwide boycott. Calls to boycott Martin's in 2022 came in response to political donations by Jim Martin, the company's board chair and former president, to a " far-right" Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, plus his denial of the 2020 election results, CNN reported. A spokesperson for Martin's buns told CNN at the time that the company "does not support any particular candidate or party." The boycott was relatively short-lived, lasting roughly a summer, and was opposed by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, the candidate Jim Martin didn't support. Shapiro appeared to maintain then and now that Martin's makes a " damn good roll." Whether Richmonders will get to experience this bun for themselves at our Secret Sandwich Society location may just be a matter for the courts to decide.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Higher ed bill passes legislature, giving faculty and staff a seat — but not a vote
The Rotunda at the University of Virginia. (Sarah Vogelsong/Virginia Mercury) Virginia's public college employees scored a legislative victory Tuesday as the General Assembly passed a bill requiring each university's governing board to include two nonvoting faculty and staff representatives. But whether the measure becomes law is far from certain — Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a similar proposal last year, citing cost concerns and a lack of oversight. Youngkin argued at the time that adding representatives could drive up tuition for families and noted that these members wouldn't be subject to General Assembly confirmation or his removal authority in misconduct cases. A narrower 2023 proposal focused solely on the University of Virginia's board was previously stalled in a House Rules subcommittee. Supporters say faculty and staff voices are crucial to informed decision-making. Cecelia Parks, president of the United Campus Workers of Virginia, said board meetings often fail to address key issues because appointed members by the governor lack firsthand experience in university operations. 'The people in the room just don't have that expertise because they are not living with a lot of these issues day in and day out,' Parks told The Mercury, emphasizing that advisory members would help strengthen institutions. House Bill 1621, sponsored by Del. Amy Laufer, D-Albemarle, would again require all public colleges and universities to elect nonvoting faculty and staff representatives to their boards. George Mason and Longwood Universities are currently the only public institutions that allow a faculty member to sit on their governing boards. For months, advocates have pushed lawmakers to expand that model statewide, arguing that giving faculty and staff a voice in decision-making would improve policies on retention, recruitment, and overall workplace confidence. Supporters say such representation fosters trust among employees and ensures their concerns are heard at the highest levels. Laufer emphasized staff's role in keeping universities running, from facility maintenance to student affairs. 'I just believe that people [who] are working with our students can add a valuable perspective on these boards,' Laufer said. Last month, she rejected a House substitute that would have allowed governing boards to appoint faculty and staff representatives rather than letting employees elect them. While advocates want a seat at the table, Laufer said it's just as important that they choose their own representatives. The bill narrowly passed the House in a 51-49 vote before moving to the Senate, where it passed along party lines. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
