will only cost more, lots more. Not only does deferred maintenance become more complicated and expensive the longer it is postponed, but inflation will raise the cost of any construction, even if it's only replacement of failing bridges.

Inflation is a tax just as much as any fee imposed by government. Inflation has been brought to us by policies of the Republican-dominated Federal Reserve which has pumped billions of dollars into the economy combined with exceptionally low interest rates in repeated efforts to goose the economy out of a slide into recession.  This engendered serial bubbles (dot.com, housing, commodities including oil and food) and now we have given the entire globe a bad case of escalating inflation. Inflation reduces the buying power of each and every dollar, most especially those in retirement funds.

So, the next time some Republican Neandertal, or some brain-washed self-described conservative whines "NO TAX" and "Tax-and-spend Democrats," the proper response should be "Republican inflation is the real tax," and "thanks to Republican inflation, gas and food both cost us more, our paychecks don't go as far, and we cannot afford health care----it's Republicans not Democrats who are raising your taxes----  the inflation tax!"

and ever votes for a Republican ever again is a self-loathing, psychotic masochist.

Once the next redistricting is finished in 2011, RoVa will never see another dollar for roads again.  Those cracker rednecks had their chance, they blew it. Pay back will be hell.

Some of us cracker rednecks supported a gas tax.  And vote Dem.  

and not nearly enough of you redneck crackers are voting Democrat.

If NoVa has to take over Va government in order to continue to generate the taxes that keep RoVa from slipping into third world conditions then that's just what's going to have to be done because the vital needs of the most populous jurisdictions are being ignored by a government dominated by RoVa reactionaries, including that waste of time, Kaine.

And your children know how bad it is there in RoVa, they're leaving so fast that the fall in population can be seen on a practically daily basis.

When your redneck cracker friends are ready to vote $1 billion a year for new roads, not transit, roads, bridges and tunnels in NoVa and Hampton Roads. Let me know. Otherwise, your fellow rednecks will surely reap what they have so cavalierly sown.

you represent?  If everyone in RoVa is a redneck cracker and everyone in NoVa is a snob zoned elitist, which one are you?

who is a 20 year member of VDP and who's also voted for a republican more than once.

Have you read Dominion of Memories yet?

How about Wave the Bloody Shirt or Slavery in Everything but name?

Google my namesake & you'll get the idea.

using racial/ethnic pejoratives.  Aside from being offensive, you're also flat-out wrong about what you call "RoVA".

is neither racial not ethnic. Its an ideological pejorative.

So, Obiwan, how am I wrong about RoVa and its opposition to paying for the roads, bridges and tunnels that enable NoVa to generate the taxes that keep RoVa from the third world status that is causing its children to leave in droves?

Wikipedia:

"Cracker", sometimes "white cracker", is a pejorative term for a white person, mainly used in the Southern United States, but in recent decades it has entered common usage throughout North America.

Also from Wikipedia:

Redneck has two general uses: first, as a pejorative used by outsiders, and, second, as a term used by members within that group. To outsiders, it is generally a term for white people of Southern or Appalachian rural poor backgrounds - or more loosely, rural poor to working-class people of rural extraction.

Any other questions?  

by you or anyone else will be deleted by an administrator immediately. We are NOT going to allow this type of language on RK.  If you can't help yourself, you'll need to find another forum to share your insights.

It's your house you make the rules.  

How would you like us to refer to a demographic that opposes any tax increase no matter the failure to provide for basic governmental functions like education and transportation, who are misogynistic, homophobic and racists, who waive the Confederate battle flag as a badge of honor and take pride in their refusal to properly pronounce any last name ending in a vowel, who claim that 9/11 or Katrina was caused by a gay pride parade, and assorted other outrages because I really don't want to catalog every form of idiocy that sees the current Republican elected officials as acting in the best interest of all Virginians every time we refer to these despictable creatures?

You're wrong to lump "RoVA" (I am disliking that term increasingly) together.  You're telling me that people in Richmond, Hampton Roads, Charlottesville, Southside, Shenandoah, southwestern Virginia, etc. all think alike?  Black and white? Old and young? Rich and poor?  It's one big monolith out there?  Not.   And while we're at it, if you think that "NOVA" is a monolith, you're also mistaken.  You think Walter Tejada agrees with Corey Stewart on anything? Case closed.

Even if many House Republicans don't seem to understand this basic concept, Virginia is ONE COMMONWEALTH and we're all going to sink or swim together.  Trying to divide Virginia by region is wrong any way you look at it.

our dear friends from RoVa have been giving NoVa the short end of most every stick for more than 60 years.

Steve Case once got so frustrated with Gilmore he suggested NoVa ought to succeed to which Gilmore responded with threats of a military invasion by the National Guard.

Governing is a competition for scarce resources and RoVa's elected officials continue to be getting the better of it for decades.

"Fool me once same on you, fool me twice shame on me."

When does NoVa's elected officials say enough?

If "r/c" doesn't work for you, what term do you find acceptable for that demographic?

Give me another term because it takes to long to type xenophobes, racists, misogynists etc., every time.

are not fans of the demographic that you describe.  

But you called Bubby a redneck cracker in your response to him.  And you've pretty much called every single person not living in NoVa a redneck cracker and we know many people outside of NoVa who are certainly not the redneck crackers you describe.  Although some of them have accents that differ from ours we (amazingly enough) have similar beliefs on many topics.  Not everything, but no two Northern Virginians are going to agree on everything either.

And you've described every person in NoVa who doesn't subscribe to your model of pave and sprawl (or is it sprawl and pave?) an elitist snob.  Or in my case a communist.  I'm surprised it wasn't a pinko communist, but maybe you were having an off day.

Regardless, you weren't welcome at Bacon's Rebellion and you've quickly worn out your welcome here with your misleading or juvenile attacks every time someone says something you don't like.  You're clearly a very intelligent person so you should be able to answer this (rhetorical) question very easily: What is the single common factor between your failures at these two blogs?

...worse than anyone ever has on this blog.  And that's really saying something, given some of the hideous trolls we've had on here, and also given that Eric's usually pretty calm and unflappable.  So, what IS the answer to Eric's question?  ;)

I looked at it several times and found it not very useful as previously described. If anything, it failed, to keep my attention.

Bubby called himself an "r/c". He knows better than me  whether he shares the attitudes I've described, though I suspect he was being facetiously provocative.

I've actually been in Bristol, Grundy, Buena Vista, Lynchburg, Danville and Farmwell. The attitudes I described encompass about 90% of the people I encountered there. No doubt there are exceptions but they must walk around in silence 'cause I couldn't find'em.  Maybe they think its too dangerous to be a progressive in such hostile surroundings.

I haven't failed here because you keep responding, though less and less effectively.

I said your attitudes were similar to a commissar in a totalitarian state, totalitarians are to be found on the left and the right.  Their commonality is their propensity to deprive the people of a society the freedom to choose, especially the freedom to choose where to live.  Your post, to which I was responding, suggested that you advocated substituting your priorities for the long held preferences of the vast majority of the people in a democracy. If there's a better description for such attitudes which doesn't offend your sensitivities, I happy to use it instead.

The elitist snobs are folks who make my employees and co-workers commute 2 hours each way because they can't find a house closer to work. Are you now endorsing those policies?

RK holds your attention yet Bacon's doesn't.  Well, thank you on behalf of whichever posts/posters have captured your attention.

As I already stated, we are in complete agreement about the "r/c" attitude you described.  Where we disagree is that you seem to prefer labeling an entire region (make that most of the Commonwealth) while most of us prefer labeling individuals when they meet the criteria you've laid out.

As for your failure, I suppose if the only metric you choose is if we respond to your comments, then yes, you've succeeded.  However, I believe supportive comments you receive in general are in very short supply and non-existent when it comes to your sprawl and pave rants.  As far as I can tell you've failed to convince a single person that your preferred sprawl and pave model is the direction our society should be headed despite that you miraculously made it a Constitutional right for every person to receive the exact housing they want, where they want, and at the price they want regardless of any other consequences.  And I know you haven't made a strong logical argument which covers the complexities of society, politics, business, financial, or the mathematical impossibilities due to geo-spacial limitations for your model.  So if we were to measure success with a metric such as effectiveness, you've failed.

I stand corrected on a detail, you did call me a commissar rather than a communist.  However, the point was that you have found it necessary to toss insults at every person and/or comment with which you don't agree.  Examples can be found in many of your comments.  And no, I'm not going to bother explaining to you why calling me a commissar is an insult rather than a description because it should be obvious to a person of your intellect.

Furthermore, you have real talent for distorting the meaning of any statement to meet your needs.  Although it makes conducting a conversation impossible (it's the main reason I drop our conversations after a while), I applaud your great skill in this area.  If you're not in politics, you should be.  They're always on the look out for such talent.

In closing I will say this: the real shame about this situation is that it's clear you are very intelligent and well educated, yet due to your intolerant condescending attitude and propensity to drastically distort other people's points it's impossible to hold a meaningful debate on important issues.  Regarding your point about responding to your comments, I actually have been considering ignoring you and encouraging others to do the same.  I might take you up on that offer.  Or maybe we'll just ban you because this is becoming quite tiresome.

Please?

Bruggeman in Sprawl a Compact History tries to find a consensus definition and admits to failure.

Clearly I'll never convince you but I'm not trying to convince you.  I trying to present a point of view that is sadly lacking on this site or among Va Democratic activists.

Talk about twisting words

That there is a constitutional right to travel is not debatable and that it has implication in zoning and planning is not disputed read the Petaluma decision which Brennan wrote  if I remember.  If there was a miracle it was Brennan's understanding of the zoning process from first hand experience.

You can search high and low and will never find me writing that "a Constitutional right for every person to receive the exact housing they want, where they want, and at the price they want regardless of any other consequences" This of argumentation is reduction absurdem and it never works. Observers catch the distortion.

To expand on my lack of support for "sprawl" consider that Loudoun, for example, could provide housing for its entire future employment base with just 50 square miles of compact town centers and still have 300 square miles of bucolic exclusionist enclaves for the absurdly wealthy.

But I curious, do you also have problems with people using terms like baby boomers, DINKs evangelicals, soccer moms, "angry white males" Gen X, Gen Y, millenials and other short hands for various cohorts that share ideologies and political outlooks.  Those are always over-generalizations but they gain acceptance because they work.

I can't stop you from banning me.  Its your house. But if this blog is to be more than just an echo chamber for only people who agree with some very authoritarian propositions you've advance, being open to people who aggressively disagree with you is a better approach.

If you think I'm bad you haven't listening to Rush, O'Reilly and those are the folks who are you real enemies.

Jeesh, Olbermann is tougher than me. And he and I agree with  you more often than not.

Virgil Goode is pointing at you and telling his constituents, "See, I told you these were not your people, they think they're better than you are".  

we didn't close our schools when the desegregation decisions were handed down.

We didn't vote for Allen after his Macaca moment by the tens of thousands.

We're not misogynists or homophobes.  And at least in FFX we're not xenophobes.

Is there another standard I should be considering.

You're fighting someone else's fight 2-40 years too late. Welcome to Virginia, we got problems and you don't get points for pointing them out.  Now try to act charming, and if you can't do that just go grab a latte and fume in the corner.  We need cool heads son.

I don't drink coffee. I'm not your son. In fact I'm probably older than you.

I've lived here for 24 years and Virginia problems just keep getting worse. Charm has gotten us nowhere. And the number of heads who have totally lost patience with the shennigans of the RoVa Republicans here in NoVa is legion. Ignore them at your peril.

For example word is making the rounds that the President of GMU and others are advocating the creation of a new university  to be built somewhere in the far southwest of the state. Cost $30-60 million. Distance to NoVa from where most of its student body would be drawn - 8 hours. Why far sw Va? To create economic opportunities for the fastest de-populating  portion of the state.

If anyone thinks that the taxpayers of FFX are going to support that location instead of Culpeper or Warrenton, when we're stuck in bumper to bumper traffic while the Coalfield Expressway (aka the road to oblivion) gets money, they just don't get it.

is to learn how to count.

I don't want to burst your bubble, and I certainly recognize the importance of NOVA to the success of the Democratic Party in Virginia, but with all due respect, the fact of the matter is that of the state's 4.1 million voters, only 867,000 are in NOVA (and that's generous -- I included in the entire 10CD).

On the other hand, some 3.2 million of us make our homes in the part of the state you deride as a ROVA filled with, in the words of Randy Newman, a bunch of rednecks who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

I really don't mind your prejudices concerning me and my neighbors, but for goodness sakes, your lack of math skills is terrifying.  

that's how the South dominated Congress from 1800-1865 despite having a number of voters far smaller than the industrializing  North. The 3/5ths rule helped out a lot also too.

NoVa, defined as the Virginia suburbs of the Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, includes Stafford, Fauquier and Frederick Counties.  That area's population has been growing at about 15% annually since the last census and "rural" Virginia has been depopulating at about 10% annually over the same period.

The combination will severely shift power in the General Assembly in 2011 toward NoVa.  The most recent estimates I saw had  46% of the GA seats in the WMSA after 2011. Add the votes of the Senators and Delegates from Hampton Roads that shares most of the issues of NoVa and its lights out for boondogle earmarks like the Coalfield Expressway and "Galax" University .

So lets do count. Count every person.

BTW at 6'9", my favorite Newman tune, after the theme from the Natural, is of course - Short People

First, I'm not sure how your discussion of the 3/5 rule enters into this at all, or Southern Dominance of Congress in the early days of the U.S.

Even if you define NoVa based on the D.C. MSA (which is dubious, given the cultural and economic divide that you asserted that began this whole thread), the majority of Virginia's population still lives outside NoVa.

So, with a broad brush, you are simply dismissing a majority of Virginia with a lot of, frankly, offensive terms.

Your reaction is exactly the one the GOP hopes to provoke from Tim Kaine and the Democrats. The republicans would like nothing better than to divide this state between NoVa and RoVa, between the haves and the have-nots, between the Yankees that have moved down here from Massachusettes and New York (including me, BTW)  and real Virginians, because in that cultural battle, the GOP will win in this state hands down.

Lastly, I found the fact that you like the song Short People, and your reason for doing so, interesting. I mean, after all, this whole thread is about the your choice of inaccurate stereotypes to denigrate millions of your fellow citizens in this Commonwealth because of a political and economic regional disagreement.

The Newman song, of course, is a satire of these very attitudes.

from "rural" Virginia over the last 24 years to know that the stereotypes are based on multiple experiences amounting to fact.

Like you, when I first moved here I didn't appreciate the cultural divide between rural Va & richmond, Charlottesiville, on the one hand and NoVa and Hampton Roads on the other.

It's like two different planets.  Teddy is right about country slickers and the false promise on the Coalfield Expressway (aka the road to oblivion).  And that's just one example among many that could be cited to you.

It was shocking to deal with these folks as I have during the GA session and in their home towns. The race baiting jokes alone would take your breath away. The misogyny and xenophobia are equally shocking.  The number of times someone took delight in intentionally mispronouncing a name ending in a vowel was terrifying.  These were folks in the GA, working for the GA and lobbying the GA from rural, Richmond and Charlottesville.  It was almost enough to get JMD to switch parties until she married Tom and then there was no way for her to switch. And she went to high school in NoVa and graduated from UVa or JMU. You'd thought she would have been use to it but she was repeatedly offended.

I didn't get it until I read Dominion of Memories and the Sabato and Morse history of the government and politics of Va.

Now I have all my new employees relocating from the north, midwest or west coast read both books within the first 3 months of living here.

The division between NoVA and Rova has existed for 60 years, at least, and it's getting worse.  Senator Macaca thought he could play on it in the "Real Virginia" to get re-elected. He was wrong but in was close. What, 9,000 vote difference?

The population trends which will lead to Hampton Roads and NoVa dominating the GA are our only hope. Otherwise, I will soon relocate my business to PA or NC. I can't afford to stay here if Va isn't going to solve the road shortage and the housing access problem.

And if the GA goes forward with "Abingdon" University, it's completely over.

Newman's song is a satire, no, really? ;-)

because you pointed out that as someone 6'9", you liked the song.

And as a 5'7" (well, 5'6-1/2") guy who loves basketball, I hate you tall guys. :)

Look, my point is I totally understand your frustration as a voter, and I completely understand your attitude as a business owner (I suspect many business owners in NoVa not dependent on proximity to the Federal Government feel the same as you), but demeaning stereotypes are wrong, whether you're doing it about African Americans, or Jews, or Italians, or rural people, or anyone. Can you find members of those groups who are consistent with and/or reinforce those stereotypes? Of course you can -- that's where they came from.

And from a purely political perspective,they are counter-productive.  

between stereotyping that's based on immutable characteristics like ethnicity, race or religion.  People can't change those parts of themselves. That's why bigotry based on those characteristics is so evil and illegal.

The stereotyping I'm doing is based on the ideology, actions, words and behaviors that are subject to change and free will.

No doubt there are folks from those parts of the Commonwealth who don't conform to these attitudes, but as I wrote earlier, they do not make themselves known, and thus allow their localities to be defined by those who re-enforce the stereotype. Like Senator "Macaca".

although, of course, I'd welcome any response you care to make.

Southerners have been stereotyped as racist, stupid hicks for as long as I've been alive. And you know, in a way they deserve it. The South has a tragic and criminal history of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism that was perpetuated for generations.

But, then I think, this same South somehow had the means to overcome that. Yes, it was Southerners who were racist, but I can only stand in awe of the Southerners who were able to rise above that, who were willing to be ostracized by their communities, even their families, to stand up for a principle that by all rights of their upbringing they had no interest believing in the first place.

And despite the jokes you hear, this is the attitude I see tha dominates in the South everyday in the people I see. And I'm not just talking about us Yankees here in C'ville, but folks that I deal with from Fluvannah and Greene counties, among other places.

Is there a fair amount of racism here? Yes. There was just as much where I grew up on Long Island.

Nassua County, NY never closed its school, rented the publicly owned buildings to "Christian" academies and denied African Americans an elementary and secondary education for 2 generations as happened in Va.  The victims of this policy are only in their 40-60s. And the white kids who went to those all white "Christian" academies and are now in their 40-60s have the attitudes one would expect from that experience.

During the same period, for example, the suburbs of Boston organized a voluntary program to provide spaces in their public schools to minority students from the city's schools. Admittedly blacks made up less than 10% of Boston's population at the time but the attitude was 180 degrees different from "massive resistance."

Was an Emmit Till lynch in Garden City in 1955.

Were Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner murdered in Islip in 1963?

Racism was never as virulent or officially sanctioned in Long Island as throughout the South.  That's the line I hear from Southern apologists all the time.  It soporific. Don't fall for it.

Certainly, those who oppose these attitudes in their communities are and were heroes.

Not surprised you found a few of them in the Charlottesville suburbs of Greene and Fluvanna Counties as university towns frequently attract the more tolerant.

This kind of ignorant disrespect should see the light.  We all know it's out there. But I wouldn't want Marty working the voter outreach effort!  Other than that, he's a shining reminder that you'll never bring people into the Big Tent if you don't show them some respect.  

for the desperate problems faced by NoVa from the Republicans of RoVa?

When will they demonstrate a willingness to fix the problems that are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs that keeps them afloat?

Our kids who score better than theirs on the SATs and have clearly demonstraqted they can handle the work but still can't get into UVA, VTEch and JMU because of regional quotas of seats which give weaker students from RoVa seats at those schools that should be going to stronger students from Robinson and Woodson.

And we pay most of the taxes going to those univerities.

We are not one Commonwealth when the Republican RoVa elected officials ignore these inequities.

Maybe Case was right.

allowed development to outpace its own ability to properly serve itself.  Perhaps it was driven by greed of local tax revenues, which then focused on solely providing for excess social needs like the highest quality schools and recreational facilities money could buy, well beyond balancing the financial responsibles to meet other social needs in the region, like electrical power, transportation and affordable housing.  

Now NoVa residents as yourself, sees the emergence of yet another regional problem, and has to turn to Richmond as the responsible party to realign NoVa's crooked path?  Who in RoVA isn't rightfully shaking his or her head at NoVa, when its their rural way of life which serves our needs through farms, interstate highways, power lines and power plants, trash dumps, and prisons?  

Why don't NoVa politicans condemn and seize some of the property w/i its own jurisdictations to ease the constraints it is now facing?  Build themeselves their own power plant.  Grow its own food.  Build its own university.  Our roads will be less congested then.  

NoVa doesn't need any electricity from any power plants in RoVa.  Possum Point in PWC is scheduled to add a sixth and seventh  plant and there are multiple opportunities here where the Columbia gas transmission pipeline intersects Dominion's high tensions lines to build several natural gas fired power plants.

There's more than enough landfills here to take care of our own garbage.  In fact, FFX burns its trash to generate electricity instead of landfilling it.

We've paid most of the taxes to expand VTech, Longwood & Radford as well as build GMU.  If there's to be a new university it better be no further south than Culpeper, maybe Orange, because it will be built with mostly our taxes and filled with mostly our kids.

Our food comes from California and Chile.

Our crime rate is so low we don't need many prison cells.

In every instance you cite in which public bodies have been involved in the locational decision, the location was chosen  to build the power plant, university, prison or landfill to try to prop up the collapsing economy of RoVa and give your kids a reason not to leave town.

Yet even with all of these subsidies by NoVa taxpayers and rate payers, RoVa is still depopulating at an steady rate.

Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy to support all of these investments if there was reciprocity on the transportation and higher education needs of NoVa.

But the Republicans of RoVa don't reciprocate, they just take and take and give NoVa the shaft.

You're right, though, about our NoVa politicians who repeatedly took roads off the planning map.  They should live in eternal infamy.

The only effective roadbuilder was a Republican, the late Jack Herrity, who got the FFX County Pkwy built, the only major new regional road built in NoVa in 30(?) years.

The easy reply is that Nova does need power from outside its castle walls.

Possum Point is a filthy plant and several of its generators run only intermittently because they are fired by distilled petrol and diesel.  Only when the grid is maxxed do they run at the behest of Dominion.  

Secondly, your friends in Alexandria are forcing Mirant's plant out of business.  Its the predictable future being that the coal plant is already pushing 70 years old.  With DC shutting down its two last plants, NOVA needs the intermittent infamous Mt. Storm coal-fired 1500MW to blast 24/7 via 500kw of high-voltage transmission thru RoVA just to keep pace, or everything from the beltway in will have a blackout.  After that, NoVA will have reliable and cheap uninterrupted electricity in 2016, while ROVA enjoys the fresh smell of steam generated from an expanded North Anna nuclear station.

While there might be proposals of expanding two more peaking plants at Possum Point, although I have not seen them from DVP, apparently you are unaware that a new 500kv extra-high voltage line is planned to export ~1500MW of electricity out to southern Maryland then up to southern Jersey, because environmentalist have already forced the un-profitability of seven (7) power plants in NJ.  How nice huh?

In 2000, NOVA cried for more power so it could develop what Steve Case and his tech bubble pals needed, and Fauquier County became Dominion's victim with a very large, 1200MW  peaking plant.  After the 500kv line is up and exporting Possoum Point, Fauquier will have its back and run 24/7.

Now Warren County is next in line to serve NoVa.  Dominion just bought the rights to a 600 MW gas proposal there.  

Lorton landfill is also getting full and you should know, not everything goes into Covanta's plant off exit 163.  The rest of it goes to Tappahannock County, as does DC and occasional loads from anywhere from DC clear up from Long Island, NY.

Importing food from China and Chile is going to be something of a historic reference your kid's will tell their grandkids.  I think the only thing we get now from China, as far as food goes, is apple juice and shrimp.  

If its roads you want for Fairfax County, you should support a politican with a lead foot.  FFX Pkwy was the saving grace for Jack who compiled 10+ speeding tickets during his tenure at supv driving in FFX Co roads.  

I'm sure you have been around a long time.  You should know a deep divide b/n political parties and their supporters, yields nothing short of ineffective policymaking.

If politically efficacious voters want Richmond to shape up, then they need to mirror those desires on blogs and in their delay lives.  We as a nation are closer to civil war then we are to progress.  

Va. Supreme Court ruled it a vested right last year.  Rumor has it that Mirant & Alexandria are negotiating their differences.

I wrote food from California not China.

My point is NoVa has or can build all of the power plants it needs in No Va.  The Commonwealth, through the SCC, chose to put them in RoVa to spread the economic opportunities and the accompanying r/e estate taxes into areas where there are limited economic growth. But this locational decision makes the transmission costs more expensive because of the need for hundreds of miles of high tension lines which the ratepayers, mostly in NoVa, have to subsidize.

Same thing with the landfills which can go almost anywhere. Especially anywhere which once was a gravel pit and there's lots of diabase surface mines here in NoVa.

I'm fine with sending these economic opportunities to RoVa but there's got to be reciprocity in solving NoVa problems.  There isn't.

That's the problem, no reciprocity.

yes, the feds intervened with an emergency order and a settlement has been recently reached.  But nothing will keep that plant operating forever, especially with C02 regulation around the corner and growing disdane of 60+ year old coal plants by regulators.  

My bet is a request early next decade, with a decommission set late next decade, just as Wise County and North Anna connect to the grid.  Good news for Alexandria residents, bad news for RoVA, and no new baseline power plant is possible w/i NoVA.  Imagine the protest, the ensuing costly legal process.  I think urban power plant are a bad idea - look at Mirant for example.  Its too close to too many people and its a proven fact, urbanites don't want them.  They are organized against them, they have money and they are politically effcacious - all things RoVA is not.  

I know of at least one NoVa jurisdiction that has told several land owners that it would be happy to see a natural gas fired power plant built instead of the proposed 2000 houses that the elected officilas don't want.

The higher r/e taxes from the power plant is the attraction in this jurisdiction with a low percentage of its r/e tax base being non-residential.

Also, we'll see how efficacious the NoVa folks are in stopping the Loudoun/Fauquier high tension line.  Any bets on that?  

The only such offer to ever surface, as far as I have read, is the gentleman who owns a plot of land near the Arcola substation in eastern Loudoun.  The acreage is too small considering what is around it, and it deemed a threat to Dulles's flight paths.  In residential areas, power plants typically need taller stacks to keep the air quality cleaner downwind at the surface.  Someone at the federal level thinks tired nighttime airline pilots, might mistaken the blinking lights on a taller smokestack as a jet runaway.

LS Power through out an offer to build 800MW gas powerplant plan in the Wellington area outside of Manassas.  PW county owns the land and is looking to sell it.  Being a pro-growth county already riddled the financial burden of poor planning, a power plant is just what the doctor ordered, according to Republican board members.  

A bet on the powerline?  Man, its not looking good, although they are trying valiantly.  We have a huge problem and are close to be screwed.  Energy CEO's need to get out an engage the public or blog.  (I'd post Dominion's blog address but it might get overwhelmed with angry posters. )  

I am glad that Republicans refused to compromise.  I'm also ecstatic that Governor Kaine called this unproductive special session.  Winners all around!  Pop open the champagne, another year and we are still left empty handed!  Cheers to keeping the roads congested and failing to make repairs!  We're happy to pick up the tab in higher car maintenance fees!  And hey!  Hidden economic incentive package - the keep NoVA's garages full package!

We can still sell the rest of our transportation infrastructure to Transurban.  And they can maintain it.  Oh so many great options!  I should start writing my thank you cards to the General Assembly members.