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The new Virginia governor is quickly getting to work on her affordability platform by...wait for it...raising energy taxes.
Washington Examiner (1/21/26) editorial: "California has the highest energy and housing costs in the continental United States, the nation’s highest unemployment and poverty rates, and multibillion-dollar deficits as far as the state’s legislative analyst office can see. But Abigail Spanberger, who has just been sworn in as the new governor of Virginia, has apparently seen these results and has decided she wants to inflict on her state exactly what California has suffered under Democratic management... Spanberger also signed an 'affordability' executive order directing all state agencies to identify policies that 'will reduce costs for Virginians.' But we already know from her election campaign what those policies are, and they all will raise costs for Virginians, not lower them... On energy, Spanberger plans to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate carbon cap-and-tax program that will raise electricity prices by hundreds of billions of dollars."
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And her wonder twin, Gov. Sherrill, opts for price controls in New Jersey.
New York Post (1/22/26) reports: "Shortly after New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill was sworn into office Tuesday, she signed two executive orders declaring a state of emergency to 'freeze' utility costs and rapidly ramp up power generation. The goal is to combat soaring electricity prices in the Garden State, which spiked as much as 20% for some residents over the summer, and quickly emerged as a potent issue in the 2025 campaign... 'It’s probably the most disastrous energy policy I’ve seen a politician suggest in my lifetime,' Alex Stevens, manager of Policy and Communications at the Institute for Energy Research, told the Post. 'Prices are the sharpest signal that markets send, and it’s really the only way that so many people engaging in an economy can coordinate supply and demand,' he continued. 'If you impose price controls or ceilings, you basically blind everybody from the information about where supply needs to increase.'”
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Meanwhile, in sensible states...
The Center Square (1/22/26) reports: "Six state attorneys general called on the nonprofit climate company Ceres, Inc. to halt all conduct they say is in violation of antitrust and consumer protection laws. The attorneys general, led by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, sent a letter to Ceres’ CEO Mindy Lubber calling on the company to refrain from its efforts to 'transform industries' and achieve 'systemic change' by pressuring companies into ESG investments... 'Ceres’ efforts to artificially move entire markets and sectors – and in turn artificially change the output and quality of the goods and services produced by those sectors – toward Ceres’ own preferred policy goals bears all the trappings of the adverse, anticompetitive effects that antitrust laws seek to prevent,' the attorneys general wrote in a letter."
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Energy Markets
WTI Crude Oil: ↑ $60.92
Natural Gas: ↑ $5.13
Gasoline: ↑ $2.86
Diesel: ↑ $3.55
Heating Oil: ↑ $242.81
Brent Crude Oil: ↑ $65.70
US Rig Count: ↓ 570 |
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Energy Bad Boys: U.S. Generating Capacity Since 2004: Firm vs. Intermittent
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The Unregulated Podcast #260: Escape from Virginia
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