It was tiresome reading in last week’s paper yet another article complaining about how Virginia Democrats are raising costs. This complaint is neither factual nor useful. The call to cut local and state taxes somehow never mentions what people would lose if those taxes were reduced (no more libraries, paying teachers less?). Perhaps they are meant simply to rile people up. But it must be obvious to everyone that the war in Iran and its tremendous associated costs must be paid for by someone. Plus, with federal buildings being torn down, new buildings going up, new fleets of ships and airplanes being built and bought and illegal tariffs needing to be repaid, money needs to come from somewhere. The U.S. national debt just passed $40 trillion! Some may think that these federal government actions are worth it, but no one can reasonably suggest that they are not the primary reason for our rising cost of living. Complaining that it’s due to state Democratic legislators is simply inaccurate and wrong.
With this past Virginia legislative session behind us, it’s easy to see that the legislature was very moderate in its actions. No major new taxes were raised, and the state has made progress in helping the very needy. For just one example, many working women now will have the financial ability to become mothers! Isn’t that a good thing?
One anti-Democrat complaint is that Virginia will be turning to renewable energy – and that it’s too expensive. All around the world, countries are investing in renewables as the cheapest way to develop new energy supplies. Solar is the single most important source of new energy internationally. Some may argue that somehow the U.S. is different. But arguing against solar, including in the United States, is arguing against saving money. Let’s compare our situation to that in Texas – obviously a state dominated by conservative legislators. During the first half of 2026, Texas added new power plants producing about 2,200 megawatts of solar, with about another 3,000 megawatts of battery storage. Virginia added only about 300 megawatts combined of solar and battery storage. This isn’t good – it is holding us back. We made woeful progress toward adding energy capacity compared to our very conservative sibling state, even though Texas has plenty of its own oil and gas resources. It certainly wasn’t the Democrats in Texas that made its solar development happen.
For what appears as purely partisan rhetoric, anti-renewable energy advocates claim that adding renewables will add expense for many years. Never mentioned is that after an initial investment, the fuel is free! Costs should eventually stabilize and drop. In contrast, let’s look at what has been happening as we’ve relied on gas and coal. Costs have skyrocketed! And coal and natural gas are never going to be free.
Those of us who have been paying utility bills have been experiencing much greater increases than general inflation. One estimate is that in Virginia electricity costs have increased between 80 and 95% over the rate of inflation for the past 20 years.
So why does anyone want to keep depending on fuels that have consistently risen in price and promise to increase costs even faster going forward? What do all the other nations know who are controlling costs by turning to solar?
Of course, there is a need for an initial investment – and we can lament that we didn’t make that investment much earlier (perhaps following the Texas example?). But because of 2025 legislation that secularized fossil fuel costs, we will be paying for past oil and coal related expenses for a long time (certainly the opposite of investing in the future!). The longer we wait, the longer it will be until the cost of electricity stabilizes and even drops. Better than complaining that change is bad, and that the old ways (even as they increased our costs) were good, let’s embrace the opportunity to move forward and put money in our pockets. Texas is doing this – why not us?
