The daffodils are blooming, the robins are singing, and the state’s largest utility company has filed what could become an annual rite of spring: a report on corporate responsibility.

In a first-ever report mailed to a small group of media professionals (and available on the company’s Web site), Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion’s chairman, president and CEO, makes this point in his opening message: “Straight talk about all aspects of making, moving and selling energy has never been more urgent … Accelerated economic growth, which raises the demand for energy, lives side-by-side with heightened scrutiny, even skepticism, about the way utilities produce power and the effects upon the environment.”

That certainly seems to be the case in Virginia. Dominion Virginia Power has an application pending before the State Corporation Commission for a new coal-fired plant in Wise County. The company says the plant is needed to meet increased energy demands. Yet, it’s opposed by some area residents and environmental groups who say it will be a major polluter in a region that depends heavily on ecotourism.

The proposed plant is one of several initiatives Dominion mentions in its colorful, 36-page document titled “Dimensions 2008: A Report to Stakeholders on Values, Goals & Performance.” There’s plenty of charts and data. Dominion serves more than 5 million customers in 11 states with a $39 billion energy network supplying 26,500 megawatts of electricity — or enough to serve nearly 7 million households — and 1 trillion cubic feet equivalent or natural gas reserves.

Besides the obvious public relations value, the report contains helpful and informative tidbits.  For instance, readers are told they can check the company’s political contributions at the Web site of the Federal Election Commission at http://www.fec.gov/index.  The report also discloses how stakeholders can communicate with company directors. 

It lays out the business plan for responding to more market demand for renewable energy sources. And readers can see where Dominion stands on everything from safety (there were three fatalities in 2007) to diversity (minorities represent 16.8 percent of its 16,989-member work force) and philanthropy (its foundation donated nearly $16 million to nonprofits last year). 

You can see the report on the Internet at http://www.dom.com/dimensions.

As if the economic news isn’t bad enough, wholesale power prices are going up, too. They rose 6 to 11 percent in most regions of the country in 2007. That’s the word from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in its annual State of the Markets Report released yesterday.

The biggest increases came in the Midwest, boosted by higher loads and congestion. Not much new electric generation came online this year, the report said, with wind and natural gas accounting for three-quarters of new capacity.  Across the country, proposals for several coal-fired plants were dropped, reflecting uncertainty about the future treatment of carbon-dioxide emissions.

In Virginia, the fate of a new $1.8 billion, 585-megawatt coal plant proposed by Dominion Virginia Power remains unclear. The state’s Air Pollution Control Board voted yesterday to take control over the permitting process to ensure strict limits on pollutants, a move Dominion fears will lead to costly delays.

“Virginia is the second-largest importer of electricity in the country, behind only California, and there is an urgent need to build dependable electric generation facilities in the state,” Dominion responded in a statement. “Building more generation … is essential to stabilizing costs for customers over the long run and enhancing energy security.”

Price caps have kept electric costs relatively stable here. However, they will be reviewed next year by the General Assembly and could come off by 2010. In July, Virginia Business will do a special report on energy, updating readers on issues in the fast-changing power industry.

If two minds are better than one, then leaders from 15 businesses should be a formidable group.

Companies in the Tidewater and Richmond regions have formed the Virginia Business Excellence Consortium – Southeast to share best practices and promote economic growth in the commonwealth.

The group, which includes companies such as Ukrop’s, Capital One and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding – Newport News, formed to help businesses improve their own processes, operations and employee skills through the advice of their peers.

The idea came from a recent survey commissioned by Virginia’s Philpott Manufacturing Extension Partnership and conducted by Chmura Economics & Analytics. It revealed that many Virginia manufacturers said they could not meet some of their most vital needs, such as business growth and quality management systems, through traditional measures.

The group has 15 founding companies and is self-governed and self-funded. It is open to companies of any size and in any industry. The group expects other consortia to be formed in other regions of Virginia.

So it appears lawmakers have reached an agreement on a $77 billion budget after tenacious negotiations.

However, what the budget contains is not as important to many Virginians as what it does not — a transportation funding plan to replace the fledgling one passed last year. It seems legislators will need to return to Richmond for a special session to craft a compromise.

But will legislators have any more luck than they did in the previous battle to reach compromise last year? Will they be able to avoid the 246-day, taxpayer-funded over time of 2006?

The Washington Post has a good story about how difficult finding a solution might be in the current political environment. The outlook isn’t good. With gubernatorial and delegate elections next year, candidates may be looking out more for their political future than Virginians stuck in traffic.

by Robert Powell

The most dramatic moment at Sunday’s Richmond premiere of “John Adams” occurred before the TV mini-series was screened.

An organist was warming up the crowd in the 80-year-old Byrd Theatre when suddenly the music stopped and the lights went out. A theater manager announced that the Byrd had suffered a power outage and appealed for calm. Suddenly, a figure waving a flashlight bounded onto the darkened stage. It was Tom Hanks, the Oscar-winning actor and executive producer of “John Adams.”

“Virginia has survived for 300 years,” he said, holding the flashlight aloft like a candle. “You can survive a few moments of a power outage.  Remain not just calm but convivial.”

The audience whooped and cheered (although a few politely noted that Virginia is actually 400 years old). The outage was brief, and the show went on. But many in the crowd, which included members of the movie’s cast and crew, may have seen a metaphor in the lights going out on a Virginia movie premiere.

A new war between the states is brewing, and this time the objectives are film productions like “John Adams.” The seven-part HBO mini-series is based on David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of the Massachusetts patriot who became the nation’s second president. Most of the filming took place in Virginia, generating $80 million in economic activity.

Virginia got the film by offering Hanks and his fellow producers $1.25 million in incentives. The Massachusetts legislature was so angry about losing the project that it enacted the most generous incentives for film productions in the country. As a result, Virginia native Richard Kelly is filming much of his movie, “The Box,” in Boston, although the story is set in Virginia. The Daily Press in Newport News dubbed the Virginia’s reversal of fortune “the Revenge of John Adams.”

In fact, members of Virginia’s film industry have worried for years about the increasing competitiveness of state incentive programs. Efforts to boost Virginia’s incentives have gotten tepid support from the General Assembly. This year, two bills proposed tax credits equaling 15 percent of the money film makers spend in Virginia. Both were set aside.

One piece of legislation affecting the film industry did survive. That bill extends until 2019 a break on state sales taxes for filmmakers buying goods in the state.

Rita McClenny, the head of Virginia’s film office, says the state is currently in the hunt for eight movies. How many will it get without incentives? “None of them,” she says.