Think Tanks
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Manhattan Institute Issues Commentary to Arena Magazine: Great Eighties Wall Street Bonanza
NEW YORK, Dec. 11 -- The Manhattan Institute issued the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 8, 2025, to Arena Magazine:
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The Great Eighties Wall Street Bonanza
By Judge Glock
Misremembered excerpts from the start of modern investing
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"It was a vast space, perhaps sixty by eighty feet, but with the same eight-foot ceiling bearing down on your head. It was an oppressive space with a ferocious glare, writhing silhouettes, and the roar...The writhing silhouettes were the arms and torsos of young men, few of them older than forty. They had their suit jackets off. They were moving
... Show Full Article
NEW YORK, Dec. 11 -- The Manhattan Institute issued the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 8, 2025, to Arena Magazine:
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The Great Eighties Wall Street Bonanza
By Judge Glock
Misremembered excerpts from the start of modern investing
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"It was a vast space, perhaps sixty by eighty feet, but with the same eight-foot ceiling bearing down on your head. It was an oppressive space with a ferocious glare, writhing silhouettes, and the roar...The writhing silhouettes were the arms and torsos of young men, few of them older than forty. They had their suit jackets off. They were movingabout in an agitated manner and sweating early in the morning and shouting, which created the roar...The room was like a newspaper city room in that there were no partitions and no signs of visible rank. Everyone sat at light gray metal desks in front of veal-colored computer terminals with black screens. Rows of green-diode letters and numbers came skidding across."
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Thus Tom Wolfe in Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) described a Wall Street trading room.
The images of Wall Street in the eighties are forever engraved on the public consciousness. Besides the young men screaming at trading desks, there is the executive with his car phone in the back seat of a black stretch limousine flying through Manhattan's streets; a corporate raider with slick-backed hair and suspenders over a striped shirt pontificating while staring out of the plate glass window; exultant brokers running around the New York Stock Exchange floor surrounded by crumpled order sheets. The images convey ambition and excitement in equal measure.
Continue reading the entire piece on Arena Magazine (https://arenamag.com/articles/the-great-eighties-wall-street-bonanza)
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Judge Glock is the director of research and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at City Journal.
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Original text here: https://manhattan.institute/article/the-great-eighties-wall-street-bonanza
[Category: ThinkTank]
Ifo Institute: Companies in Germany Investing Less
MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 11 -- ifo Institute issued the following news release:
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Companies in Germany Investing Less
Companies in Germany have significantly reduced their investment plans. Investment expectations for the current year fell to -9.2 points in November, down from 2.4 points in March. "The profound structural shift and the lack of attractiveness of Germany as a business location are slowing down the companies' willingness to invest," says ifo economic expert Lara Zarges. "The continuing uncertainty regarding economic policy conditions is further increasing the reluctance to invest."
... Show Full Article
MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 11 -- ifo Institute issued the following news release:
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Companies in Germany Investing Less
Companies in Germany have significantly reduced their investment plans. Investment expectations for the current year fell to -9.2 points in November, down from 2.4 points in March. "The profound structural shift and the lack of attractiveness of Germany as a business location are slowing down the companies' willingness to invest," says ifo economic expert Lara Zarges. "The continuing uncertainty regarding economic policy conditions is further increasing the reluctance to invest."With a balance of -3.1 points, the investment expectations for the coming year are nevertheless not quite as pessimistic as they are for this year.
Manufacturing companies are lowering their investment expectations for the cur-rent year the most. The indicator fell in November to -17.3 points, down from +4 points in March. Expectations fell especially in vehicle manufacturing, from -11.4 to -36.7 points. The chemical industry also lowered its plans from +21.0 points to -9.4 points in November. Expectations in mechanical engineering deteriorated from +0.9 points in March to -15.3 points in November.
Manufacturing companies are also planning to reduce their investments in the coming year, although the balance of -6.9 points is higher than for 2025. Chemi-cal companies are particularly pessimistic (-15.8 points). Vehicle manufacturing, on the other hand, does not expect to further reduce its investments (-1.3 points). In contrast to previous years, in which automotive manufacturers always increased their investments in software and research and development for the following year, they are cutting their plans for 2026 (-10.6 and -10.4 points). By contrast, they do want to invest slightly more in equipment (2.9 points). Manu-facturers of data processing equipment, electronic and optical products are the only industry sector planning to increase investments across all capital goods in the coming year. The expansion of research and development spending in par-ticular is driving their positive outlook for the coming year (13.1 points).
Investment expectations are also falling in trade, from -10.1 to -13.1 points for the current year, and companies also remain pessimistic for the coming year at -9.7 points. Service providers have likewise significantly lowered their plans for the current year, from +4.9 points to -3.1 points. They are the most optimistic for 2026 (1.1 points).
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More Information
Survey (https://www.ifo.de/en/facts/2025-12-10/companies-germany-investing-less)
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Original text here: https://www.ifo.de/en/press-release/2025-12-10/companies-germany-investing-less
[Category: ThinkTank]
Capital Research Center: Inspired by the TEA Party, Indivisible Has Become the Weak Tea Party
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Inspired by the TEA Party, Indivisible has become the Weak Tea Party
They don't talk about it anymore, but the left-wing advocacy network that has its fingerprints on the No Kings protests and other demonstrations was founded as an attempt to replicate the "Taxed Enough Already" movement.
By Ken Braun
Next week (Tuesday, December 16) will mark the 252nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Beginning in 2009, another group of patriots organized against bank bailouts, the passage of the
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Inspired by the TEA Party, Indivisible has become the Weak Tea Party
They don't talk about it anymore, but the left-wing advocacy network that has its fingerprints on the No Kings protests and other demonstrations was founded as an attempt to replicate the "Taxed Enough Already" movement.
By Ken Braun
Next week (Tuesday, December 16) will mark the 252nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Beginning in 2009, another group of patriots organized against bank bailouts, the passage of theAffordable Care Act, and big government in general. As an homage to history, they called themselves the "TEA Party," the "TEA" being an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already."
The 1773 Tea Party was obviously successful in the long run, but for the TEA Party, history's judgment is less clear. They are widely credited with the 2010 Republican takeover of Congress, but afterwards they forgot what "TEA" stood for and got bogged down in social issues and "birther" conspiracy theories.
Even the TEA Party's detractors give them credit for that early success. One of these is Indivisible. The left-wing pressure group has been at the forefront of the "No Kings" protests and other demonstrations this year against Trump, Tesla, federal crime suppression in the nation's capital, and whatever else the supposedly awful orange old man is up to.
Indivisible traces its founding back to the first Trump administration, and its inspiration was the TEA Party.
Following Trump's first election win in November 2016, a group that described themselves as "former progressive congressional staffers who saw the Tea Party beat back President Obama's agenda," released Indivisible: A Practical Guide For Resisting the Trump Agenda.
The first section of the Indivisible guide is an argument that the left-wing should replicate what the TEA Party accomplished. It is often ill-informed and insulting regarding what made the TEA Party tick, failing, for example, to properly identify, let alone explain the "TEA" acronym.
But the Indivisible authors also provided backhanded compliments to the movement they were hoping to emulate:
The authors of this guide are former congressional staffers who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party. We saw these activists take on a popular president with a mandate for change and a supermajority in Congress. We saw them organize locally and convince their own members of Congress to reject President Obama's agenda. Their ideas were wrong, cruel, and tinged with racism - and they won.
We believe that protecting our values and neighbors will require mounting a similar resistance to the Trump agenda - but a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness. Trump is not popular. He does not have a mandate. He does not have large congressional majorities. If a small minority in the Tea Party can stop President Barack Obama, then we the majority can stop a petty tyrant named Trump.
Did they succeed?
Obviously, the Trump agenda, while resisted by Indivisible and others since late 2016, is back with us. Which brings us to Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink, the 2024 revision of the 2016 Indivisible guide. To confront what they call "Trump 2.0," the Indivisible team had to concede past failures:
But the painful 30,000-foot reality we see clearly in the results is that we simply were not able to convince enough people that the threat posed by Trump to democracy, to abortion, and to all our rights and freedoms outweighed their frustration with the status quo.
What this means for our next steps. Let's be real: Trump won a narrow victory in the swing states. It feels shattering because we hoped to see a national rejection; instead, he made gains.
And then there's this. The phrase "Tea Party" appears 24 times in the first Indivisible guide, and four times on the first page, but does not appear even one time in the 2024 update. The historical template Indivisible was built to replicate has been totally scrubbed. Indivisible's effort to replicate the success of the actual TEA Party appears to have created a "Weak Tea Party."
On one level, however, Indivisible has been a resounding success. Since its founding, the Indivisible advocacy empire has raised at least $145 million.
So, it should not be ignored.
Indivisible network coverage at InfluenceWatch includes the following:
* The Indivisible Project (Indivisible) - the advocacy nonprofit
* Indivisible Civics--the educational nonprofit
* Indivisible Action--the political action committee
* There are also dozens of profiles of local Indivisible groups.
* Opposition to Nuclear Energy
Here are some examples of Indivisible coverage from the Capital Research Center:
* No Kings? More like "no electricity"
* InfluenceWatch 2025: The year's top ten influencers
* "Indivisibly" Divided: Faux-Insurgents for the Professional Left
* The Groups and Persons Mentioned in Time's "Shadow Campaign" Article
* The Activist Left Turns Its Fire on Amy Coney Barrett
* Leftist "Dark Money" Activists Target America's Courts
* Activists Hold "Impeachment Now" Rally Outside U.S. Capitol
* Another NeverTrump Network Is Receiving Left-wing Cash
* The New Leaders Council Is Training Tomorrow's Revolutionaries Today
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Ken Braun
As managing editor and director of content of CRC, Ken Braun edits Capital Research magazine. He also conducts investigative research and drafts profiles for InfluenceWatch.org.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/inspired-by-the-tea-party-indivisible-has-become-the-weak-tea-party/
[Category: ThinkTank]
CSIS Issues Commentary: Experts React - The NSS and Washington's New Approach to the Western Hemisphere
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Experts React: The NSS and Washington's New Approach to the Western Hemisphere
By Ryan C. Berg, P. Michael McKinley, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Juan Cruz and Eric Farnsworth
Last week, the Trump administration released its second National Security Strategy (NSS) document. The document is less a blueprint for action than it is a statement of the administration's ambitions for the world it would like to see. What emerges immediately upon review of the document is an
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The Center for Strategic and International Studies issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Experts React: The NSS and Washington's New Approach to the Western Hemisphere
By Ryan C. Berg, P. Michael McKinley, Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Juan Cruz and Eric Farnsworth
Last week, the Trump administration released its second National Security Strategy (NSS) document. The document is less a blueprint for action than it is a statement of the administration's ambitions for the world it would like to see. What emerges immediately upon review of the document is anarticulation of the administration's intense focus on the Western Hemisphere. Below, CSIS Americas Program experts react to various elements of the 2025 NSS.
Paradigm Shift: Western Hemisphere Priorities in the 2025 NSS
Ryan C. Berg, Director, Americas Program
In many ways, the NSS concretizes what Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined in an article for the Wall Street Journal regarding an "Americas First Foreign Policy." As a region, the Western Hemisphere features prominently. In NSS documents past, the Western Hemisphere receives nary two pages of treatment, while in this iteration, it receives four. Furthermore, the Western Hemisphere is the first region addressed, suggesting its prominence in the Trump administration's strategy and defense of the homeland. The document also highlights the administration's three priority areas--drugs, migration, and great power adversaries in the United States' shared neighborhood.
Stepping back, the 2025 NSS suggests the United States believes it is in the "consolidation phase" of the contest between great powers in the twenty-first century, following past National Security Strategies that declared the dawn of great power competition, then divided the world between autocracies and democracies. In the consolidation phase, rival powers are likely girding themselves, solidifying their immediate neighborhoods, demanding more of their alliances, and institutionalizing the competitive environment across diplomatic, economic, technological, and military domains. The 2025 NSS appears to speak to these concerns.
Perhaps the biggest announcement is the assertion of a "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, which seeks to deny extra-hemispheric competitors the ability to threaten the U.S. homeland from the Western Hemisphere. The document decries past failures to push back on extra-hemispheric competitors in the Western Hemisphere, presaging a more assertive and involved United States than in decades past.
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How to Read the NSS and Its Policy Influence
P. Michael McKinley, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Americas Program
NSS documents should be taken seriously. They lay out how an administration sees the priorities, aspirations, and challenges for the foreign policy of the United States at a given point in time. The NSS released on December 5 by the White House does just that, and something more: It formalizes the move underway from more global objectives to the primacy of an U.S. security strategy that focuses on national economic resiliency, borders, and defense.
This NSS therefore mirrors the significant shift in foreign policy priorities since the beginning of the year. "Liberation Day" on April 2, 2025, changed the relationship of the global economy with the U.S. market, now more intent on internal transformation. Both the Pacific and trans-Atlantic security alliances have had to address the concerns of the administration about burden-sharing, and there is a greater emphasis by the United States on security in the Western Hemisphere. The United States is also changing the way it interacts with the international multilateral system on several transnational issues, as it also cuts overseas assistance to focus on domestic priorities. No region in the world is likely to experience the emerging nexus of U.S. national and foreign policy priorities more than the Western Hemisphere.
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Counternarcotics as a Central Pillar of U.S. Strategy in the Western Hemisphere
Christopher Hernandez-Roy, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Americas Program
For an administration that has made stopping the flow of illegal drugs to the United States a centerpiece of its foreign policy, whether by applying early tariffs on Canada and Mexico to get them to do more to combat fentanyl trafficking, and more recently, deploying an armada to the southern Caribbean to eliminate alleged drug boats carrying cocaine, it is fitting that the NSS should explicitly declare that it will protect Americans from the scourge of drugs.
The NSS seeks to enlist regional champions in the Western Hemisphere to stop drug flows and neutralize cartels. Countries that answer the call will be rewarded with nearshoring investments and other economic opportunities. For many countries in the region plagued by unprecedented levels of violence related to transnational criminal activity, greater counter-narcotics cooperation with the United States is welcome, so long as it is rules-based and centered on reciprocity and respect for sovereignty. Countries should frame the cooperation as a shared responsibility, emphasizing that while the flow of drugs moves north, weapons and illicit finance move south, leaving victims in both geographies. The U.S.-Mexico Security Implementation Group, established by the two countries through an agreement reached in early September, offers a possible model.
Rather than wait and react to U.S. pressure, partners should be proactive and offer to serve as regional champions, tabling integrated cooperation proposals that combine enforcement with intelligence sharing, target illicit finance, harden ports and borders, and improve chemical controls. Several partners, including Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago, have already declared Tren de Aragua or the Cartel de los Soles to be terrorist organizations, signaling an alignment with Washington and a desire to increase counter-drug cooperation. A spate of recent elections and those in 2026 are likely to bring to power more Washington-friendly governments that will find a willing partner on security cooperation.
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Understanding the "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine
Juan Cruz, Senior Adviser (Non-resident), Americas Program and Director, Argentina-U.S. Strategic Forum
While the 2025 NSS explicitly declares that the United States will "assert and enforce a 'Trump Corollary' to the Monroe Doctrine," it may not, in fact, represent a meaningful shift toward the Western Hemisphere, per se, but instead merely articulate an America First foreign policy. The strategy codifies the Trump campaign platform, puts words into practice, and elevates counternarcotics to a national security imperative to secure U.S. borders, control transit routes, stop drug flows, and neutralize and defeat cartels before they reach the U.S. homeland. Directly tied to narrow and specific U.S. interests, as they relate to the Western Hemisphere, the strategy resoundingly concentrates all tools--military being essential here--to promote a forward-leaning, pragmatic, and tightly defined agenda that defends U.S. territory, guarantees security of its citizens, and protects U.S. economic and commercial interests.
Focusing on the transactional, the strategy pinpoints the dynamics within the region that intersect with U.S. security, economic, and geopolitical concerns and signals not so much a renewed hemispheric vision, but a clearer and more disciplined assertion of current national security imperatives framed through an America First lens. What's more, in addition to securing U.S. borders and controlling and deterring illegal and unwanted migration, the Trump administration prioritizes strengthening select regional security partnerships aimed at disrupting drug trafficking, dismantling transnational criminal organizations and networks, and reducing illicit flows, as well as advancing commercial diplomacy for the protection of critical assets, supply chains, and key infrastructure from influence by hostile non-hemispheric competitors (e.g., China, Iran, and Russia).
This strategy establishes U.S. preeminence in the region, sets expectations for friends and adversaries alike, and makes clear that the United States will not hesitate to aggressively use its military might to counter narcotics trafficking. Moreover, it conveys that the American people deserve the best and underscores that "allowing these incursions without serious pushback is another great American strategic mistake of recent decade." This comment, without doubt, sends a message to Beijing to keep its hands off the Western Hemisphere.
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U.S.-China Economic Competition and Economic Security Initiatives in Latin America
Eric Farnsworth, Senior Associate (Non-resident), Americas Program
The document not only highlights China's growing presence across the region but explicitly says the United States will resist it. In particular, Washington will take a much more aggressive posture to deny China access to strategic assets considered dual-use in nature (e.g., ports). Efforts to reframe security issues around the Panama Canal, deep space tracking capabilities in Argentina, and amplified focus on the procurement of U.S. or U.S.-adjacent military and cyber products are consistent with this new approach. So, too, are efforts to stanch the flow of fentanyl supply from China through Mexico and strengthening provisions in trade agreements, including the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, to extricate China from regional supply chains.
On trade, the region should anticipate greater efforts at the customs level to reduce transshipments of products from China and the continued use of tariffs from the Trump administration as leverage. Meanwhile, a focused effort to encourage private sector-led investment in the region to recapture momentum from China is fully consistent with the administration's regional engagement and economic security strategy.
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Original text here: https://www.csis.org/analysis/experts-react-nss-and-washingtons-new-approach-western-hemisphere
[Category: ThinkTank]
American Action Forum Issues Commentary: Meeting AI Data Center Power Demand in Virginia - Challenges Posed by Carbon-free Electricity Regulations
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Meeting AI Data Center Power Demand in Virginia: Challenges Posed by Carbon-free Electricity Regulations
By Shuting Pomerleau and Irene Ko
Executive Summary
* The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) mandates that Dominion Energy achieve carbon-free electricity by 2045, though it includes a provision allowing exemptions if the utility demonstrates that compliance would threaten service reliability.
* With Dominion's projected summer peak load growing by 70 percent between 2022-2045, primarily
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Meeting AI Data Center Power Demand in Virginia: Challenges Posed by Carbon-free Electricity Regulations
By Shuting Pomerleau and Irene Ko
Executive Summary
* The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) mandates that Dominion Energy achieve carbon-free electricity by 2045, though it includes a provision allowing exemptions if the utility demonstrates that compliance would threaten service reliability.
* With Dominion's projected summer peak load growing by 70 percent between 2022-2045, primarilydriven by soaring demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, the company indicated in its recent filings that it does not appear viable to fully retire fossil fuel generation to meet VCEA compliance by 2045--a conclusion supported by a separate study commissioned by the commonwealth.
* This insight examines the tension between VCEA mandates and the rapid growth of AI data center demand, showing why current carbon-free targets are likely unachievable; it recommends that lawmakers shift toward a market-based framework to better address both capacity needs and decarbonization goals.
Introduction
The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) mandates that Dominion Energy --the dominant electric company in Virginia--provide 100-percent carbon-free electricity by 2045, though it includes a provision allowing exemptions if the utility demonstrates that compliance would threaten service reliability.
Dominion projects that summer peak load will increase by 70 percent between 2022-2045, primarily driven by soaring demand from artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. It has thus indicated in its recent filings that it does not appear viable to fully retire fossil fuel generation to meet VCEA requirements by 2045. This conclusion is supported by a separate 2023 study commissioned by the commonwealth, which found that fossil fuel resources are an inescapable component of the projected capacity mix to meet energy demand in Virginia.
This insight examines the tension between VCEA mandates and the rapid growth of AI data center demand, showing why current carbon-free targets are likely unachievable. It recommends that lawmakers consider shifting toward a market-based framework that better addresses both growing capacity needs and decarbonization goals.
Virginia--A Global Top Data Center Market
Virginia, which some analysts have dubbed "Data Center Alley," is leading the global market for data centers by a large margin. The commonwealth is home to over 600 data centers, most of which are concentrated in the northern part of the commonwealth. This is primarily due to the region's flat terrain, proximity to the nation's capital and other large East Coast cities, and access to water for cooling high-speed fiber optic infrastructure. As a result, around 70 percent of the world's internet traffic flows through northern Virginia. This trend is not projected to lose momentum anytime soon--in 2024, Virginia had 5,926 megawatts (MW) of operational capacity, with 1,834 MW of capacity under construction, and 15,432 MW of capacity planned.
Virginia's data centers also consume more electricity than those in any other state. In 2023, data centers in Virginia consumed around 34 million megawatt hours of electricity - 35 percent more than centers in Texas, which ranked second in the country. Moving forward, electricity demand from data centers is expected to undergo unprecedented growth as they increasingly support generative AI. AI data centers consume more electricity than traditional data centers because generative AI consumes 10-30 times more energy than task-specific AI and simultaneously produces more heat, requiring more advanced cooling solutions.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act
Instead of adopting a market-based policy to drive decarbonization in the electricity sector, Virginia has adopted a command-and-control approach to mandate the power sector be carbon-free by certain dates established in the Virginia Clean Economy Act. The legislation was passed in 2020 by a 22-18 margin in the Virginia Senate and 53-45 margin in the House of Delegates before being signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam (D). The law establishes a renewable portfolio standard program that annually sets increasingly stringent targets for utilities to adopt renewable energy sources. The VCEA also includes regulations concerning energy efficiency, carbon emissions, and energy storage.
Additionally, the VCEA mandates that Dominion Energy, the dominant electric company in Virginia serving the vast majority of the commonwealth's data centers, generate 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045.
The VCEA has a reliability exception provision, however, that grants exemptions to utilities if they can show that complying with the 2045 carbon-free electricity targets would "threaten the reliability or security of electric service to customers."
Fossil fuels are currently Dominion's main energy source. As of June, 2025, natural gas was the primary source, generating about 58 percent of total electricity, followed by nuclear energy (25 percent), renewable energy (14 percent), and coal-fired sources (3 percent).
For context, the average operating coal-fired plant in the United States is 45 years old, while the designed life of a combined-cycle gas plant is typically 25-30 years. As for renewable energy, the operational lifespan of a solar panel is 25-35 years whereas it is about 30 years for wind turbines. Nuclear plants have longer lifespans, with some in the United States that can operate for 60 years or more. The permitting and construction of power plants require significant lead time, spanning approximately two years for a combined cycle gas plant, three to four years for a coal plant, and a decade for nuclear facilities.
AI Data Centers Are Driving Up Electricity Demand
Load forecasting refers to utilities' prediction of future electricity demand in the market in which they operate. Typically, utilities use summer or winter peak load to forecast the maximum amount of electricity demand to account for air conditioning or heating.
As shown in Figure 1, Dominion projects that its summer peak load will grow from 17,131 MW in 2022 to 28,963 MW in 2045, a striking increase of almost 70 percent. This increase in electricity demand is largely driven by data centers.
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Dominion Energy 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Update
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Figure 2 shows the fast-growing numbers of Dominion's contracts with data centers in terms of capacity--the maximum amount of power the data centers will require. There are three types of contracts that a data center customer must complete over the course of a project.
* Engineering Letter of Authorization (ELOA): Allows the customer to begin pre-construction design and engineering work.
* Construction Letter of Authorization (CLOA): Permits the customer to build the data center.
* Electric Service Agreement (ESA): Officially contracts Dominion to provide electricity to the data center.
As shown in Figure 2, between July 2023 and July 2025, the total contracted capacity (ELOAs, CLOAs, and ESAs) between Dominion and its data center customers increased by 185 percent.
Given the projected growth in the data center industry, energy demand in Virginia is estimated to increase by 183 percent between 2023-2040, compared to a 15-percent increase if there was no new data center demand.
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Dominion Energy 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Update
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VCEA's 2045 Carbon-free Electricity Target May Not Be Achievable Given Data Centers' Enormous Power Demand
Dominion's newly released 2025 update of its 2024 Integrated Resource Plan provides a forecast of the company's total installed capacity by energy source for its serviced territory in Virginia by 2045 across three different scenarios:
* "Company Preferred Plan": In this scenario, Dominion Energy would not comply with the VCEA 2045 carbon-free electricity target but instead petition the regulator for a reliability exception that would allow the company to preserve certain fossil fuel generation sources to ensure reliable electricity service to its customers. Dominion would comply with the 2024 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations released under the Biden Administration, including regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, wastewater discharge, and hazardous air pollutants from power plants. The estimated construction costs for this plan are $91.8 billion.
* "Least Cost VCEA Compliant Without EPA": This scenario is similar to the "Company Preferred Plan" scenario, except that it would not comply with the EPA regulations. This scenario assumes that the 2024 EPA regulations on power plants would eventually be repealed, as proposed by the Trump Administration earlier this year. The estimated construction costs for this plan are the lowest of all three scenarios at $80.1 billion.
* "Forced Retirements by 2045": This is the only scenario that would achieve full compliance with the VCEA 2045 carbon-free target without petitioning the reliability exception. Under this plan, Dominion would retire all carbon-emitting resources in Virginia, except for biomass units. Dominion states, however, that it "does not consider this to be a feasible Portfolio based on the assumptions beyond reasonable build limits, customer affordability concerns, capital requirements and reliability concerns associated with retiring dispatchable generation during a time of significant load growth." The estimated construction costs of $270.4 billionfor this plan are about three times the costs of the other two plans.
As shown in Figures 3, 4, and 5, Dominion projects that in 2026, its installed capacity (the maximum amount of electricity produced from certain generation plants) will consist of natural gas (40 percent), solar, wind, and battery storage (20 percent), nuclear (13 percent), coal (10 percent), biomass, hydro and others (9 percent), and market purchases of electricity (8 percent).
Under the "Company Preferred Plan" scenario, as shown in Figure 3, renewable energy (solar, wind, and battery storage) will become the major energy source that accounts for 54 percent of the total installed capacity, while natural gas will decrease to about one-third of the total installed capacity. Coal will be completely phased out by 2045 in this scenario. Market purchases of electricity from other non-Dominion owned sources will only account for 2 percent of the total capacity mix, which is about the same as that of the other two scenarios. Dominion explains the reason for the decreased target of market purchases from other utilities in 2045: "[T]he ability to purchase power is finite, and over-reliance on market purchases will create risks to both reliability and affordability."
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Dominion Energy 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Update
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Under the "Least Cost VCEA Compliant Without EPA" scenario, as shown in Figure 4, the 2045 installed capacity mix is similar to that in the "Company Preferred Plan." The main difference is that in the second scenario, some coal generation sources are preserved - accounting for 4 percent of the total capacity. With natural gas accounting for another 29 percent, fossil fuel sources make up 33 percent of the total generation mix, the same as the first scenario.
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Dominion Energy 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Update
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Under the "Forced Retirements by 2045" scenario, as shown in Figure 5, renewable energy (solar, wind, battery storage) will make up close to 80 percent of total capacity, with nuclear accounting for 14 percent, which is similar to the percentage number in 2026. While coal will be completely phased out, natural gas will still account for 4 percent of total capacity. Notably, Dominion explains that the "Company does not currently see a viable path towards full retirement of all carbon-emitting resources by 2045," so it would continue several gas-fired power plants in West Virginia and other locations outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Dominion Energy 2025 Integrated Resource Plan Update
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Virginia-initiated Third-party Study Corroborates Dominion Energy's 20-year Outlook
In 2023, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission conducted a study of the impact of data centers in Virginia. The report provided a 20-year projection of Virginia's future generating capacity from 2020-2040 and whether it will be able to meet the large demand growth. The report concludes: "Building enough infrastructure to meet unconstrained energy demand will be very difficult to achieve, with or without meeting the Virginia Clean Economy Act requirements," as renewable, fossil fuel, nuclear, and storage facilities would have to be constructed at rates that far exceed historical build rates.
Figure 6 shows the estimated additional capacity from each energy source required for Virginia to meet projected energy demand between 2020-2040. Under a VCEA-compliant scenario, an additional 59,800 MW of capacity would be required. Even in a scenario where VCEA requirements are not met, 57,600 MW of additional capacity would still be needed. For context, Dominion had 20,131 MW of generation capacity in 2023. Both scenarios continue to rely on fossil fuel resources to be added to the capacity mix.
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission
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As shown in Figure 7, the report finds that meeting even half of the projected energy demand would "likely still be difficult," requiring 37,800 MW and 34,400 MW of additional capacity in the VCEA-compliant and non-compliant scenarios by 2040, respectively.
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[View chart in the link at bottom.]
Source: Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission
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Conclusion
Based on the projection of AI data centers' energy growth over the next 20 years, current energy mix in Virginia, and estimated expansion of future electricity supply, it may not be viable for Dominion Energy to meet VCEA's mandated target of 100-percent retirement of all fossil fuel generation sources by 2045--unless there is an unforeseen technological breakthrough in electricity generation. Lawmakers in Virginia should consider adopting a more hands-off approach that allows the market to figure out how to best meet AI data centers' exploding power demands while also reducing power-sector emissions.
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Shuting Pomerleau is the Director of Energy and Environmental Policy at the American Action Forum
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Original text here: https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/meeting-ai-data-center-power-demand-in-virginia-challenges-posed-by-carbon-free-electricity-regulations/
[Category: Think Tank]
America First Policy Institute: Want Cheaper Gas? End California's Special Recipe
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025, to the California Globe:
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Want Cheaper Gas? End California's Special Recipe
By Mike Garcia
Every Californian knows the feeling of dread at the gas pump. As prices climb past five, six, or even seven dollars a gallon, we are told it's the fault of distant wars or greedy oil companies. If only that were true. The fact is that California's sky-high gas prices are a self-inflicted wound, the direct result of state policies that intentionally make our fuel supply expensive, fragile,
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following commentary on Dec. 10, 2025, to the California Globe:
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Want Cheaper Gas? End California's Special Recipe
By Mike Garcia
Every Californian knows the feeling of dread at the gas pump. As prices climb past five, six, or even seven dollars a gallon, we are told it's the fault of distant wars or greedy oil companies. If only that were true. The fact is that California's sky-high gas prices are a self-inflicted wound, the direct result of state policies that intentionally make our fuel supply expensive, fragile,and artificially scarce.
At the heart of the issue is a government mandate that forces Californians to use a special "boutique" blend of gasoline that almost no one in the world produces. This single policy decision made by our leaders has deliberately cut us off from the abundant and affordable fuel available to the rest of the country. This isn't just bad economics; it is a policy that actively harms the ability of millions of people to live prosperous lives. We must judge our state's energy policies by a simple, moral standard: do they make people's lives better?
By that measure, our current approach is a catastrophic failure.
To read the full article, click here (https://californiaglobe.com/fr/want-cheaper-gas-end-californias-special-recipe/).
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Mike Garcia, Chairman, America First California
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/want-cheaper-gas-end-californias-special-recipe
[Category: ThinkTank]
America First Policy Institute: Oregon Retaliation Case Ends After Girls Receive Medals
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Oregon Retaliation Case Ends After Girls Receive Medals
America First Policy Institute (AFPI) announced today that its First Amendment lawsuit in Oregon, brought on behalf of high school athletes Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, has been dismissed by agreement of the parties.
AFPI filed the lawsuit to protect the girls after officials with the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) retaliated against them for silently protesting the lack of fairness in girls' sports.
The
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Dec. 10, 2025:
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Oregon Retaliation Case Ends After Girls Receive Medals
America First Policy Institute (AFPI) announced today that its First Amendment lawsuit in Oregon, brought on behalf of high school athletes Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, has been dismissed by agreement of the parties.
AFPI filed the lawsuit to protect the girls after officials with the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) retaliated against them for silently protesting the lack of fairness in girls' sports.
Thecase brought national attention to the unconstitutional retaliation these girls faced, resulting in millions of Americans learning their story and rallying behind them. AFPI's complaint also highlighted OSAA's past practice of selectively embracing left-leaning protected speech -- allegations the organization tried to strike from AFPI's lawsuit, but a judge denied the attempt.
After filing suit, OSAA unceremoniously mailed the girls' medals to their legal counsel. On November 6, 2025, live at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards ceremony, the girls received the recognition and medals they were denied before a national audience.
"We spoke up because what was happening wasn't fair," said athlete Alexa Anderson. "AFPI stood with us from day one, made sure our story was heard, helped bring attention to this issue and are continuing to help us fight for protections in girls' sports. I'm grateful for everyone who supported us."
Co-plaintiff Reese Eckhard agreed:
"Getting to stand up and say, 'I don't approve of this,' is a basic right everyone learns in school. It was appalling that an actual school event tried to silence us."
AFPI Director of Litigation Andrew Zimmitti said the resolution of this case doesn't affect the organization's separate and ongoing Title IX lawsuit against OSAA, which challenges the association's policy of allowing biological males to compete in girls' sports.
"This case did exactly what it needed to do," said Zimmitti. "We protected these young women, we exposed how officials retaliated against them for expressing the truth, and we elevated their story to a national audience. Now we continue the real fight--restoring Title IX and defending girls' sports across America."
AFPI will continue to stand with student athletes in Oregon and nationwide as it advances its broader litigation strategy to protect fairness, safety, and opportunity for women and girls.
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/oregon-retaliation-case-ends-after-girls-receive-medals
[Category: ThinkTank]
