Virginia expects to receive 370,650 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna by the end of the year instead of 480,000 as previously announced, the Virginia Department of Health said Friday.
Operation Warp Speed, the federal response for vaccinating millions of Americans, informed VDH late Thursday of the decrease in doses. Other states — including Oregon, Iowa, Maine, Illinois and Florida — are also receiving fewer doses than initially expected.
Virginia this week received 72,125 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which the state began distributing to frontline health workers at 18 hospitals. The state also has ordered 146,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be approved soon by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If all goes to plan, the Moderna doses will arrive the week of Dec. 21, VDH said.
Health care providers and long-term care facility residents are the top two priority groups, although with fewer doses, it will take longer to vaccinate these populations, which number about 500,000 people in Virginia.
The VDH announcement did not detail the reasons behind the shortfall in the number of initial doses, which were expected to be delivered by the end of the month. According to a Washington Post report, a senior White House official said the revised estimates were the result of states’ asking for an expedited timeline for a second round of allocated doses. The official said that since Pfizer is producing doses daily, fewer were available by moving back the timeline from Friday to Tuesday.
However, Pfizer issued a release Thursday that seemed to contradict the White House, saying the company is “not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. government to the locations specified by them. We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses.”
Pfizer added, “We remain confident in our ability to deliver up to 50 million doses globally this year and up to 1.3 billion next year.”
A newly renovated 14-story office building in National Landing is ready for Amazon.com Inc. employees to move in, developer JBG Smith announced Wednesday. The revamp of the 273,000-square-foot space at 1770 Crystal Drive, which is mostly leased by the e-tail giant, was finished two quarters early and under its $80 million proposed budget as outlined in a 2018 letter to shareholders.
JBG Smith declined to disclose the final cost of the renovation.
The building is an early part of the company’s HQ2 expansion in Arlington County, which was announced in November 2018. Amazon has leased 857,000 square feet in five buildings from Bethesda, Maryland-based JBG Smith. Meanwhile, the developer is managing construction of 2.1 million square feet of office space in two towers, as well as a one-acre park and 50,000 square feet of retail space.
“The return to productive use of 1770 Crystal Drive represents yet another significant milestone in National Landing’s ongoing transformation into a vibrant 18-hour neighborhood,” Matt Kelly, JBG Smith’s CEO, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to partner with Amazon and accommodate its growing presence in the region as we continue to make progress on its modern new headquarters.”
The full cost of the HQ2 development is set at $2.5 billion, and Amazon is expected to hire 25,000 people to work there by 2030.
San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler designed the renovation of 1770 Crystal Drive, and Bethesda-headquartered Clark Construction Group completed construction.
Sentara Healthcare and Bon Secours Health System received portions of the state’s first shipment of Pfizer Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday, and other health systems in the state are anticipating delivery later today or Tuesday. Vaccinations are expected to begin for health care workers by Wednesday, according to hospital officials.
Virginia expects to receive 72,150 doses of the vaccine, which was approved Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and provided to hospital systems across the country beginning Monday. Health care providers working directly with COVID patients are top priority and receiving the first vaccines.
Eighteen health facilities across the commonwealth are receiving shipments of the first doses Monday and Tuesday, according to the Virginia Department of Health, which did not disclose which hospitals are included since the general public will not receive the vaccines until after health care workers and long-term care residents are vaccinated, a plan that follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Virginia expects to receive 480,000 doses by the end of the year from Pfizer and Moderna, which will cover most of the people in these groups statewide. The vaccines are not mandatory.
Sentara announced Monday that it received its delivery of 11,700 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this morning, and vaccination is expected to start at Sentara hospitals Wednesday, according to officials. These doses will be given to staff members in emergency departments, ICUs, COVID units, respiratory units and other hospital staffers who enter these areas, such as food service employees. The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses spaced three weeks apart, and the health system expects to receive an additional shipment with the second dose of the vaccine later.
Some hospitals, including at least one in Richmond and one in Hampton Roads, have begun receiving shipments Monday, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. Gov. Ralph Northam on Monday visited a Bon Secours hospital in Richmond that had received its shipment. The University of Virginia Health System expects to receive its allotment by noon Tuesday, according to a spokesperson, with vaccinations scheduled for mid-afternoon. Carilion Clinic and Riverside Health both expect to begin vaccinations this week, and the VCU Medical Center announced that it anticipates shipment Tuesday and vaccinations to begin Wednesday.
Health systems nationwide scrambled to get ultra-cold storage equipment to keep the Pfizer vaccine at -70 degrees Celsius as required, and VDH reported that health systems throughout the state have such storage available. The Moderna vaccine, which is likely to be approved by the FDA later in the week, has to be kept at about -20 degrees Celsius, closer to what a regular freezer provides. Once Moderna can distribute its vaccine later in December, Virginia will begin inoculating staff and residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, state health authorities have said. Other Virginians who aren’t at as high a risk will receive vaccines later through local pharmacies.
“These initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are a much-needed symbol of hope for our commonwealth and our country,” Northam said in a statement Monday. “With this remarkable medical achievement, we are beginning to see the light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Yet even in this moment of celebration, we must remember that this is the first step in a months-long process to receive, distribute, and administer the vaccine as it becomes available. I ask everyone to stay vigilant, take care of each other, and continue following the public health guidelines as we work to vaccinate Virginians in a safe, efficient, equitable manner.”
Virginia’s COVID-19 numbers continue to climb, with 26,279 more cases and 206 deaths recorded last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Dec. 14 update.
The state has had 285,149 cases and 4,414 deaths in total as of Dec. 14. The seven-day average number of new daily cases is 3,754, with 44.1 new daily cases per 100,000 people, VDH reports.
Monday marked the start of a new set of statewide restrictions, which Gov. Ralph Northamannounced last week, including a nightly curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. through the end of January. Virginia’s COVID rates are lower than most of the rest of the country, which has recorded more than 16 million cases and nearly 300,000 deaths, but the state has seen significant increases, particularly in Southwest Virginia, where positivity rates continue to exceed 20%. As of Dec. 11, the state’s seven-day positivity rate was at 10.9%, an increase of .1% from Dec. 7.
There are currently 2,260 people hospitalized with COVID or awaiting test results in Virginia, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA), which tracks numbers at 115 hospitals statewide. Thirty-one percent of the state’s 2,964 ventilators are currently in use, according to VHHA, and 77% of ICU beds are currently occupied by both COVID and non-COVID patients.
Meanwhile, the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed across the states Monday, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine Friday. Sandra Lindsay, a nurse and director of critical care at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City, was the first person in the nation to receive the vaccine outside of clinical trials.
Virginia expects to receive about 72,000 doses that will be given to frontline medical workers providing care to COVID patients. The state is set to receive 480,000 doses by the end of the month if Moderna’s vaccine is approved, with health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities prioritized. Gov. Ralph Northam and State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver have said that it will likely take several months, through early summer, for all Virginians to be vaccinated.
Oliver and other state health experts are scheduled to appear 7 p.m. Wednesday on a televised and streamed town hall meeting about the vaccine, airing on several TV stations statewide. Questions can be submitted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by using the hashtag #VaccinateVirginia.
The following health districts reported positivity rates above 10% as of Dec. 11:
Alleghany (Alleghany, Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke counties and the cities of Covington and Salem) — 12.7%, up from 10.4% as of Dec. 3
Central Shenandoah (Augusta, Bath, Highland, Rockbridge and Rockingham counties and the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro) — 16.3%, up from 14.5%
Central Virginia (Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties and Lynchburg) — 15.5%, up from 15.1%
Chesapeake — 12.8%, up from 11.5%
Chesterfield — 10.1%, up from 9.7%
Cumberland Plateau(Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties) — 20.8%, down from 24.0%
Eastern Shore (Accomack and Northampton counties) — 10.7%, down from 11.7%
Fairfax — 10.6%, down from 11.5%
Hampton — 12.3%, up from 11.9%
Lenowisco(Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton) — 21.6%, down from 22.4%
Lord Fairfax (Clarke, Frederick, Page, Shenandoah and Warren counties and Winchester) — 13.2%, up from 11.8%
Loudoun — 12.1%, up from 11.8%
Mount Rogers (cities of Bristol and Galax and counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, Washington and Wythe) — 21.9%, down from 23.2%
New River (Floyd, Giles, Montgomery and Pulaski counties and Radford) — 12.0%, up from 12.7%
Norfolk — 11.5%, up from 10.1%
Peninsula (Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City and York counties) — 10.8%, up from 9.5%
Pittsylvania-Danville — 12.4%, down from 14.3%
Portsmouth — 11.7%, up from 8.1%
Prince William — 15.4%, down from 15.6%
Rappahannock (Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties and Fredericksburg) — 11.3%, down from 11.8%
Globally, there are 72.3 million reported COVID-19 cases and 1,615,052 confirmed deaths, as of Dec. 14. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 16.2 million confirmed cases so far, with 299,246 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February.
Part of a global renewable energy purchase, Amazon.com Inc. announced Thursday it will invest in two more Halifax Countysolar farms, in addition to a deal announced in March that is expected to come online in 2021.
The two new solar farms, which are expected to provide 70 megawatts and 51 megawatts of power by 2022, according to an Amazon map, are located in Powell’s Creek, in the southern part of the county, and Sunnybrook, northeast of South Boston. The projects will be the 13th and 14th Amazon solar farms in Virginia; others under development and in operation are in Accomack, Buckingham, Frederick, Gloucester, New Kent, Pittsylvania, Powhatan, Prince George, Southampton and Sussex counties.
Halifax County supervisors approved the Sunnybrook and Powell’s Creek projects in April 2018. Both projects were submitted by developer Carolina Solar Energy, a Durham, North Carolina-based solar company. Amazon invested in a 65-megawatt solar project in South Boston in March, with the global online retailer saying the project will provide renewable energy capacity to the grids that supply its data centers.
Amazon announced 26 new utility-scale wind and solar energy projects around the world, including Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S. on Thursday, expanding its 2020 renewable energy investment to 35 projects offering more than 4 gigawatts of capacity. The company says it’s the largest corporate investment in renewable energy in a single year.
Amazon has pledged to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025 and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. The company currently holds a total of 127 renewable energy projects worldwide.
“Amazon is helping fight climate change by moving quickly to power our businesses with renewable energy,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “This is just one of the many steps we’re taking that will help us meet our climate pledge. I couldn’t be more proud of all the teams across Amazon that continue to work hard, smart and fast to get these projects up and running.”
Amazon’s footprint in Virginia has expanded significantly in the past two years, with the 2018 announcement that it would establish its East Coast headquarters in Arlington County. Amazon HQ2 is expected to employ 25,000 people by 2030. Currently, the e-tailer is one of the top 10 employers in Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun counties, and it employs about 18,500 people across the commonwealth, where it has 10 fulfillment and sortation center and delivery stations, as well as data centers and operations facilities in the works in Hampton Roads.
Jerry Falwell Jr. has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Liberty University, saying in a statement Thursday that he has decided “to take a timeout” from the suit while keeping his options open.
Falwell sued his former employer Oct. 28 in Lynchburg Circuit Court, claiming that the university made defamatory statements about him in the wake of his resignation as president and chancellor of the private Christian institution in August. He sought punitive damages and attorney’s fees from Liberty, as well as a trial by jury. However, at a Dec. 9 hearing, a Lynchburg judge ruled on Falwell’s motion to drop the suit.
“I’ve decided to take a timeout from my litigation against Liberty University, but I will continue to keep all options on the table for an appropriate resolution to the matter,” Falwell said in a statement provided by spokesperson Mark Serrano, president of Leesburg-based ProActive Communications.
Judge James F. Watson granted Falwell’s motion Wednesday to drop the suit without prejudice, which will allow Falwell to refile the suit in the future if he wants.
Liberty issued a statement Thursday afternoon: “Falwell’s unilateral and voluntary dismissal was not prompted by any payments, promises or other consideration from Liberty. The university’s administration and Board of Trustees are pleased that Falwell has dropped his lawsuit and look forward to pressing onward with the work of Liberty’s President and Chancellor Search Committee to find the new leadership to succeed Falwell.”
The 29-page suit filed in October claimed that Falwell’s former business partner, Giancarlo Granda, who had a highly publicized affair with Falwell’s wife, Becki, conspired against Falwell with “politically motivated backers,” including the political action group The Lincoln Project, which opposed President Donald Trump during the 2020 election. Falwell is a prominent supporter of Trump, whom he endorsed in 2016.
Liberty was the only party listed in the suit, in which Falwell also sought damages for breach of contract, but the suit also alleged misdeeds by Granda and The Lincoln Project.
In the suit, Falwell claimed that he and his family were “victims of an ongoing extortion scheme” by Granda, a former pool attendant and business associate of the Falwells who said in interviews with Reuters this summer that he had engaged in a long-term affair with Falwell’s wife, Becki, with the full knowledge of Jerry Falwell Jr. Granda alleged that Falwell sometimes watched Granda and Becki Falwell having sexual relations, an accusation that Falwell has vehemently denied. Falwell acknowledged in earlier interviews and within the lawsuit that Becki Falwell engaged in an “inappropriate relationship” with Granda, whom the Falwells met in 2012 while staying at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel.
Granda, Falwell claimed in the suit, is represented for free by Kurt Bardella, president of Arlington-based media firm Endeavor Strategies and a senior adviser for The Lincoln Project. Bardella is arranging Granda’s press interviews and advising him, according to Falwell’s lawsuit, which also stated that Granda’s attorney, Aaron Resnick of Miami, introduced him to The Lincoln Project personnel and has also been financing Granda’s personal expenses.
“There is no connection to The Lincoln Project,” Granda wrote in an email to Virginia Business in October. “I have received no financial compensation –none– for coming forward and telling the truth about the long-term affair with Becki, … Jerry’s hypocrisy and the Falwells’ abuse of power.
“Jerry is attempting to portray himself as a victim. No one should be fooled. The real victims are the Liberty University students, faculty and staff who have been intimidated into silence under his tenure. … I stand by all my statements.”
Falwell also accused university representatives of “not only accept[ing] the salacious and baseless accusations against the Falwells at face value, but directly participated in the defamation.” He further alleged that “certain key individuals” at the university — whom he did not name — were “fulfilling a long-held goal’ to end Falwell’s 32-year career at the university that his father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., founded in 1971.
Falwell resigned Aug. 25 as president, chancellor and member of the university’s board of directors, after a 13-year tenure as leader of the university. Jerry Prevo, an Alaska pastor who served on Liberty’s executive committee and was most recently its chairman, is currently the interim president while a search is underway for Falwell’s permanent replacements as president and chancellor.
Falwell, who received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, served as the university’s legal counsel before taking over the helm as president in 2007 after his father’s death. Under Jerry Falwell Jr.’s leadership, the school became one of the largest Christian universities in the world. With more than 110,000 students enrolled, most of them online, Liberty is Virginia’s largest school by enrollment and is the nation’s second-largest online university, behind the University of Phoenix.
Falwell is broadly credited for bringing Liberty out of deep debt to its current financial strength, including a $1.59 billion endowment as of 2019. The university also completed more than $1 billion in construction projects and built an impressive athletics program.
However, Falwell was at the center of multiple controversies in 2020, starting with his decision to invite students back to campus following spring break despite the start of the COVID-19pandemic. He then offended Black students, faculty members and other supporters by making a joke on Twitter referring to Gov. Ralph Northam‘s mask mandate and 2019 blackface scandal. He eventually apologized for posting a picture of a mask with the offending image, but several Black Liberty students and staff members resigned or left Liberty as a result.
In August, Falwell briefly posted an Instagram photo of himself and his wife’s assistant in which their pants were unzipped during a yacht party. In the photo, Falwell is holding a glass of dark liquid that looks like an alcoholic drink, but Falwell joked in the caption that the drink was “black water” and “a prop.” That was the last straw for many supporters, and Falwell went on an indefinite leave of absence. A Reuters interview with Granda, who spoke on the record about his affair and other allegations, was published in late August, leading to Falwell’s resignation a day later.
Falwell was paid approximately $2 million in severance by Liberty University, which also announced it has launched a third-party investigation into financial and real estate dealings at the university during Falwell’s tenure as president. The public accounting firm hired to conduct the probe, Baker Tilly US, has made available through Dec. 20 an encrypted website to allow anonymous whistleblower complaints focused on financial misconduct by “current or former members of university leadership.”
Amid rising COVID-19 rates in the state, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday he is ordering a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew, as well as limiting gatherings to 10 people, starting at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
The governor ordered that masks be worn at all times indoors around other people and at workplaces, as well as outdoors if you cannot maintain a six-foot distance from others. The restrictions will remain in place through Jan. 30, he said.
“It’s called ‘common sense,'” Northam said of the curfew, noting that his parents told him when he was young that “nothing good happens after midnight.”
Thursday’s announcement comes days after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a stay-at-home order starting Friday, requiring a curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for all North Carolina residents and businesses. Northam said Virginia chose a midnight curfew because the state already requires restaurants to close then.
Virginia’s governor said about 90% of Virginia businesses are complying with current rules, but others are not, primarily violating masking orders. So far, about 180 workplaces, including restaurants, have been cited for employees not wearing masks and for allowing gatherings at bars. “I can’t understand why anyone wants to flaunt these rules,” Northam said. “A handful of people still need to get the message.” He said enforcement would be “stepped up” but didn’t give specifics.
The new restrictions will not impact schools’ in-person learning, he said. As for houses of worship, Northam asked religious leaders to consider “setting an example” for their congregations by moving worship services online and by wearing masks but did not place further restrictions. He noted that a lot of community spread in Virginia is stemming from churches that don’t observe COVID precautions but that the state would not place restrictions on houses of worship after the U.S. Supreme Court’s temporary ruling that New York’s limits on attendance at places of worship could not be enforced.
Virginia remains on the lower end of the nation’s COVID infection rates, but it nonetheless has seen a significant increase in cases since Thanksgiving.
As of Dec. 6, the most recent date available on the Virginia Department of Health’s dashboard, the state’s seven-day positivity rate is 11%, matching the rate in late May, when testing was less available. The number of new daily cases in Virginia hit 4,395 Tuesday, a one-day record for the state, and Wednesday’s daily total was 3,915, the second-highest one-day tally. Currently, the state’s seven-day average of new daily cases is 3,791, or 44.5 new cases per 100,000 people.
Also, there are 2,051 people in Virginia hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 or with test results pending, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. ICU occupancy is at 78% for both virus and non-virus patients, and 30% of all ventilators are currently in use, the VHHA reported.
The number of deaths also has risen, with an average of 27 deaths per day in Virginia during the past seven days. As of Dec. 10, the state has reported 271,043 total cases and 4,335 total deaths.
State Senate Republicans said in a statement that a statewide curfew “smacks of martial law. Contrary to the governor’s assertion, the curfew is neither common nor sensible. It also is wholly unnecessary.” Republicans argued that the new restrictions come as the state’s Parole Board is “liberally granting ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ cards to convicted murderers,” a reference to the state’s release of several hundred inmates during the pandemic. According to the state Department of Corrections, convicted murderers can be released, but notes that “by legislative mandate, early release does not apply to inmates convicted of a Class 1 felony or a sexually violent offense.”
Northam issued an order before Thanksgiving requiring gatherings to be limited to 25 people and that everyone ages 5 and older wear a mask in public, indoor spaces. He also ordered restaurants and bars to stop serving alcohol after 10 p.m. However, COVID cases continued to spike in the commonwealth, with most cases occurring as family members and small groups continued to socialize indoors while unmasked, state officials said.
Nationwide, the number of cases has exceeded 15.4 million, with 218,667 new cases reported Wednesday and 3,055 deaths recorded that day. More than 106,000 people were hospitalized Wednesday. Virginia is in the bottom five of the 48 contiguous states in terms of COVID infections, with only Washington, Oregon, Maine and Vermont showing better results. However, as Northam has noted in recent weeks, the Southwestern region of the state has seen surges as neighbors Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia have reported COVID spikes.
Northam said hospital staffing is the largest problem in Virginia, rather than number of beds, and health care workers are “exhausted,” he said. The governor introduced Emily, a nurse from Ballad Health, during the news conference, who spoke on video about the patients she sees in the ICU, many of whom are dying, she said. “I can’t tell you how many patients we’ve had who contracted it during a ball game or a family affair.” She concluded by asking people to wear masks to save lives. Northam did not disclose the nurse’s last name.
Ballad Health, based in eastern Tennessee and serving many communities in Southwest Virginia, has suspended all elective surgeries indefinitely as its system is stressed by the increasing number of COVID patients. Hospitals in eastern Tennessee are now using two refrigerated morgue trucks due to the rise in COVID-related deaths, Ballad reported recently.
Northam also read from a Facebook post by Hillsville Mayor Greg Crowder, who is ill with the virus and said he is experiencing muscle and joint pain, high fever and low oxygen levels. Crowder said the experience is “awful” and asked his constituents to take the coronavirus seriously.
Virginia Beach-based Samaritan House has received a $1.25 million grant from the Day 1 Families Fund, which was launched in 2018 by Amazon.com Inc. founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the organization announced Wednesday.
Samaritan House is one of 42 nonprofits across the country (and the only Virginia nonprofit) to receive a grant in the $2 billion fund’s third annual round of leadership awards. Bezos started the fund to assist families struggling with homelessness and to fund new preschools in low-income communities. Samaritan House will use the money to expand its services and make improvements to its shelters. The Day 1 Families Fund issued a total of $105.9 million in grants in 2020.
Founded in 1984, Samaritan House provides shelter for people experiencing domestic violence or homelessness. The organization owns 14 safe houses and houses about 110 people a night, and its children’s program teaches young people about building healthy relationships, increasing their self-confidence, improving their academic performances and ultimately breaking the cycle of homelessness and violence.
Dominion Energy Inc. and Smithfield Foods Inc., both based in Virginia, completed their first renewable natural gas (RNG) project in southwestern Utah, Smithfield announced Wednesday.
In 2018, the Richmond-headquartered utility and Smithfield-based food company partnered in the $500 million Align Renewable Natural Gas joint venture to convert methane from Smithfield’s contracted hog farms into renewable natural gas. Align’s project in Milford, Utah, is the venture’s first large-scale renewable gas-producing effort, involving a network of 26 family farms. At full capacity, the Utah project will produce enough gas to heat more than 3,000 homes and businesses and reduce annual methane emissions by more than 100,000 metric tons, according to Smithfield.
“We’re excited to witness the completion of our initial project in Utah, as we continue to scale and implement renewable energy projects across the country,” Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of Smithfield Renewables and hog production environmental affairs for Smithfield Foods, said in a statement. “Our Align RNG partnership with Dominion Energy is a key component of Smithfield’s carbon reduction strategy, which promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our domestic supply chain 25% by 2025 and become carbon negative in all U.S. company-owned operations by 2030.”
By 2030, Align RNG is projected to power approximately 70,000 homes, according to the companies. In Virginia, approximately 20 Smithfield Foods-owned hog farms around Waverly and Wakefield are expected to come online in 2021 and will eventually provide energy to 4,000 homes and businesses. Other farms could be added to the original group or formed into a new cluster.
“This is an exciting breakthrough for the future of clean energy and sustainable farming,” Ryan Childress, Dominion Energy’s director of gas business development, said in a statement. “With this single technology, we can produce clean energy for consumers, reduce farm emissions and benefit family farmers. It’s a powerful example of the environmental progress we can make through innovation. We’re thrilled Utah is leading the way, and we’re excited to keep the momentum going in other states across the country.”
Reston-based Fortune 500 government contractor Leidos Holdings Inc. was awarded a 10-year contract potentially worth $1.76 billion to continue implementing National Airspace System modernization programs for the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.
The NAS Integration Support Contract IV contract has a four-year base period and two three-year options. The $1.4 billion NISC III contract was awarded in 2010 to Lockheed Martin’s former information systems and global solutions department, which was purchased by Leidos in 2016. Work includes system upgrades, technology development, planning and implementation support
With annual revenues of $11.09 billion last year and 37,000 employees, Leidos specializes in technology and engineering services for defense agencies.
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