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Carilion Clinic wants to launch a kidney transplant program; UVA Health opposes it

In the coming weeks, will learn whether it has the go-ahead from the state to launch a kidney transplant program at Carilion Memorial Hospital, a plan has publicly opposed.

The Roanoke-based health system’s pitch for establishing a program is that there is no kidney transplant surgery available in the southwestern part of Virginia, and the State Medical Facilities Plan states that transplant services should be “accessible within two hours driving time one way.”

 “We want to make it easier for the 79% of transplant patients in Southwest Virginia who must drive two to four hours to get to the nearest transplant center to get the care they need,” Carilion Clinic said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, UVA Health maintains that more than 1,100 patients from Southwest Virginia have received organ transplant surgeries since 1997 at its -based Charles O. Strickler Transplant Center, and that it has outpatient services in the Southwest region for transplant patients.

In a letter to the state last year, UVA raised several objections to Carilion’s plan, including a concern that it would pull patients from UVA Health. The Certificate of Public Need staff in May 2024 recommended that the Virginia health commissioner, Dr. Karen Shelton, deny Carilion’s request.

After an informal January hearing and the Feb. 28 closing of the adjudicatory record, Shelton had 45 days to issue a decision, but she extended the deadline to May 9, which is permitted under state law, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Health said Thursday.

Meanwhile, UVA Health emphasized that before and after surgery, patients receive care at outpatient transplant clinics run by UVA Health across the state, including a new clinic in that opened in March, focusing on kidney, lung and liver .

Offered in partnership with Wythe County Community Hospital, the Wytheville transplant clinic allows patients to be seen monthly at a site adjacent to the hospital, receiving testing and consultation before surgery and post-surgery care.

In addition to the new Wytheville transplant clinic, UVA Health offers similar clinics in Martinsville, Roanoke, , Norfolk, Newport News, , and Charlottesville.

“Based on data from the federal Census Bureau and the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, patients from Southwest Virginia who are eligible for kidney transplants receive transplants at the same rate as eligible patients in Northern Virginia,” the Charlottesville-based health system said in a statement. 

“These outpatient clinics are particularly important in kidney care because 90% of a kidney transplant patient’s care is provided on an outpatient basis,” UVA Health added. “Carilion’s proposal only initially calls for a single outpatient clinic in Roanoke, raising concerns about access to outpatient care to the rest of Carilion’s anticipated kidney transplant patients residing in the service area.”

UVA Health stated these and other points in an opposition letter that was included in a May 2024 analysis of Carilion’s proposal to the state to start a transplant program in Roanoke. Under Virginia law, the state’s Certificate of Public Need staffers evaluate health systems’ proposals for new hospitals and other medical services and make recommendations to the state health commissioner.

Among the factors listed by COPN staff was that a Carilion kidney transplant program “could negatively impact existing providers of kidney transplant services.”

If approved in May by Shelton, Carilion’s kidney transplant program would become the seventh in the state and would use an existing operating room at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and establish an outpatient clinic at a nearby office. The health system projects the capital cost for the transplant program to be $150,000.

From 1993 to 1997, Roanoke Memorial Hospital, as it was known then, performed 73 kidney transplants, according to the 2024 analysis, but the program ended after the transplant surgeon resigned.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the correct date the Certificate of Public Need staff issued its recommendation to the Virginia health commissioner.

Judge pauses Trump administration’s plans for mass layoffs at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge who blocked ‘s administration from dismantling the Financial Protection Bureau ruled Friday that the bureau can’t go forward immediately with plans to mass fire hundreds of employees.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she is “deeply concerned” that Trump administration officials aren’t complying with her earlier order that maintains the bureau’s existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve it.

During a hearing, Jackson said she will bar officials from carrying out any mass firings or cutting off employees’ access to bureau computer systems on Friday.

Jackson scheduled a hearing on April 28 to hear testimony from officials who were working on the reduction in force, or RIF, procedures.

“I’m willing to resolve it quickly, but I’m not going to let this RIF go forward until I have,” she said.

Roughly 1,500 employees are slated to be cut, leaving around 200 people.

Trump, a Republican, has sought to reshape the federal government, saying it’s rife with fraud, waste and abuse. Conservatives and businesses have often chafed at the bureau’s oversight and investigations, and Trump adviser Elon Musk made it a top target of his Department of Government Efficiency.

Strange sell-off in the dollar raises the specter of investors losing trust in the US under Trump

NEW YORK (AP) — Among the threats pose to the U.S. economy, none may be as strange as the sell-off in the dollar.

Currencies rise and fall all the time because of inflation fears, central bank moves and other factors. But economists worry that the recent drop in the dollar is so dramatic that it reflects something more ominous as tries to reshape global trade: a loss of confidence in the U.S.

The dollar’s dominance in cross-border trade and as a safe haven has been nurtured by administrations of both parties for decades because it helps keep U.S. borrowing costs down and allows Washington to project power abroad — enormous advantages that could possibly disappear if faith in the U.S. was damaged.

“Global trust and reliance on the dollar was built up over a half century or more,” says University of California, Berkeley, economist Barry Eichengreen. “But it can be lost in the blink of an eye.”

Since mid-January, the dollar has fallen 9% against a basket of currencies, a rare and steep decline, to its lowest level in three years.

Many investors spooked by Trump don’t think the dollar will be pushed quickly from its position as the world’s reserve currency, instead expecting more of a slow decline. But even that is scary enough, given the benefits that would be lost.

With much of world’s goods exchanged in dollars, demand for the currency has stayed strong even as the U.S. has doubled federal debt in a dozen years and does other things that would normally send investors fleeing. That has allowed the U.S. government, consumers and businesses to borrow at unnaturally low rates, which has helped speed economic growth and lift standards of living.

Dollar dominance also allows the U.S. to push around other countries like Venezuela, Iran and Russia by locking them out of a currency they need to buy and sell with others.

Now that “exorbitant privilege,” as economists call it, is suddenly at risk.

“The safe haven properties of the dollar are being eroded,” said Deutsche Bank in a note to clients earlier this month warning of a “confidence crisis.” Added a more circumspect report by Capital Economics, “It is no longer hyperbole to say that the dollar’s reserve status and broader dominant role is at least somewhat in question.”

Traditionally, the dollar would strengthen as tariffs sink demand for foreign products.

But the dollar not only failed to strengthen this time, it fell, puzzling economists and hurting consumers. The dollar lost more than 5% against the euro and pound, and 6% against the yen since early April.

As any American traveler abroad knows, you can buy more with a stronger dollar and less with a weaker one. Now the price of French wine and South Korean electronics and a host of other imports could cost more not only due to tariffs but a weaker currency, too.

And any loss of safe-haven status could hit U.S. consumers in another way: Higher rates for mortgages and car financing deals as lenders demand more interest for the added risk.

More worrisome is possible higher interest rates on the ballooning U.S. federal debt, which is already at a risky 120% of U.S. annual economic output.

“Most countries with that debt to GDP would cause a major crisis and the only reason we get away with it is that the world needs dollars to trade with,” says Benn Steil, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations. ”At some point people are going to look seriously at alternatives to the dollar. ”

They already have, with a little help from a U.S. economic rival.

China has been striking yuan-only trading deals with Brazil for agricultural products, Russia for oil and South Korea for other goods for years. It has also been making loans in yuan to central banks desperate for cash in Argentina, Pakistan and other countries, replacing the dollar as the emergency funder of last resort.

Another possible U.S. alternative in future years if their market grows: cryptocurrencies.

Said BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink in his annual shareholder letter about dollar dominance, ”If deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing that position to digital assets like Bitcoin.”

Not everyone is convinced that a big reason the dollar is falling is because of lost faith in the U.S.

Steve Ricchiuto, an economist at Mizuho Financial, says dollar weakness reflects anticipation of higher inflation due to tariffs. But even if investors aren’t as comfortable holding dollars, he says, they really don’t have much of a choice. No other currency or other asset, like yuan or bitcoin or gold, is vast enough to handle all the demand.

“The U.S. will lose the reserve currency when there is someone out there to take it away,” Ricchiuto says. “Right now there isn’t an alternative.”

Maybe so, but Trump is testing the limits.

It’s not just the tariffs, but the erratic way he’s rolled them out. The unpredictability makes the U.S. seem less stable, less reliable, and a less safe place for their money.

There are also questions about his logic justifying the policy. Trump says the U.S. needs tariffs to drive down its trade deficits with other countries. But most economists believe those deficits, which measure trade in goods, not services, are a bad measure of whether a country is “ripping off” America, as Trump puts it.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to chip away at the independence of the Federal Reserve, raising fears that he will force interest rates lower to boost the economy even if doing so risks stoking runaway inflation. That is a sure fire way to get people to flee the dollar. After Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that he would wait to make any rate moves, Trump blasted him, saying “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”

Economists critical of Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement recall another event, the Suez Crisis of 1956, that broke the back of the British pound. The military attack on Egypt was poorly planned and badly executed and exposed British political incompetence that sank trust in the country. The pound fell sharply, and its centuries-long position as the dominant trading and reserve currency crumbled.

Berkeley’s Eichengreen says Liberation Day, as Trump called April 2, could be remembered as a similar turning point if the isn’t careful.

“This is the first step down a slippery slope where international confidence in the U.S. dollar is lost.”

VHC Health announces new foundation president

Amy Ellis Hauser will be the next of the Foundation and senior vice president of VHC Health, the County health system announced this week.

VHC Health is a not-for-profit, 537-bed health system serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

The new role is a return for Hauser, who previously held key positions at the Virginia Hospital Center Foundation (now the VHC Health Foundation), including director of principal giving and director of major gifts and planned giving. Hauser was most recently chief philanthropy officer at Arlington’s Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation. She also was associate vice president at Children’s National Hospital Foundation.

“Philanthropic giving has always been the cornerstone of VHC Health,” Hauser said in a statement. “As VHC Health grows with the community into a comprehensive health system, the generosity from the community remains essential in touching and improving the lives of patients through compassionate, state-of-the-art care. I am excited to return to VHC Health and combine my passion for with my experience connecting donors to philanthropic opportunities that have the power to make a difference.”

“VHC Health is rapidly expanding, introducing state-of-the-art health care projects this year and beyond,” VHC Health President and CEO Chris Lane said in a statement. “The community plays a crucial role in driving these initiatives forward, and Amy is uniquely qualified to connect philanthropic opportunities that empower individuals to make a meaningful impact in the communities VHC Health serves.”

According to a news release, before she left VHC in 2018, Hauser designed and implemented the foundation’s annual giving and major capital campaign of $50 million. And at Conquer Cancer, she led a feasibility study for an endowment campaign to double previous fundraising revenue and expand donor audiences over five years. And at Children’s National, Hauser helped devise a strategic fundraising plan and implement a successful $500 million campaign.

Hauser holds a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She was a board member for Doorways for Women in Arlington from 2015 to 2021, and a board member for the Association for Fundraising Professionals DC Chapter in 2018.

Asian markets are mostly higher as Wall Street is stuck in trade war doldrums

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher in thin Good Friday trading after a bumpy ride on Wall Street, where the Dow industrials lost 1.3% as UnitedHealth shed more than a fifth of its value due to a weaker-than-expected profit report.

U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed on Friday.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 1% to 34,730.28, while the Kospi in South Korea rose 0.5% to 2,483.42.

Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.3% and regional tech companies advanced after global heavyweight Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported a profit for the latest quarter that matched analysts’ expectations. Perhaps more importantly, it also said it hasn’t seen a drop-off in activity from its customers because of ‘s trade war, as some other companies have suggested.

Still, the company known as TSMC was cautious. “While we have not seen any changes in our customers’ behavior so far, uncertainties and risks from the potential impact from tariff policies exist,” Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said. TSMC’s stock that trades in the United States added 0.1% on Thursday.

The Shanghai Composite index fell 0.1% to 3,276.73. Bangkok’s SET rose 0.6%.

Many other markets were closed Friday for holidays ahead of Easter.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 edged up by just 0.1%, even though three of every four stocks climbed in the index.

The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.1% in a mostly steadier performance following its sell-off the day before.

Nvidia weighed on the market after sinking a second straight day following its disclosure that new export limits on chips to China could hurt its first-quarter results by $5.5 billion. It sank 2.9% and was the second-heaviest weight on the S&P 500.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 527 points as insurer UnitedHealth Group fell 22.4%, its worst drop since 1998. The company cut its forecast for financial results this year and said its Medicare Advantage customers were getting more care than expected from doctors and outpatient services.

Stocks of companies in the oil-and-gas industry rallied after the price of crude recovered some of its sharp losses taken this month. Diamondback Energy jumped 5.7%, and Halliburton climbed 5.1%.

On Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained $2.18 to $64.01 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up $2.11 to $67.96 per barrel.

Oil trading was paused Friday for the Easter weekend.

U.S. Donald Trump’s trade war remains a source of deep uncertainty. Economists worry his use of sharp tariff hikes could cause a recession if fully implemented and left in place for a while.

Trump on Thursday offered some encouraging signals that negotiations with other countries could lead to lower . But that was countered by his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who reiterated Wednesday that the tariffs are larger than what the central bank was expecting and could slow the economy and reignite inflation.

The tariffs create a dilemma for the Fed. If it cuts interest rates to help encourage more borrowing and spending, that would push prices higher.

Trump criticized that stance Thursday, saying the Fed is “always TOO LATE AND WRONG.” He also said, “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”

An independent Fed able to act without influence from the White House a primary reason the United States has a reputation as a safe place to invest. History suggests central banks with more autonomy tend to have economies with lower and more stable inflation.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.32% from 4.29% late Wednesday. It had been easing for much of this week, following a climb last week that raised concerns that Trump’s trade war may be undermining confidence in U.S. investments as the world’s safest.

Reports on the U.S. economy came in mixed. One said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected, suggesting the job market remains relatively solid. But a second report said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly flipped to contraction from growth.

In Europe on Thursday, indexes slipped 0.6% in France and 0.5% in Germany. The European Central Bank cut its main interest rate. That usually pushes stock prices higher, but investors had already been expecting the move.

Early Friday, the U.S. dollar bought 142.37 Japanese yen, down from 132.44 yen on Thursday. The euro rose to $1.1375 from $1.1367

HNTB to move Arlington office in 2026

Kansas City, Missouri-based and firm will relocate its County office in 2026 to a more expansive space that will increase its footprint by 13,000 square feet.

The company says the goal of the move from its current location at Shirlington Tower to 1812 North Moore, the tallest building in the county, is to create a better work environment and to align with ongoing efforts. British real estate firm Savills, whose U.S. headquarters is in New York, announced Tuesday it led the efforts to broker this deal on behalf of HNTB.

The new office is a LEED Platinum tower with 35 stories and 537,000 square feet. HNTB’s office in the building will span 48,000 square feet on the 19th and 20th floors.

According to Savills, HNTB plans to relocate from its current location to 1812 North Moore, near the Rosslyn Metro Station, next spring.

HNTB’s clients in the region include the Virginia Department of Transportation, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Virginia Passenger Rail Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers, and the firm has been involved with such projects as Interstate-95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension and Capital Beltway/I-495 HOT Lanes.

Lynchburg transformer manufacturer to add 300 jobs, invest $35M

Delta Star, a manufacturer of power transformers and mobile substations for the electrical grid, is investing $35 million to expand its operation and expects to create 300 jobs, Gov. Glenn announced Thursday.

The Lynchburg facility is set to expand by 80,000 square feet. Most of the jobs created will be in manufacturing, but there will also be engineering and operational support positions, according to a spokesperson.

The news comes less than 24 months after Delta Star announced a $30 million investment to build a metal fabrication facility and corporate headquarters in Lynchburg, pledging 149 more jobs. That project was completed in fall 2024, and the company increased its employment number in Lynchburg from 460 workers to 547 people employed there now, including 113 in the new metal fabrication plant.

“We are excited to expand our Lynchburg facility to help address the global demand for energy solutions that prioritize both reliability and sustainability,” Jason Greene, Delta Star’s and CEO, said in a statement Thursday. “This investment will not only increase our manufacturing capacity but also allow us to continue advancing our technological capabilities to meet the evolving needs of the energy sector.”

Founded in 1908, Delta Star established its Lynchburg facility in 1962 and later moved its corporate headquarters to the plant. The company also operates a facility in California and a plant outside of Montreal, Quebec, which it acquired from Alstom, a French manufacturer, in 2015. Delta Star has 1,227 employees total.

The worked with the City of Lynchburg and the to secure the project for Virginia.

Youngkin approved a $2.3 million grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Lynchburg with the .

Delta Star will also receive services through VEDP’s Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, which provides services and funding for employee recruitment and training to companies creating jobs.

State report calls Richmond water crisis ‘completely avoidable’

The January Richmond water crisis that left hundreds of thousands of residents without water for close to a week, forcing restaurants and other businesses to temporarily close or limit service, was “completely avoidable,” a final report from Virginia Department of Health has determined.

In his release of the report late Wednesday, issued a statement with more criticism of the City of : “The disruption of a safe and reliable water supply in Richmond this past January never should have happened. Moving forward, it should never happen again, and I’ve directed the Department of Health to ensure Richmond takes all corrective actions necessary to achieve that objective.

“The people of Richmond and the surrounding counties persevered through this preventable crisis, and now it’s time for city leaders to step up for their citizens.”

Conducted by ‘s Office of Drinking Water and engineering firm Short Elliott Hendrickson, the investigation identified significant operational, procedural and engineering failures that contributed to several days without reliable water service stemming from a power outage at the city’s plant.

A brief power outage at the plant occurred early Jan. 6 during a snowstorm, leading to extensive flooding in the building that kicked filters and pumps offline. According to the VDH report, backup systems, including batteries, were not maintained properly. Compounding the situation was a lack of communication between the city’s Department of Public Utilities leadership and City Hall, led by Mayor Danny Avula, who took office on Jan. 1, less than a week earlier.

About 11 hours after the original power outage, the City of Richmond issued a boil-water advisory at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 6, even as city residents reported low water pressure earlier in the day. As faucets ran dry, local grocery stores and convenience stores were mobbed with people seeking bottled water, and hospitals and doctors’ offices, along with restaurants and other businesses, closed early. The city schools also closed during the outage.

In addition to the impact on the city, Hanover and Henrico counties’ water pressure and sanitation were affected as the two localities typically rely on the city’s water plant. Both counties also issued boil-water advisories.

Numerous errors

There were numerous factors that caused the water crisis, according to the health department report. One was that the city’s Department of Public Utilities was operating in a “winter mode” where the plant relies solely on overhead main power during the winter months as a cost-saving measure.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Shelton said in a letter about the report that this eliminated adequate redundancy and that winter — when the threat of a power outage from a snow event is greatest — was exactly the wrong season to take the underground main power feed offline.

She said the crisis would never have happened if the department had operated the plant in “summer mode,” when both the overhead and underground power feeds were supplying power to the plant.

The report also said the department did not maintain critical backup systems to prevent or respond to flooding events and that uninterrupted power supply battery backup systems were past their life. According to Shelton, the DPU has since replaced critical UPS systems.

Another major criticism was the lack of enough trained staff and an overreliance on manual processes instead of using more automated operations.

The VDH says Richmond can expect to receive an additional Notice of Alleged Violation following the report, building on one previously issued Jan. 23. The city will need to develop and implement a corrective action plan to address the deficiencies reported and prevent future outages, the department added.

Avula, who previously worked for the health department as head of the Richmond-Henrico health district, said that VDH’s report overlaps with an independent investigation conducted by engineering firm for Richmond. HNTB, which found “several instances of either miscommunication or misinformation among DPU and city staff members,” issued its final report April 2.

“We’ll of course review it and think through the best ways to integrate its recommendations into our work moving forward,” Avula said of the VDH report in a Thursday statement.

Richmond Mayor Danny Avula hosts a news conference Jan. 9, 2025, to deliver updates on the city's water outage.
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula hosts a news conference Jan. 9, 2025, to deliver updates on the city’s .

According to a release from the city, Richmond’s proposed five-year capital improvement plan allocates over $60 million in improvements to the water treatment plant and related infrastructure. The city says it already has invested $5 million in plant repairs and improvements since January.

One setback Richmond is facing is that it recently lost a $12 million federal grant it received through the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program under the Biden administration, funding that was meant to fund improvements to the water treatment facility and make the plant more resilient to 100-year flood events.

On April 4, the Federal Emergency Management Agency — now under Trump’s administration — issued a notice saying that it is eliminating the program, which it described as “wasteful” and “politicized.”

“The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” a FEMA spokesperson said. “It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”

In an April 11 statement, Avula said he was “disappointed” to learn that FEMA cancelled the grant and urged the agency to reissue the funds. However, he told city residents that “this short-sighted decision by the federal government will not impact immediate operations at the water treatment plant, and it won’t delay the improvements we’re already working on following the water crisis.”

However, by cutting funding for critical infrastructure, “the federal government is shifting significant costs directly onto our residents and ratepayers,” Avula added.

On Monday, four Virginia elected Democrats — U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, as well as U.S. Reps. Jennifer McClellan and Bobby Scott — sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging the department to reverse the decision.

“Unfortunately, the necessity of this award was made clear earlier this year when the facility experienced a power failure that resulted in loss of water service for residents across the region,” the letter said. “If this award is revoked, the region will be more susceptible to future water contaminations and disruptions in water delivery.”

Hope for businesses

One way Richmond is atoning for the water crisis is by providing relief to businesses impacted.

The city announced that last week, the Metropolitan Business League selected 117 Richmond-based businesses to receive either $2,500 or $5,000 grants, out of 199 that applied for a recovery grant. The city says restaurants and food service businesses represent the majority of awardees at 61%, followed by personal service businesses — like hair and nail salons — at 14%.

MBL administers the fund, which is backed with $500,000 from Richmond’s economic development authority, Dominion Energy and Altria.

“We are grateful to be able to offer some measure of respite for small businesses in the city who are feeling the financial strain caused by January’s water crisis,” Avula said in a statement.

Richmond says funds will be distributed to recipients later this month after MBL has received all required documentation from selected applicants.

also announced Wednesday that the U.S. Small Business Administration has made Economic Injury Disaster Loans available for businesses and nonprofits affected by power and water outages in Richmond, as well as the counties of Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Fluvanna, King William, Louisa, New Kent, Powhatan and Spotsylvania counties. 

According to the announcement, applications can be submitted online using the MySBA Loan Portal.

Trump administration issues order to stop construction on New York offshore wind project

The Trump administration has issued an order to stop construction on a major project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday directed the to halt construction on , a fully-permitted project.

He said it needs further review because it appears as though the Biden administration rushed the approval. The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind. It finalized the federal lease in March 2017, early in ‘s first term. Trump has been hostile to , particularly offshore wind.

The Trump administration issued an order Wednesday to stop construction on a major offshore wind project to power more than 500,000 New York homes, the latest in a series of moves targeting the industry. According to -based Fortune 500 utility , though, its $10.7 billion offshore wind farm 27 miles off the coast is still going full speed ahead.

“ (CVOW) is more than 50% complete and remains on track to be completed at the end of 2026,” a Dominion Energy spokesperson said Thursday. 

According to public information from Dominion and Empire Wind’s developer Equinor, the New York project’s first ocean lease received full federal approval and permitting in March 2024, a month before Dominion’s CVOW project was fully approved.

However, Dominion got off to a faster start on offshore construction, installing its first six monopiles in May 2024. By the end of October 2024, it had installed 78 monopile foundations, out of 176 total planned. The 2.6-gigawatt project is expected to provide enough energy to power 660,000 homes.

In New York, offshore construction was set to begin in May on Equinor’s 54 turbines in the Empire Wind 1 lease. A second ocean lease known as Empire Wind 2 was in early-stage development.

CVOW is set to resume work installing monopiles in May, according to Dominion’s plans, and installing three of four new offshore substations, as well as “transition pieces” — yellow poles that will connect the underwater foundations to the above-water turbines.

Dominion said earlier this year it expects the offshore wind farm to be completed in 2026.

The Norwegian company Equinor is building Empire Wind to start providing power in 2026. Equinor finalized the federal lease for Empire Wind in March 2017, early in Trump’s first term. BOEM approved the construction and operations plan in February 2024 and onshore construction began that year.

Trump has been hostile to renewable energy, particularly offshore wind. His first day in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily halting offshore wind lease sales in federal waters and pausing the issuance of approvals, permits and loans for all wind projects. Last month, the administration revoked the Clean Air Permit for an offshore wind project off the coast of New Jersey, Atlantic Shores. Construction on that wind farm had not yet begun.

Equinor said Wednesday it had just received a notification from BOEM and it will engage directly with the agency and the Interior Department to understand the questions raised about the permits. A spokesperson declined to comment on the fate of the project, which is located southeast of Long Island, New York.

The energy company has over $60 billion in investments across the U.S., including substantial oil, gas and renewable projects.

While Trump is focused on energy abundance, the American Clean Power industry association said halting construction of fully-permitted energy projects is the “literal opposite” of that agenda, and it sends a “chilling signal” to all energy companies. Climate Jobs New York, a coalition of labor unions, said New York needs offshore wind and other clean energy projects to help address rising energy costs and create jobs.

“It is out of touch to suggest that killing good jobs and energy sources is a good idea when working New Yorkers are struggling with rising costs of living and our grid needs stability,” the coalition said in a statement. The United States can’t be energy independent without offshore wind, it added.

The Biden administration sought to ramp up offshore wind as a climate change solution, setting national goals to deploy offshore wind energy, holding lease sales and approving nearly a dozen commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects. The nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm opened a year ago, a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York.

Trump began reversing the country’s energy policies his first day in office with a spate of executive orders aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal. The administration is reviewing all existing and pending offshore wind permits.

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this article.

Federal ‘uncertainty’ delays start of $1.3B Microporous project in Pittsylvania

Construction on ‘ $1.3 billion lithium-ion battery separator plant at the Southern Virginia Megasite at Berry Hill will be delayed from April until June or July, following uncertainty regarding its federal funding, according to a official.

Matt Rowe, Pittsylvania’s economic development director, said Thursday he feels that the Tennessee company’s $1.3 billion investment, which comes with the promise of more than 2,000 jobs for the region, has not been derailed, just postponed.

“The uncertainty that was created at the federal level …  just pushed things back probably two to three months,” Rowe said

Microporous has told Pittsylvania County officials to expect to see work crews mobilizing on the Berry Hill site in June or July, according to Rowe. “It was originally supposed to be in the April time frame,” he said.

Construction on the core and shell of the facility should begin by the end of the year, Rowe added. “That’s fully financed from what’s been stated to us.”

Microporous received the U.S. Department of Energy’s formal approval for a $100 million grant in mid-January.

On his first day back at the White House, signed an executive order freezing federal grants approved under the 2021 Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, including Microporous’ grant.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed over Trump’s pause in funding. On Tuesday, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking the freeze.

There’s also a threat, however, that the pause could turn into something more. In March, E&E News reported that the DOE was working on a “hit list” of federal grants for projects that the Trump administration could claw back. Projects that had spent less than 45% of federal awards had to be reviewed, according to the story. Microporous could fall into that category.

Under the terms of Microporous’ grant, which was part of a $275 million group of federal funds awarded under the DOE’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Microporous would submit expenses for reimbursement and receive payments between April 1 and running through March 31, 2028.

, Virginia’s senior Democratic senator, said during an April 9 call with journalists that he was concerned about the status of the grant and that he’d spoken that week to Chris Wright, the Secretary for the , about getting the Microporous grant funding released.

“I got assurances from the secretary of energy that this will get resolved shortly,” he said. “I’m going to stay on it. I know the governor is going to stay on it. We’ve got to get these dollars released because, again, the local community has literally invested millions in getting these sites ready. To have the rug tripped out from under them is wrong. It’s unfair and it’s, frankly, disrespectful to a community that voted over 70% for Donald Trump.”

In a statement on LinkedIn, Microporous said that the grant “began its period of performance on April 1 with regularly scheduled meetings with the grant deployment manager” and the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) team. The company said it had no further comment and did not specify whether it has received any reimbursements or payouts yet from the federal government.

In March, E&E News reported that the federal Department of Energy was working on a “hit list” of federal grants for renewable energy projects that the Trump administration could claw back. That story said that projects that had spent less than 45% of their federal awards had to be reviewed by the federal agency. Warner said April 4 that the Trump administration was “stonewalling” his office while it attempted to find out which projects were on the list.

Warner’s office said Thursday in an email that it was looking into the current status of the Microporous grant.

Meanwhile, Warner has spoken publicly in recent weeks about his concerns that the federal funding freeze could impact financing for projects like Microporous’ Berry Hill facility and the $208 million in federal grants the DOE awarded to Volvo Group for upgrades at its Pulaski County manufacturing plant, as well as its facilities in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

If a company were to lose a large federal grant after already setting up financing, Warner warned during an April 4 interview with Virginia Business, the outcome could be disastrous. “The whole project can fall apart,” he said.

However, Rowe said Thursday that the DOE  is actively working with Microporous on “moving that grant process forward.” He stressed the Pittsylvania project isn’t dependent on the company receiving the $100 million in federal funds. “It just allowed things to move a little bit faster.”

A Florida private equity firm, Trent Capital Partners, purchased full control of Microporous in 2024, which gave the company greater liquidity. “That restructuring occurred really to support this project,” Rowe said.

Another Trump administration policy — the ever-changing tariff war  — could even end up being a boon for Microporous, Rowe speculated.

“The vast majority [of] better battery separators today are coming from China,” he said, and with China’s retaliatory raising prices, original equipment manufacturers and large battery manufacturers will be looking elsewhere for components — possibly toward Southern Virginia.

“We feel really confident that we’ve tied our our wagon to the winning horse when it comes to battery separators,” Rowe said.