West Virginia Environmental Council Preparing for Legislative Session

by Diana Gooding on January 23, 2021

GREEN NEWSLETTER, Volume 3, Issue 1

Happy New Year Everyone! ………………… January 21, 2021

With the start of a new year comes the legislative session. It’s hard to believe we are less than a month away with the session starting February 10. We expect things to be much different this year. Access to the Capitol building will be limited and the process for posting agendas and confirming public hearings is unclear.

The WVEC is in preparation mode reaching out to legislators and working with our coalition partners. Starting February 12 we will send out GREEN to you each Friday so you can stay informed. We also expect to send along more frequent action alerts as calling and emailing your legislators will be the best (only?) way to reach them this session.

All events in the rotunda are cancelled this year so our annual E-Day will be a virtual event on Wednesday evening, March 10. Please mark your calendar and look for more info in our next issue. If you are part of an organization that would like to be involved, please email me. Last year we had over 20 groups travel to Charleston and we hope you can join us virtually this year!

We have a lot to tackle this year. Topping the list of our member group and member survey taken last fall and presented at our annual meeting were water quality, climate change, and clean elections (changing the political rules that favor special interests and giving regular West Virginians an equal voice in our government).

Specifically we will focus on the following priorities with our legislative allies:

>> Water quality standards rule and the Safe Drinking Water bill
>> Power Purchase Agreements legislation
>> Expansion of recycling including styrofoam
>> Protection of funding for DEP inspectors in the state budget
>> Resolution to study energy use in state buildings
>> Just Transition bill
>> Disclosure of dark money political expenditures

We also expect to use a good deal of our resources to educate the large number of newly elected legislators, especially in the House of Delegates, and to provide fact sheets and grassroots outreach on any potentially harmful legislation as well as proactive bills.

We can’t do it without your support! Please consider a donation to support our lobby team. Please donate online or mail a check to; WVEC, PO Box 1007, Charleston, WV 25324.

Thank you! Linda Frame, WVEC President

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Mountaineer Community Meeting!

Your support is crucial to our efforts to put an end to the proposed Mountaineer NGL Storage Facility and the threats it poses to our community’s health, safety, and natural resources.

Please view the Fact Sheet document for more information about the facility’s harms and a draft for submitting public comment. Again, unique comments carry more weight in ODNR’s permit consideration process. We encourage you to add a few words about any specific concerns you may have regarding the facility’s construction and operation.

To view a recording of last night’s meeting, click the link below:

bit.ly/mountaineermeeting

Again, thank you if you joined us last night, and please feel free to reach out with any questions.

Ben Hunkler & Concerned Ohio River Residents

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