The Governor & Legislature Favor Private Over Public Interests

From an Article by Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette Mail, October 7, 2021

Chuck Roberts has been fired as executive director of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Roberts late Thursday afternoon sent an email to WVPB staff and to the Gazette-Mail stating that his employment has been terminated, effective immediately.

“The West Virginia EBA [Educational Broadcasting Authority] Board has decided to have the organization go in a different direction regarding the executive director position and has terminated my employment with the organization, effectively immediately,” Roberts said in the email.

“I greatly appreciate the opportunity given to me by the board to lead such a talented and devoted group of individuals,” he added. “Each and every person that works for West Virginia Public Broadcasting has had a great effect on my life and I am better for my time here. Thank you for your continual support and inspiring advice.”

Roberts’ ouster comes weeks after Gov. Jim Justice replaced five of the eight appointed positions on the Educational Broadcasting Authority. Those include controversial appointments that led to complaints Justice was stacking the governing board of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with political partisans, who as Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, noted, may not be “real champions of Public Broadcasting.”

That includes longtime Republican political operative Greg Thomas, and Danielle Waltz, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist who has lobbied for Republican issues and served on the board of directors of the right-wing Cardinal Institute, which has advocated for defunding West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

During his confirmation hearing, Thomas said he neither watches nor owns a television, saying he gets his news mostly from social media. He told senators he did not coin the phrase “fake news,” but wishes he had. Justice also appointed Taylor Hood, an attorney and CPA employed by the Generations Physical Therapy chain, a business owned by Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, a frequent critic of state broadcasters in general and WVPB in particular.

During Confirmations Committee hearings in June, Tarr said the Justice appointments would help balance an EBA that is, in his opinion, “way too far left.”

It is not immediately clear how the EBA acted to fire Roberts. At its meeting Oct. 1, the authority met in closed-door executive session for nearly an hour to discuss a personnel matter, but took no action when the meeting resumed in open session.

Roberts joined WVPB in 2000, receiving promotions to video production manager in 2004 and chief operating officer in 2016, before being selected as executive director in 2018.

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NOTE ~ On this date Sunday, October 24, 2014, I was listening to “On Being with Krista Tippett” on WV Public Radio from 6 AM to 7 AM. The guest was Prof. Katharine Heyhoe of Texas Tech University discussing her new book “Saving Us — A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.”

After 30 minutes, during the half-hour break, the program was interrupted with perhaps 10 minutes of “white noise” (random static) followed by instrumental filler-music for the duration of the hour. A discussion to include ideas for dealing with climate change was lost. Due to the exact timing of this extra ordinary event, it appears that the program was censored. We will never know unless someone confesses, which is not likely.

FrackCheckWV.net will obtain and provide the program of On Being with guest Katharine Heyhoe this coming week in its entirety. If you wish, enter your email address in the slot at the upper left of this page, to receive this program and information. DGN

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ...... “now on - trial” ... !

From Michael M. Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, September 18, 2020

WASHINGTON – Representatives from the VOICES Coalition (Victory Over InFRACKstructure, Clean Energy inStead), a coalition of over of over 350 grassroots activists, environmental leaders, lawyers, and experts, and 250 environmental organizations representing over 35 states, will hold a Virtual People’s Hearing to testify to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) extensive history of bias and abuse against the environment and the people in its approval of pipelines and fracked gas infrastructure.

It is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 23 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT.

Registration is required for the Webinar. One can register at this link:

bit.ly/RegisterVirtualHearing

Witnesses will share stories about their personal experiences, documenting the many instances in which FERC has skirted critical regulations and laws, infringed on states’ rights, hired biased consultants, and ignored requests for transparency.

Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin, who has been a leader in Congress on FERC oversight, will speak about the preliminary findings of an investigation by the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties showing that the natural gas pipeline approval process used by FERC unjustly tramples on the rights of private landowners.

These stories will demonstrate to Congress the need to reform this notoriously opaque agency.

Commissioners have rejected only one pipeline project in the past 30 years, allowing many others to continue no matter the environmental and human consequences. The collection will substantiate what is already clear from FERC’s approval record: this unsupervised agency, funded by those it regulates, is unfit to serve.

To read the dossier of abuses of power and law by FERC documented by the VOICES Coalition and the Delaware Riverkeeper, visit:

bit.ly/DossierofFERCAbuse

Seven (7) new pipelines seeking approval across Delaware River

PennEast natural gas pipeline environmental study firm’s connection to shale coalition is questioned

From an Article by Keith Brown, Times of Trenton, NJ, NJ.com, February 28, 2015

The federal agency tasked with reviewing the proposed $1.2 billion PennEast natural gas pipeline has hired a company that is a paid member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, which advocates for gas drilling, to conduct the environmental impact study for the project.

Tetra Tech, based in Pasadena, California, is an associate member of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a trade association of 300 companies organized “to advance responsible shale development,” according to the association’s website.

The proposed 114-mile pipeline would be capable of transporting 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Marcellus Shale area of northeastern Pennsylvania to Hopewell Township in Mercer County, New Jersey.

Hopewell Mayor Harvey Lester said the connection between Tetra Tech and Marcellus Shale Coalition has at least the appearance of a conflict of interest and that should be enough to disqualify Tetra Tech from conducting the environmental impact study. “I am concerned about a potential conflict of interest by this environmental consultant performing the PennEast environmental impact statement, whose business interests support pipelines,” Lester said. “I’m concerned we’re not getting a fair shake.”

David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, has publicly endorsed the PennEast project. “The PennEast Pipeline project further demonstrates the far-reaching regional benefits of shale development,” Spigelmyer is quoted as saying on the PennEast website. “PennEast, led by Pennsylvania and New Jersey consumer-focused companies, will not only create good paying jobs, it will deliver clean energy in a safe, cost-effective and responsible manner.”

The pipeline proposal has drawn criticism for cutting through environmentally sensitive areas as it traverses Hunterdon and Mercer counties. Leaders in every New Jersey town where the PennEast Pipeline would be built have passed resolutions opposing the project.

The only public hearing held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Mercer County, held Wednesday in Ewing, drew hundreds of residents expressing concerns about environmental and safety aspects of the plan.

PennEast, a consortium of East Coast natural gas providers, submitted the names of at least two companies bidding to produce the environmental study to FERC, which is tasked with reviewing the PennEast application. FERC selected Tetra Tech based on those applications, Teresa Young-Allen, FERC spokeswoman. “It was based on who was best qualified to help us,” she said. Tetra Tech works under the energy commission’s supervision but the company’s bills are paid by PennEast, Young-Allen said.

All applications to the energy commission are set up in this way to avoid the appearance of influence by the company making the application, while also not expending taxpayer money, Young-Allen said. “It’s to keep it as objective as possible,” she said.

As part of submitting the applications, PennEast was required to certify to FERC that the companies being considered were free from direct or indirect conflicts of interest. But the connection between Tetra Tech and the Marcellus Shale Coalition was never revealed to the energy commission because the coalition is a trade association, according to PennEast spokeswoman Patricia Kornick. “Involvement in industry trade groups is not a factor in that decision,” Kornick said. “And there would be no need to disclose that. I know there is some question on this. But no matter what the industry, trade group association is not a factor.”

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, said the connection smacks of impropriety that should bar Tetra Tech from the project. “This is not just the fox guarding the hen house,” he said. “This is the fox doing the (environmental study) on the hen house and saying the hen house is safe.”

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Note: Eleven (11) new pipelines or expansion projects have cut thru the boundaries of the Delaware River watershed since 2011 with seven (7) new ones seeking approval.

See also:  Delaware River Waterkeeper

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net