• WVEC's 18th Annual Fall Conference Approaches!
• Legislative Update
• Notice
• Under the Dome
• “Lifeboat earth” launched
• PSC Considering Net Metering
• The By-Laws and Y.O.U., The A.B.C.’s of W.V.E.C.
• WVEC Fall Conference Program Schedule and Registration Form (pdf or .doc files available for download). Or view the pdf of this newsletter for conference details.
  

WVEC's 18th Annual Fall Conference Approaches!
September 29 - October 01, 2006 ~ Chestnut Ridge Regional Park, Morgantown, WV
"Renewable Energy For West Virginia"

The largest, most challenging and important event WVEC sponsors each year is our annual fall conference. Not necessarily challenging in so far as putting together the overall program, but any organizer will tell you how much time and effort goes into the seemingly endless details. We always hope to share our efforts with as many new and long time members as possible. We wonder - will there be a strong attendance? Will the conference hold the importance for them as it does for us?

It occurs to us ... throughout time post WVEC's formation in 1989 much has changed - factors contributing to our challenge. Several new groups and organizations have formed, and others strengthened. While this signifies growth for the environmental movement in West Virginia, it also means overwhelmingly more conventions, gatherings, meetings, outings, summits, rallies, fund-raisers and more. Not to mention the fact that we've increasingly been able to "meet" communicating via the internet enabling instant information and the ability to keep up with issues, group activities and each other instantly and more often. Does this mean there is not the desire or need to come together in person as before? Perhaps WVEC is getting lost in the midst of all this? Are we feeling overwhelmed?

Well, forget about it! The WVEC conference remains the only time each year when everyone can gather together and meet face to face - regardless of our particular issues, group associations, immediate communications and heightened schedules. Feel like celebrating our growth, and get off line for awhile? We have just the place for you to be from September 29th through October 1st!

Join all of your WVEC friends next weekend in Morgantown as we focus on renewable energy for West Virginia! We'd love to see you in person! Register today (see pages 6, 7 & 8). See you there!

Denise Poole, WVEC President

Top 10 Reasons to Attend:

10) You missed the annual conference last year and never want to make that mistake again!

9) You want to be more involved with WVEC and need to connect with members in your region. You may even join the board of directors! Sometimes you get crazy like that!

8) You've looked over the program, and find that you are intrigued about alternative fuels, and Bill McGlinchey's presentation on Saturday afternoon will inform you entirely.

7) Sometimes, especially these days, the best way you can cope is to be among progressive, intelligent friends who "get it" and are really doing something positive about it!

6) You've heard about the Sierra Club's 'Cool Cities Campaign' - and wow, low & behold, there's a panel of experts at the conference discussing Morgantown's initiative - Don Spencer, Ivan Stiefel and Jim Kotcon! Your city could be next!

5) You're a politico junky, and want to attend the 'Meet the Candidates' reception Friday night to see how many hands you can shake & stimulating conversations you can have - and then fill in the gaps during the 'Legislative Agenda Setting' session Sunday led by Don Garvin.

4) No one at home appreciates your musical talents - so, you're gonna show them! You've already packed your harmonica, banjo, guitar and bongo drums so you can sing & play timeless Beatles & Dylan tunes far into the starry night around the campfire.

3) You want to support the e-council by attending the benefit dinner catered by Kiwi Catering and bid on auction items Saturday night. Sounds like a great time, topped off with the music of Jim Savarino - whew! What a night! You can hardly wait!

2) You are still very frustrated with the slow pace of change!

1) You try to live as sustainably as possible - the 'Renewable Energy For West Virginia' conference is definitely the place to be!

By Donald S. Garvin, Jr., WVEC Legislative Coordinator

Legislative Interim sessions this year have been slow and deliberative. It is, after all, an election year, so many "hot" topics seem to have been purposefully shelved for the time being.

Actually, most of the talk between legislators in the back rooms and hallways has focused on political candidates and the upcoming elections. Membership on some Interim committees was actually juggled to provide political "cover" for some members facing re-election. This shouldn't be surprising, I guess, but I never noticed the hardball politics to this extent in the past.

Thus far, Interim committees have had few topics on their agendas of interest to our readers. Most environmental issues have been assigned to Judiciary Subcommittee B, which has had presentations on the ownership of coal bed methane gas and on the need for funding for cleanup of old underground storage gasoline tank sites. No legislation has been proposed on either of these matters as yet. This committee also has not yet taken up two other issues on their agenda - the bottle bill, and underground injection of coal sludge.

The Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources, chaired by Sen. John Unger and Del. Corey Palumbo, will receive DEP's final report on the quantity and use of West Virginia's fresh water resources by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the Commission is receiving monthly staff presentations on various elements that might be included in a statewide water resource conservation plan. WVEC is watching this process closely (as is the Chamber of Commerce, of course).

The Department of Environmental Protection has filed a slew of new rules that the legislature will have to deal with next session. These rules must first go through the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee, chaired by Del. Virginia Mahan and Sen. Joe Minard.

The committee attempted to move two of the DEP rules at their September Interim meeting. However, proposed rule 33CSR9 on the use of "filtrate" from drinking water treatment plants (otherwise known as sludge) was a problem. First of all, DEP had agreed to some major changes in the proposed rule that were not yet in writing. Secondly, the committee heard comments from both WVEC as well as industry opposing some of the provisions of the rule.

So the committee voted to hold the rules over and adjourn. They were only half way through their agenda.

It has been normal practice in previous years that most of the DEP rules are dealt with in the final monthly Interim session. We are told that this will likely be the case again this year. As I said above, there are a ton of these DEP rules this year. WVEC has already commented on some of the proposals during the agency's public comment process.

And two of the rules are of particular importance to WVEC, both dealing with water quality. The first of these is the water quality standards rule package, which contains the Category B2 trout stream list. The second is the antidegradation rule, which contains the Tier 2.5 stream list.

Even if the Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee passes out both these rules as proposed by DEP, the fight over these two water rules is destined to be the major environmental battle of the 2007 Legislature.

Notice: There is a small change in the WVEC By-Laws. The West Virginia Environmental Council Board of Directors voted in June, 2006 to change the requirement for our regional representatives to the board from up to three (3) to two (2) per region effective this 2006 election cycle. Thank you.

Buying Elections

If you haven't noticed yet, this is an election year. And it's an important election year for the environment, indeed.

On the national level this election will determine if one political party will continue to control both Houses of Congress as well as the presidency. It could determine the ability of the current administration to successfully wage its strongly anti-environment agenda. West Virginia voters will play a role in that.

It's important on the state level as well. Every two years ALL of the seats in the House of Delegates and half of the seats in the State Senate are up for grabs. This is one of those years.

Two years ago we watched gazillionaire coal mogul Don Blankenship buy himself a state Supreme Court Justice. This year he wants to buy himself the House of Delegates, and perhaps the State Senate as well.

Publicly, Blankenship couches his campaign expenditures around conservative social issues such as abortion and gay marriage and drunk driving - "for the sake of the kids."

What a joke. Remember, this is the same Don Blankenship who is CEO of Massey Energy. Massey Energy has unquestionably the worst environmental and safety performance record of anyone in the coal business.

This is the same Blankenship who was recently quoted in the Charleston Gazette as saying, "Leave me alone, and I'll give you all the flat land you want."

So it is no coincidence that many of the delegates and senators Blankenship wants to defeat in November have strong pro-environment, pro-regulation voting records.

That's one of the reasons this is an important year for the environment.

So if you care about clean water, clean air, and special places, I urge you to get involved in this election. Ask the candidates in your district what they think about environmental regulation and the important environmental issues facing your communities, your counties and your state.

When you find good candidates, go all out - contribute to their campaigns, volunteer your time and energy. They need all the help you can give them.

And above all - vote!

Unfortunately, that's all that you can do right now, as long as the playing field is uneven and elections can be bought by the highest bidder.

Blankenship is living proof of the need for campaign finance reform. He is living proof of the need for public financing of political campaigns. He is living proof of the need for Clean Elections.

WVEC remains committed to those goals. We remain committed to elections that are "bought" with ideas, and not with cash.

Fall is just around the corner, so now's the time to keep your bird feeders full for all our fine-feathered friends.

It's a jungle out there!

"Lifeboat earth" launched

By Chuck Wyrostok,
WVEC Outreach Coordinator and itinerant deck hand wyro@appalight.com

The first week in April brought visions of sunshine, showers, and ship-launchings... ship launchings?! Aye, mate! Spring saw the debut of WVEC's "Lifeboat Earth", an environmental education column distributed free to all West Virginia weekly and college newspapers. The aim is to raise the level of awareness in all the nooks and crannies of our wondrous state.

Written by various members of West Virginia Environmental Council, the definitive premier piece, on individual responsibility to the planet, was penned by Bob Mertz, a science teacher at Roane County High School. Dr. Vickie Wolfe, a biology professor at Marshall Univ., has since written about the effects of each of our personal 'ecological footprints' and about various water issues. Upcoming columns deal with Eco-friendly Eating and Energy Conservation.

With an estimated combined circulation of more than 400,000, weeklies represent a sizeable potential audience. Folks in every town and hamlet have faithfully read weeklies for generations. If only 1% of those readers eventually went to our website and became involved, the result could be 4,000 new activists in the state and a new awareness of WVEC's activities and its member organizations.

Our hope is to build a roster of good writers who can craft the ideas that are basic to the health of the planet into five hundred words or less that will resonate with these readers.

For now, if what we offer is educational, and, in any way pertinent to the locale, interestingly written and positive in nature, our chances of publication will be higher than if it's in-your-face advocacy on green issues. My belief is that we have a better chance of getting our foot in the door and getting the ball rolling if we're teaching conservation, preservation, renewable energy and sane use of resources.

Once we're being published, and we can look at who's publishing and what the feedback is, we can examine how we may want to adjust our approach and attitude. Any feedback on this approach is invited and welcome.

Please consider joining our writers' group. With more columns, we can increase frequency and interest, and, as they say, "get the word out". An article in your field of expertise would help keep this 'boat' afloat.

Early on, many editors I spoke to liked the concept and were anxious to see what we had to offer. However, since we're not using a clipping service, we don't really know how many publications are using "Lifeboat Earth". So if you see it in your locale, please let us know, and send us a clipping. If your local paper isn't using it, please call and ask why. For a glimpse of the boat, go to http://www.wvecouncil.org/articles/lifeboat.html

The concept of "net metering" is critical to WVEC's Renewable Energy Campaign. The simplest and easiest way to understand "net metering" is that it allows a homeowner or business owner to produce their own electricity through the installation of solar panels, for example, and sell the excess electricity they don't use back to the big electric utility company. It is that process that allows energy produced by renewable energy devices to be affordable to install.

Until now West Virginia has not authorized "net metering" provisions, but the WV Public Service Commission is conducting another investigation into the adoption of "net metering" and "smart metering," which is a similar concept.

Net metering languished at the PSC for about four years, with virtually no action. But the Federal Energy Act of 2005 required state utility regulatory agencies to make new investigation and inquiry into whether or not net metering and smart metering is in the general public interest in each state. It is not required that net metering or smart metering be implemented, only that the states look into it.

So in May the WV PSC dismissed its old, languishing net metering case and started a new one - Case Number 06-0708-E-GI .

It is a fast moving case. By June 30th the power companies were required to submit comments, including answers to many specific questions about costs, interconnection standards, etc. posed by the Commission.

And the Commission staff (primarily the engineering and legal divisions) was given until Sept. 15th to review the utility company filings, look into what other states were doing, etc., and to make recommendations to the Commission regarding net metering, smart metering and interconnection standards.

For a good overview of the net WV metering/smart metering issues, you can read the PSC staff's comments and recommendations at: http://www.psc.state.wv.us/imaged_files/Docket/2006_08/dck20060831143839.pdf . You will need Adobe Reader to read this document.

Staff's recommendations were more positive for net metering than some of us had thought they might be. But Billy Jack Gregg, WV CAG, the Appalachian Center (ACEE), WVEC and some others of us are trying to tweak those for better consumer and renewable energy producer advantage.

According to the PSC's own database, four states - West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Dakota - are the only states in the country without some type of incentive for renewable energy. Most states (approximately 40) have initiated some net metering regulations that compel electric companies to offer net metering to customers who are installing alternative generation capacity.

It looks likely that WV will join those ranks.

WVEC is an official intervener in this case and we will file a brief statement of position on the outstanding issues no later than September 29.

A formal public hearing will be conducted on October 10-11th in Charleston at the PSC's offices. Final intervener briefs are to be filed no later than November 15, 2006. There is no deadline by which the Commission is to rule. But with this rather brisk procedural schedule, it appears that the Commission is not going to let it languish very long.

The public can still offer any comments about net metering/smart metering that you would want to make to the Commission. Send comments to:

Sandra Squire, Executive Secretary
WV Public Service Commission
P.O. Box 812
Charleston WV 25323

Refer to Case No. 06-0708-E-GI; General Investigation into the Net Metering, Smart Metering and Interconnection standards.

Ask the Commission not only to implement net metering for any utility company customers who want to participate in net metering, but also that the Commission allow credits for power put back onto the power company system by producing customers to accrue for at least a year or longer - preferably up to 15 or 20 years. Nothing in the utility business is ever bought unless it can show an income recovery plan for the investment in a 15 to 20 year time frame. This would generate more incentive for renewable energy producers than would the two-month credit period currently recommended by the Commission's staff.

(This article was written by WVEC member Frank Young, with additional information provided by WVEC members Jim Kotcon and Allan Tweddle. For more information, you may contact them by email: fyoung@mountain.net, jkotcon@wvu.edu, and allantweddle@msn.com).

The By-Laws and Y.O.U.
The A.B.C.'s of W.V.E.C.

By Chuck Wyrostok, WVEC Vice-President

It recently occurred to me that, with our annual conference upon us, some folks out there could do with a brief primer on some of WVEC's By-Laws. During that weekend, our current Board of Directors will choose some new officers and some new board members to represent the Council's eight geographical regions.

How does this work? Well, first of all, members must come forth (or be wrangled into) participating in some of the essential work that keeps E-Council a working, organic entity. Through sometimes difficult times, they are the ones who continue to breathe creative, supportive life into this "council" of many environmental organizations.

It's a diverse blend of very different people, from the eastern reaches over by DC, west to Kentucky....people who are willing to fight for one common, basic human right: a rich, clean environment. It ain't easy, but you already know the nature of this vital work. Sisters and brothers worldwide do it. This is our part in the big picture.

Alrighty then...in a nutshell, officers of the Council are the President, Vice-President, Immediate Past President, Secretary, and Treasurer. They come from, and are chosen by, the current Board and serve for two years.

Regional directors, two from each of our eight regions, plus three at-large directors make up the bulk of the Board. All can serve up to six years (two three-year terms), with exceptions. Terms are staggered so that one-third of the positions will be refilled each year.

Amazingly, several of the Regions are presently short on reps.

Stalwart ex-prez Gary Zuckett is alone in Northern Panhandle's Region 6, Shelli Turner's alone in the huge Southern Region 7, and tireless Jim Kotcon flies solo in the North Central Region 5 emanating out of Morgantown. Obviously, they would love company. The Regions meet Saturday Sept. 30th at noon. We'll have regional maps to guide you to your group. Even if you can't handle being on the Board, come sit in and meet your neighbors.

So, you're thinking, "where do I sign up?!?"

Or you're thinking "where am I going to find the time to attend maybe six Board meetings a year? Stage a house party fund-raiser? Find some commercial sponsors?....hand out brochures? Perhaps be on a working committee?". Hell if I know. But I do know that much of this work can take place on-line from your home, saving hours, phone bills and petrol...and that even a few hours a month can make a worthwhile difference in our movement.

As vice-president, I've worked with a highly talented, dedicated, tenacious core of people in WVEC who keep giving what they can to the cause. It's time for new talent and perhaps talented old friends to come forward. Help get our innovative Renewable Energy Campaign into the hearts and minds of Mountaineers. Write a column for our "Lifeboat Earth" media series. Scan www.wvecouncil.org and offer suggestions, contributions. Help with fund-raising for our vital presence at the Capitol. And, if you can't find the time right now, but perhaps know someone who can.....wrangle 'em !