WVEC Green Legislative Update

February 26, 2008

Our weekly Legislative Update newsletter for Week 7 (Feb.22 issue) will not be published as usual.  We normally write, edit, publish & mail each Friday.  However, due to E-Day falling on a Friday this past week and double sessions at the capitol, we are sending you this electronic legislative update report to keep you informed and updated this week.

Keep an eye out for Action Alerts coming your way as well.  This is the point in the session where "anything goes," and unfortunately its not going our way.  We will need you to make calls, send e-mails and even come to the capitol to lobby your representatives if possible.
* See below for legislative contact information.

Our last regular Legislative Update newsletter will go out this Friday (Feb. 29 - Week 8). The regular session ends at midnight on Saturday, March 8th, and as soon as the dust settles, the WVEC Lobby Team will publish our Legislative Wrap Up . . . look for this by the end of March or early April.

So here’s the latest on some of the major environmental bills at the Legislature.

Stream Protection Rules: The Tier 2.5 stream list in the Antidegradation Implementation Rule (60CSR5), has been gutted by three Senate committees, down to just 108 streams.

Tier 2.5 designation would protect West Virginia’s highest quality rivers and streams – also known as “Waters of Special Concern” – by allowing only a “deminimus” level of future degradation.  In 2001, the presumptive Tier 2.5 list included 444 streams.  Last year DEP proposed a “final” Tier 2.5 list that contained 309 streams, but after lengthy debate and negotiations the Legislature could not reach agreement on the size of the list.  This year’s DEP proposal was to slash the list in half, down to just 156 streams.

Fortunately, just prior to the start of the 2008 Legislative Session the Joint Interim Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee voted to restore the Tier 2.5 stream list to the 309 streams proposed by DEP last year. Unfortunately, two weeks ago the Senate Natural Resources Committee voted to cut the list down to just 108 streams.

And this week both the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve the Natural Resources Committee list of just 108 streams.  An amendment to raise the list to 156 streams failed in the Senate Finance Committee by a 7 to 7 tie vote, with two Senators noticeably absent for the vote!

At this time the fate of the Tier 2.5 stream list remains up in the air.  The Judiciary Committee has not yet “bundled” all the DEP rules into a package for a floor vote by the full Senate. And now the coal lobbyists are going after the protective list of trout streams contained in the Water Quality Standards Rule (47CSR2).

The Garbage War:  A bill that would help make a mega-dump out of the McDowell County landfill (SB 770) appeared last Monday on the final day that bills could be introduced, and was fast-tracked for passage in the Senate.  In fact, the bill was quickly passed in both Senate Judiciary and Senate Finance committees, and will likely be approved by the full Senate today.

Basically, this bill would reduce tipping fees across the state once the McDowell County landfill is operating at close to its full capacity of 50 thousand tons a month. The sponsors ultimate goal is to lift the cap for the landfill, and allow them to bring in 100,000 tons a month.

This bill is simply an incentive to bring in more out-of-state garbage, and an extreme disincentive for encouraging efforts like recycling.  It’s an “Anti” Bottle Bill!  Please help us fight it when it gets to the House.

The “Mysterious Blue Haze” Bill: We have managed to get some improvements to HB 4438, the “mysterious blue haze” bill that would “streamline” air pollution permits and actually allow construction to begin before all the permits are received for new “minor sources” of air pollution. But, as I said last week, it is the very concept of HB 4438 that is bad public policy in the first place, and it, too, has been fast-tracked for passage in the House.  We need your help to defeat this bill when it gets to the Senate.

Once again both the Bottle Bill and the Clean Elections Bill – for the umpteenth year in a row – will languish without being advanced by committees. And to round things out, not one of the half a dozen or so renewable energy bills we have supported this session has even been taken up for consideration by any committee.

Upcoming Meetings and Events this week:

Wednesday, February 27:  An Informational Meeting on SB 588 (Valley Fill bill) for the Senate Energy, Industry, & Mining (EIM) Committee Chaired by Senator Jon Blair Hunter.  Room 208 W.  From 10:00 – 11:00 AM.  This bill, if passed, would effectively end mountaintop removal.  Senator Hunter introduced this bill earlier in the session.

The coal industry will have representatives speaking.

The environmental community will have the following speakers:

• Cindy Rank, Mining Chair – West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
• Joe Lovett, Director – Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment
• Denise Giardina, noted West Virginia author
• Lorelei Scarbro, resident of Raleigh County
• Father Roy Crist, New River Episcopal Ministries – and resident of Ansted, WV
• Chuck Nelson, resident of Raleigh County

Thursday, February 28:  Special event to honor Senator Jon Blair Hunter / Fundraiser in support of new Clean Elections Challenge Grant.  Women’s Club of Charleston (corner of Elizabeth & Virginia Street).  From 6:00 – 8:00 PM.

Senator Hunter will receive OVEC’s Bill Moyer’s “Defender of Democracy” Award in recognition of his tireless work.

Capitol contact information:

WV Legislative website:  www.legis.state.wv.us (every legislator’s capitol phone numbers, office, e-mail, and committees)
Toll free phone:  1 877-565-3447
Local Charleston phone:  (304) 347-4836

Well, that’s about it.