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WVEC Green Legislative UpdateTo read the update online, scroll down to articles (or click on index links below). If you want to view or print an exact copy of the printed newsletter, try the PDF version. February 27, 2009
By Donald S. Garvin, Jr. Week 3 – People Concerned Headline, Feb. 25: "Board Cancels Hearing Under Bayer Pressure — Public Meeting Was For Discussion Of MIC Storage." Headline, Feb. 27: "Bayer Cited, Fined In Fatal Explosion at Plant in August." It seems like the indignities and the hazards just keep piling on for "concerned people." Just this week the U.S. Chemical Safety Board canceled a public meeting where it planned to brief Kanawha Valley residents on its investigation of the August explosion that killed two Institute plant workers, and to discuss concerns about a methyl isocyanate tank located near the site of the deadly blast. The federal safety board reportedly canceled the hearing after Bayer officials pressed that such discussions would be a risk to "homeland security," or some such nonsense. Then two days later the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Bayer for 13 serious and two repeat violations stemming from the August disaster, and proposed levying a paltry $143,000 in fines for Bayer’s negligence. Meanwhile, at the statehouse this week the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee debated the governor’s "industrial accidents and emergency response regulations" proposal (SB 279 and HB 2565). The governor’s bill is a response to the chaos that surrounded last summer’s incident, when responsible officials could not be located, and Homeland Security officials weren’t allowed on the site for more than two hours. The purpose of the governor’s bill is "to provide state and local emergency responders with notice of significant industrial accidents, to require the reporting of such accidents, to provide state and local officials with important information necessary to facilitate a public response and to provide state and local officials with access to certain areas within an industrial facility affected by an emergency event." The debate in the Senate EIM committee revealed that some Chamber-of-Commerce type senators feel the governor’s bill goes too far, so the bill was sent to a subcommittee. To our eyes, and to the eyes of People Concerned, the bill definitely does not go far enough. For example, the bill sets a 15-minute deadline for reporting an "event." The word "deadline" seems appropriate here – people were dead in Bhopal in less than 10 minutes. And the bill sets only a $100,000 penalty for violations, an amount so small that it could be considered simply as "a cost of doing business." People Concerned About MIC is a community organization in the Kanawha Valley dedicated to the protection of health and safety of all who reside, work, and study in the vicinity of local chemical plants producing highly toxic chemicals. The group was formed because the same chemical that killed and injured thousands in the Bhopal disaster, methyl isocyanate (MIC), was being produced in their neighborhood plant. Last night John Christensen and I attended a meeting of People Concerned at Institute. The meeting was held in a meeting room at WVSU, and most of those attending live in the area. Someone pointed out that a house just two blocks from the campus was damaged in the explosion last summer. It was an inspirational meeting for me. I sat next to Mildred Holt, a marvelous woman who has been part of the group since its inception in 1984. Mildred said more than once that there is nothing in the governor’s bill that conveys "the urgency" of the situation. Mildred is right, of course. People are concerned. Until next week, keep your bird feeders full. "Nuclear Development" Subcommittee To Meet Monday The study subcommittee of the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee (EIM) will meet Monday, March 2nd, at 10:00 AM in the Senate Judiciary Committee Meeting Room, Rm. 208-W. This will be the first meeting of the subcommittee. The subcommittee was formed as a result of the full EIM committee discussion of SB 240, legislation introduced by Senator Brooks McCabe (D-Kanawha), that would repeal the ban on constructing nuclear power plants in West Virginia. Senator Evan Jenkins (D-Cabell) will chair the meeting. He is not calling it a hearing, but told a reporter last week, "I am interested in having a broader discussion about the generation of nuclear power." Jenkins offered the following list of questions for discussion: "How does this impact the health and safety of our citizens? How does this impact the coal industry? Are there appropriate safeguards in place for how waste is disposed of?" When Don Garvin spoke with Senator Jenkins earlier this week, Sen. Jenkins said he only wants to have a "discussion," and has offered us the opportunity to have presenters and participate. It is only an hour-long session. Other members of the subcommittee are Sen. Joe Minard (D-Harrison), Sen. Bob Williams (D-Monongalia), and Sen. Frank Deem (R-Wood). We will keep you posted as this issue progresses. Wednesday, March 11th E-Day Benefit Reception Live music 2009 WVEC Awards For: Mother Jones Admission: Nuclear Power Is the Wrong Solution by Jim Kotcon A recent study by the General Accounting Office estimated that the risk of a utility defaulting on proposals for nuclear power plants was greater than 50 %, and others have warned that a utility proposing such a plant would jeopardize its credit rating and increase ratepayer costs. No permanent disposal for nuclear wastes has yet been established. The reason that there have been so few proposals for nuclear power plants in the last couple decades is that stockholders recognize the financial risks. If the stockholders won’t take this gamble, why should West Virginia waste time on such proposals? No private insurer will offer liability insurance for a nuclear power plant, hence nuclear power plants must rely on taxpayer bailouts in the event of serious accidents. Insurance companies have some of the best risk estimators in the world; that’s how they stay in business. If no private insurance company anywhere is willing to charge a rate high enough to cover the risk of a nuclear power plant, why would anyone want West Virginia ratepayers to assume that risk? Why would anyone co-sponsor such legislation (SB 240)? While some have argued that nuclear power is "carbon-free," that is simply not true. The amount of steel and concrete required just to build the plant means that it will need to run for three years at full capacity, just to break even. Given the incredible cost and complexity, there is simply no way that nuclear power can make a sufficiently large impact on greenhouse gas emissions in time to make a meaningful contribution to slowing climate change. The same dollars would create more jobs, reduce more emissions, and do it faster, safer and cheaper, if invested in energy conservation. Nuclear power is the wrong solution. Public Campaign Financing Act Introduced In House by Carol Warren, The WV Public Campaign Financing Act was introduced in the House this week as H2764, and referred to Judiciary and Finance Committees. We still expect that Judiciary Chair Carrie Webster will place the bill in a subcommittee dealing with several pieces of election-related legislation. As of this writing, the subcommittee has not yet been named, but if your Delegate is a member of the Judiciary Committee, please contact him or her and ask for support for H2764. Julie Archer (WV-CAG) and I have been making the rounds in the House wing, talking with the Delegates and particularly with members of the Judiciary Committee. In the Senate, a judicial public financing proposal for the WV Supreme Court has been introduced, S311. It is modeled after our legislative bill and would be funded through the unclaimed property fund. It has been referred to Judiciary and Finance as well. If you would like information about related meetings during March, contact me at (304) 847-5121. Two of the governor’s big energy bills have been introduced in both houses. The "Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act" is SB 297 in the Senate and HB 2682 in the House. The carbon dioxide sequestration and storage regulations bill is SB 396 in the Senate and HB 2860 in the House. Two of WVEC’s energy bills have been sent down for introduction in the House by Delegate Barbara Fleischauer (D-Monongalia). Two others are still working their way through the process. We are still analyzing the governor’s bills, and trying to make sense out of the numerous other energy-related bills that have arisen seemingly out of thin air. Stay tuned. STOP PATH Power Line Rally Will be on E-Day! by Frank Young In connection with the WV Environmental Council’s annual E-day! events on March 11th, WV E-Council and other organizations and interested individuals will be sponsoring a late afternoon rally and informational meeting in opposition to the proposed PATH electricity transmission line. PATH is an acronym for Potomac-Allegheny Transmission Highline. PATH is a proposed joint venture between American Electric Power Company (AEP) of Columbus, Ohio and Allegheny Energy Company of Greensburg, PA. PATH, if approved by regulatory agencies and constructed, would be a giant 765 Kilovolt electrical power transmission line that would run 290 miles from AEP’s John Amos power plant substation near St. Albans, WV, to a new substation near Frederick, MD. PATH would include a right-of-way swath 200 feet wide through farms and forests and other public and private properties, across up to a dozen or more WV counties, and through the state’s eastern panhandle into Virginia and Maryland. The apparent purpose of PATH is to transfer coal fueled electricity from the Ohio Valley to eastern cities near the Atlantic coast. Strong local citizen opposition to PATH has developed over several months, with STOP PATH rallies and informational meetings held or soon to be held in almost every county through which PATH would pass. The STOP PATH rally in Charleston on E-day! will be held at the same location as the WVEC E-day! dinner and awards ceremony- at the Charleston Women’s Club at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Virginia Street East, less than two blocks from the state capital building. The E-day! Charleston STOP PATH rally will be held from 3:30 PM until 5:00 or 5:15 PM. Citizens Against PATH will have a STOP PATH informational table in the capital building rotunda on E-day from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM, with maps, signature petitions against PATH and other information. For further information or offers to help with the STOP PATH rally: Contact Frank Young, e-mail fyoung@mountain.net, or by telephone 304-372-3945. Truth is the "Path" To the Smart Grid by John Christensen, WVEC Lobbyist It has always been my feeling that the American people can handle the honest to goodness truth despite what our leaders both in industry and government would have us believe. It seems to me that the biggest issue facing our state and our country is the future of a clean, sustainable and renewable energy source to replace the old carbon emitting ones of the past. The governor’s ideas for our state energy policy in the coming years were laid out in his State of the State speech a couple of weeks ago, when he introduced his "Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act." If you dig into his plan you see that the "alternative" part is anything but sustainable and would actually put more greenhouse gases in our atmosphere in the form of burning coal "alternatively"….hhhmmmm, I smell something untruthful here and it isn’t clean air. Manchin’s alternative (and renewable) energy portfolio plan includes everything coal, which means it doesn’t address climate change or increased efficiencies at all. Here on Washington St. East, in the offices of the WVEC we have a different take on what a renewable energy portfolio should encompass. It involves maximum conservation efforts first and foremost and the use and development of sustainable renewables like wind, solar, geo-thermal and bio-technologies (that don’t impact the food supply) in order to have a chance at saving our atmosphere for future generations. One of the biggest issues that comes to mind this session but hasn’t even surfaced yet is the governor’s promise to tax transmission lines like Trail and PATH. Some folks refer to these behemoth lines as the "smart grid" but to me it sounds a lot like clean coal, just another oxymoron for us to decipher. If the governor gets his way these monster transmission lines will be built, taxed and put in business to support at least five or six NEW coal fired plants in West Virginia that will help to make us the "boiler room" of the nation. That term was coined by none other than Bill Raney during an Interim Committee meeting before the session started. Don’t let anyone fool you about the smart grid. This turkey is nothing short of an obsolete path to more pollution of our air, rivers, and lands. I liken the transmission towers as dumb, huge, expensive, dirty extension cords that have no chance of benefiting the citizens of West Virginia. We need to allow the greener states of the northeast to provide for their own green electricity in the future that is close to the source so they don’t look to us as their "boiler room." Surface Owners’ Bill of Rights Introduced by Norm Steenstra III & Julie Archer norm@wvsoro.org / julie@wvsoro.org We all know that there are few protections in state law for West Virginia surface owners. A new legislative session has begun and there are two bills that can give landowners more say in the location of wells and access roads and other matters related to oil & gas exploration on their property. One is being sponsored by members of the Joint Judiciary Committee and is based on laws in New Mexico. Dubbed the Surface Owners’ Protection Act, it is a step up from current law, but we are also reintroducing our own Surface Owners’ Bill of Rights from last year with some small modifications. While the committee bill provides additional notice to surface owners, our bill gives more notice, and adds the right to negotiate with the drillers. The Surface Owners’ Bill of Rights also gives surface owners the right to purchase gas at cost for wells on their land, and would compensate them for the market value of the property taken for well sites and access roads instead of letting the drillers pay us meadow value for a potential or future home site. The Surface Owners’ Bill of Rights was introduced Wednesday in the Senate (SB 374), coincidently on the same day that Senator Walt Helmick (D-Pocahontas) and Delegate Brent Boggs (D-Braxton) gave word-for-word, identical floor speeches in support of the oil & gas industry (visit http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=8356 to listen). Senate sponsors are Senators Larry Edgell (D-Wetzel), Randy White (D-Webster) and Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall. We expect the House bill to be introduced next week. The committee bill should also be coming out soon and we will be monitoring it, but of course focusing on getting our bill passed. More information and updates can be found at www.wvsoro.org.
(NOTE: All agency rules bills have been introduced sporadically in both houses. WVEC is tracking those separately).
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2206 Washington Street East - Charleston, WV 25311 (304) 414-0143 www.wvecouncil.org |