By Luanne McGovern, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

The 87th West Virginia Legislature will gavel out on April 12 at midnight, and it cannot come soon enough. As of our publication deadline, there have been over 2,500 bills introduced and only 16 passed and signed by the Governor. By any standard, that is a do-nothing governing body, and the bills that have passed will do little to improve the lives of West Virginians.

There have been a few bright spots. SB627, which would allow carbon sequestration under state parks was amended to ensure there are no surface disturbances (such as wellheads, pipelines, compressor stations, etc.) within the state park lands. The bill is still troubling, as the long-term consequences of CO2 injection are largely unknown.

SB711 would roll back our hard-fought prohibition against new off-road vehicle trails in state parks. Through your help and advocacy, pressure was placed upon Senator Maynard to remove the bill from consideration by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Hopefully this terrible bill stays dead. Numerous other bills introduced by Senator Maynard to facilitate the expansion of ORVs in public lands also appear to be dead.

Environmental Day at the Capitol – Celebrating 35 Years of Advocacy – was a great success. Over 30 organizations came together to educate and influence legislators, and give them a clear message that we need clean air and water. It was great to see so many young people that came out to support the environment and become the next generation of advocates. The day included meetings with Legislators, awards for environmental superstars and “the People’s Public Hearing” on the bill to loosen aboveground storage tank inspections (SB592).

A few really bad bills appear to be dead, but it’s never over until it’s over. These include: the Community Air Monitoring Bill (SB575) and the “Anti-Science” bills (SB599 and HB2493). 

Given the normal accelerated pace in the final two weeks of the session, we expect several bad bills to continue to move forward. Some of the bills that we will be watching include: the above ground tank bill (SB592), water quality rules (HB2233), the microgrids and data centers bill (HB2014), and the unreliable “Reliable Energy” bill (SB505). Stay tuned!

Thank you for all your support and advocacy – it does make a difference.