By Luanne McGovern, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

By publication date, the West Virginia legislative session (also known as the “Bad Idea Factory”) will be halfway over, and this update will already be semi-out of date. So far, there have been almost 1,200 House and 750 Senate bills introduced, as well as over 100 resolutions. Here are some directions we are seeing on issues of concern to the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Highlands region.

Data Centers

Numerous data center-related bills have already been introduced this session. The Governor, Patrick Morrisey, continues to push for a statewide increase in data center buildout, in spite of significant pushback from the public. The worst bill introduced so far is HB4103, which would give huge tax credits to data center developers. Tax credits take directly from the people of West Virginia and leave less funding for important issues such as health care and flood resiliency. The Conservancy and West Virginia Citizen Action Group both issued action alerts on this bill, which generated over 700 comments to the House Finance Committee. As of publication, the bill has been pulled from the committee schedule, but we expect it to return in an amended form.

The Legislative Rule Making Committee met on Jan. 28, 2026, to finalize rules around the implementation of last year’s HB2014 concerning microgrids and data centers. In spite of over 900 comments on the rule, it was passed with little real discussion. There are other data center bills being introduced almost daily, some good (addressing water issues and restoring local control) and some bad (tax credits for using coal to power data centers). We will have to wait and see if any of these bills progress.

Clean Water and Air, Energy Policy

We will be closely watching a bill (SB641) to again attempt to weaken the above ground storage tanks rules that were enacted after the 2014 Freedom Industries water crisis. Bills are introduced every year to chip away at the rules protecting our water supplies, in spite of West Virginia having some of the worst water systems in the country.

A plethora of bad bills have been introduced to encourage and subsidize the buildout of coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. Republicans are again targeting net metering rules around solar generation (HB4556). Community air monitors, such as the Purple Air monitors installed across Tucker County, are again under attack (SB88). And the aptly nicknamed “Anti Science” bill (SB475) is back again – making it impossible for West Virginia to implement any regulations around PFAS chemicals that are more stringent than those of the federal government.

There are a few good bills in progress. The Democrats have again introduced bills that would allow community solar (SB88 and HB4111). The River Access bill (SB708) failed last year but has been brought back to make improvements to public river access whenever a bridge project is undertaken.

Given that almost 2,000 bills have been introduced in only three weeks, it is impossible to keep updated on everything that is happening in Charleston. We will continue to inform our members on issues of critical concern and will ask for your support through targeted action alerts. The best way to stay engaged is to contact your legislators directly, either through a phone call or email, and let them know what you care about. The Conservancy has a tool to quickly find out who your representatives are via the conservancy’s webpage.