Charleston Gazette-Mail - The West Virginia House of Delegates on Thursday delayed a vote on a bill that would set up a mining mutual insurance company with $50 million in taxpayer money to provide alternative bonding for coal mine operators. Read the full article. The House postponed action one day on Senate Bill 1, three…
Energy & Environment
Charleston Gazette-Mail - A bill nearing passage in the West Virginia House of Delegates that would set up an insurance company with $50 million in taxpayer money to provide alternative bonding for coal mine operators drew opposition from nearly all speakers at a public hearing Monday. Read the full article. Environmentalists and other concerned citizens…
Mountain State Spotlight - Last summer, House of Delegates leaders from both parties announced a key new panel of lawmakers they promised was “dedicated to developing proposals to help revitalize West Virginia’s communities.” Read the full article. The group traveled the state, hosting meetings and asking residents for ideas on how to help communities struggling from the…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - If you don’t think the climate is changing, consider that Charleston used to have its first big snowfall around Thanksgiving. This year it was after New Year. And even West Virginians who see climate change as abstract and distant are watching confused daffodils sprouting in their yards in December and picking ticks…
Resilience - There’s a jolly old soul in West Virginia who’s laughing his a** off today. Who is this laugh-master? Why it’s Old King Coal, of course; and, he just got off the phone with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). Read the full article. On the call, West Virginia’s senior Senator told the old man he…
West Virginia levies a severance tax on the production value of coal, natural gas, oil, and other natural resources produced in the state. During the most recent legislative interim session, the Joint Committee on Finance proposed legislation to -- yet again -- cut the state's already low severance tax. This comes on the heels of…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - Last month I traveled to New York for my birthday on my first trip since COVID hit. Read the full op-ed.
The Guardian - The rise of Joe Manchin as a key power player for Democratic policymaking in 2021 is the result of a perfect storm for the US senator from West Virginia. Read the full article. His position as the Senate’s most conservative Democrat means he often has final say in what his party is able…
This blog post, co-authored by the Keystone Research Center's executive director Stephen Herzenberg and the WVCBP’s senior policy analyst Sean O'Leary, was originally published by the ReImagine Appalachia coalition. West Virginia is at the center of the national political storm surrounding the need to invest in infrastructure, in families, and in combating climate change. Notably, West Virginia…
Sierra - In mid-October, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a Democrat, announced he would forgo the prosperity of his constituents and their descendants by refusing to vote for a climate measure billed as the nation’s last-ditch effort to secure a livable future. Read the full article. That measure is the Clean Electricity Payment Program, or CEPP, a…