Over 300 teens will be at the Capitol this weekend for a mock legislative session. Teenagers from all over the state who are part of the Youth Leadership Association: Youth in Government will travel to Charleston to hold a student led, mock legislative session for three days.
All youth senators, delegates, and leadership seats were elected by their peers from all areas of the state over the course of the past few months.
“We have a mock legislature, a mock judicial branch, and a mock executive branch, and we debate and pass bills both in committee and on the floor,” said Youth Governor, Tyler Jenkins, a senior from Martinsburg High School, “The judicial section actually uses the actual chambers of the Supreme Court to run over cases. We use the actual chambers of the Senate and the House of Delegates and we debate the bills there and use the committee rooms to do the committees, and it’s really fantastic. And it’s empty at this time, so it’s basically like high school students are running the Capitol.”
The Youth Senate President and Youth House Speaker are also from Martinsburg High.
Jenkins says he and his peers plan to introduce 100 pieces of legislation, many of those inspired by the bills passed or rejected this past 2015 session; such as the abortion bill, the repeal of common core, legalizing cross-bow hunting, and others.
In the first days of the 2015 Legislative session, energy was the focus of legislators’ attention. A bill that first began as a total repeal of the alternative and renewable energy portfolio act soon became only a partial repeal as lawmakers’ attempted to leave in place current net metering standards.
Those standards govern the way solar energy is calculated and credited between a customer and an electric company. As the legislative session progressed, however, another bill relating to those same net metering standards came to lawmakers’ desks. The overall opinion of the new bill, which has been signed into law, is mixed.
The Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library in the Eastern Panhandle had solar panels installed on their roof in January and in just a few short months has already started seeing the benefits.
Gretchen Frye is the director of the Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library, and she says in March, the library saw an 8% decrease in its electric bill which can make a big difference for libraries who struggle for funding.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The back of Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library and its set of solar panels.
“Libraries face, you know, budget crunches, and in our experience libraries, the demand for libraries continues to increase, but at the same time our budgets are staying the same or are even decreasing,” Frye explained, “so, we, this is a creative way for us to save some money for the library and help the environment at the same time.”
Frye says as the weather gets better she expects their electric bill to continue to drop.
Mountain View Solar installed the library’s solar panels. Located in Berkeley Springs, it’s the largest solar installation company in the state. Mike McKechnie is the company’s president and he explains one of the major differences between buildings that use rooftop solar and buildings that don’t is the way the electricity generated is metered.
“Everybody has an electric meter on their house, and it usually spins in one direction,” McKechnie said, “It counts the number of kilowatts, the amount of power that you’re using, they read it at the end of the month and they send you a bill, you pay the bill, and you get to do that happy event every month for the rest of your life,”
Homes with solar panels use a different meter though called a net meter.
“Net metering is where a new meter gets put on that spins both directions,” he explained, “When I’m buying power, let’s say you’re buying power at your house, you’re spending money on your bill, because you’re buying power, well if you’ve got solar on your house, you might be making all the power that your house is using, and you’re making excess. The power goes back to the utility meter and spins the opposite direction.”
That excess power is collected from the homes where it’s generated, returned to the power grid and ultimately sold by the power companies. Instead of being paid for generating power, net metering rules written by the state’s Public Service Commission in 2011 dictated solar customers receive a credit for the power they generate. They can then use the credit to buy power from the utility when they generate less than they need.
Those rules, however, were part of the state’s alternative and renewable energy portfolio act, an act that was repealed this session. Democratic Senator Herb Snyder of Jefferson County was one of many lawmakers concerned with the repeal.
“I think it was a step backwards,” Snyder noted, “that most states have an energy portfolio, we’re an energy state, so it just seems to be ridiculous not to have an energy portfolio, that’s why then Governor Manchin, now US Senator Manchin, did that; to make a collage of energy sources.”
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Inside the Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library.
The alternative and renewable energy portfolio called on electric companies in West Virginia to produce 25 percent of their electricity with alternative and renewable sources by 2025.
But this session, lobbyists from the coal industry told lawmakers the standards were hurting the mining industry, even though utilities testified they were already meeting the production standards. As the bill began to move through the process, Snyder and other members of the Eastern Panhandle lobby grew more concerned that a repeal of the portfolio would result in a repeal of the net metering rules that protected solar panel owners.
“I immediately picked it up and said we really don’t want to do this, so instead of trying to carve that out of the original repeal, they originated another bill to put that back in code,” Snyder said.
House Bill 2201 was meant to do just that; put those rules back in code. Approved and signed into law, the bill requires the state PSC to rewrite the net metering standards.
McKechnie says he and other solar energy advocates are not happy with the bill. McKechnie believes the large utility companies want the PSC to rewrite the rules to uproot rooftop solar by charging the ratepayer more money without receiving credits for the energy they are producing.
“This attack with 2201 is about trying to impose an additional cost to everyone that has a net meter,” McKechnie said, “Why would you direct the Public Service Commission to look at the cost only of a new generation facility without the benefit to the ratepayer?”
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Backup batteries inside Mountain View Solar.
Senator Snyder however supported the bill after hearing from those companies in committee meetings before the bill’s passage.
“The power companies are saying, positively, and my question in committee, I put them on the spot, is, are you going to increase the fees or costs to homeowners and small libraries and so forth, and they said positively not, no, now I have to take them at their word on that for something I’m not an expert on,” Snyder said.
Snyder says as it was explained to him, the additional cost will come for some solar producers, but those are producers with large solar farms, not homeowners with smaller numbers of panels.
“They’re looking predominantly at the larger solar farms that are owned by probably investors, one or many, to build these power generation units solely for the sake of selling power onto the grid,” he explained.
Snyder says installing the net meters into these large facilities can be costly and utilities want to ensure that under the new rules those costs won’t be passed along to the consumers, whether they produce solar power or not.
Jim Kotcon is the Chair for the Energy Committee in the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, a group that advocates for solar and other renewable energies. Kotcon says the Sierra Club would like to see net metering expanded under the new PSC rules.
“One of the things that we think would be important is to actually try to expand net metering and the opportunities for homeowners to put on solar panels or wind generation and other types of renewable energy,” said Kotcon, “We think that the market is moving this direction very quickly, much more quickly than the utilities are able to adjust too. And we’d like to see the utilities sit down and develop the kinds of plans that would be needed to help transition our electric industry into something that will take advantage of renewable energy much more easily.”
Senator Snyder, however, says he thinks once the Public Service Commission evaluates the current net metering standards; it’s likely those standards will stay as they are.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has signed a bill expanding some access of public records, while eliminating public disclosure of who owns concealed carry permits.
The Democrat approved the legislation Wednesday.
The bill exempts names, addresses and details of who has concealed handgun permits from Freedom of Information Act requests.
Meanwhile, it requires the secretary of the state to maintain a database of FOIA requests.
It says records requests can carry a charge based on the cost of reproducing materials, not on man hours.
It says access to public records should be presumed, minus exemptions.
The bill clarifies how public record is defined to include documents received by a public body, instead of just prepared by one.
The West Virginia Press Association applauded the expanded access, but opposed the firearms exemption.
It looks unlikely that Uber is coming to West Virginia this year.
With debate closed, the Republican-led House of Delegates voted Friday against reviving an Uber bill that was idled. The bill would have allowed Uber and other ridesharing companies, while adjusting taxi cab regulations.
Republican House Speaker Tim Armstead tells The Associated Press there are higher priorities the last two days of session.
Some Democrats say a nondiscrimination clause for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people doomed the bill in the House. The Republican-led Senate passed the bill almost unanimously.
A Republican delegate’s amendment to remove the provision failed in a committee.
Armstead said discussion about the nondiscrimination protections would have taken up time on the floor.
Armstead said insurance, DMV and other regulatory concerns have also come up.
Thursday in the House, among the multitude of bills passed, the Firearms Act of 2015 was also up for a vote. Senate Bill 347 has received an overwhelming amount of controversy among legislators, their constituents, law enforcement, and others, and no less was seen on the House floor.
The biggest change this bill brings to the state’s current gun laws is it would no longer require a law-abiding citizen to acquire a permit to carry a concealed firearm.
“You shouldn’t be taking your guns concealed without a permit into a public area, into a Baskin Robins or into a Kroger for heaven’s sakes,” Democrat Nancy Guthrie of Kanawha County said, “People with guns can be very dangerous, and if we don’t enforce that rule of law, we have no law.”
“This bill is not going to put guns in the hands of the criminals, they already have’em,” noted Republican John Kelly of Wood County, “What this bill is gonna do is make a level playing field for the honest people in the state of West Virginia who will be able to carry concealed and be able to carry concealed legally. The criminal? He doesn’t care.
“Handling guns is not video games. This is reality people,” said Republican Bill Hamilton of Upshur County, “When you do this, and please turn around and look at me. When you squeeze the trigger, you can’t say I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, I didn’t know you were standing there. It’s gone out of the chamber and down the barrel. Let’s be aware of what we’re voting for.”
“When I applied for my concealed carry permit and went through the training, I really did so, because I was being under that situation, and it was because of my involvement in the political arena, and it was very stressful to me to have to wait and wait and wait,” Republican Cindy Frich of Monongalia County said, “And I got that training as soon as I could, because I knew people that were involved in this, so I didn’t have to wait to receive my training, but I did have to wait on receiving the permit. So, I think that adds a lot of stress in some young lady, or a lady’s life under these circumstances when they have to wait. So I am in support of this bill. I think if you’re, need to defend yourself, you need to defend yourself as soon as possible.”
“I oppose this bill because of law enforcement officers across our state that are gonna be going into situations that are already dangerous,” Democrat Linda Phillips of Wyoming County explained, “and they put their lives on the line anyway for us, and this is just gonna make it just a little bit more dangerous for them. Lastly, I oppose this bill because of domestic violence victims, I know the perp is not supposed to carry, but again this law just makes it easier.”
“We’ve heard a lot of talk about good people and bad people, but this bill only addresses good people,” said Republican Gary Howell of Mineral County, “The bad people are criminals, they break the law. They carry right now, if they’re a convicted felon, and they’re not allowed to have a gun, they carry one anyway. Make no mistake, this law is only dealing with good people, and whether or not good people can carry a gun without a permit.”
After the two hour debate, Senate Bill 347 passed 71 to 29.
After the vote, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin released a statement in opposition to its passage. Manchin said he thinks concealed carry applicants should receive proper firearm training. He called the vote irresponsible.
Friday will be another long day for the members in the House of Delegates. The bills to create public charter schools and to amend the aboveground storage tank laws will be up for a vote on the floor.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is calling for the Republican-led Legislature to stay for an extended budget session.
State lawmakers received the message Thursday for the budget session, which has been standard practice. The Legislature’s 60-day regular session ends Saturday.
Tomblin has called for the budget session to conclude Wednesday at the latest.
Tomblin’s proposed budget anticipates using $15.5 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund. It doesn’t include tax increases.
It’s the Legislature’s job to pass a balanced budget. Tomblin can make line-items vetoes in the spending plan that lawmakers pass.
