Groups Push Back On House Bill To Limit Use Of Air Monitoring Data

West Virginia’s industrial and mining trade groups support the bill, but most people spoke in opposition.

Community and environmental groups testified Friday morning in a public hearing against House Bill 5018

The bill would limit how community air monitoring data could be used in court cases or to affect regulations. West Virginia’s industrial and mining trade groups support the bill, but most people spoke in opposition.

Bill Bissett, president of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, compared the situation to a citizen who bought a radar gun to monitor speeding drivers in the neighborhood. Only police can enforce the law, not the citizen.

“We are in no way against community monitoring, but also do not believe that environmental activist groups should become regulatory agencies,” he said. “It is important to recognize that this bill, House Bill 5018, does not stop community air monitoring. Community air monitoring has occurred in the past and it will continue into the future.”

Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, noted, as many other speakers did, that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has a limited number of its own air monitors statewide. The DEP needs citizen input, Rosser said.

“DEP’s resources are limited, they have 18 ambient air quality monitor data across the state,” she said. “This leaves large gaps and information and data and that’s, as it’s been said, where community monitors play an important role in providing information where people live. The legislature and industry should be embracing community efforts.”

Pam Nixon, president of People Concerned About Chemical Safety, said residents use devices called purple air monitors to measure industrial pollution in their communities. Nixon is a former resident of Institute, a Black-majority town where poor air quality has been an issue for decades.

“Low-income communities and communities of color are already vulnerable due to proximity to polluting industries emitting fine particles, which include chemical plants, coal fired power plants, fossil fuel drilling sites for oil and gas mining sites, diesel fuel trucking companies, and asphalt and concrete plants to name a few,” she said.

An attempt by House Democrats to amend the bill failed on Friday. It now goes to third reading.

Coal Community Leaders Urge Congress To Include Them In Climate Action

Economic development leaders from the Ohio Valley’s coal communities used a Congressional hearing on climate change Tuesday to say that their communities must be central to conversations about climate solutions.

Testifying at a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on climate change and energy transitions, Peter Hille, president of the Berea, Kentucky-based Mountain Association for Community Economic Development told lawmakers a “just transition” means acknowledging the important role played by the fossil fuel-based economies of Appalachia. 

“The justice we call for in this transition is based on the reality that these communities and communities like ours literally fueled the growth of this great nation,” he said. “And they sacrificed lives, families, health, water, prosperity.”

Credit Erica Chambers
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Peter Hille of Mountain Association for Community Economic Development

As Congressional Democrats and others in Washington consider how to help coal-dependent communities, Hille said, they must be willing to provide new investment to these regions.

“Even as they gave us the timber that built our towns, the coal that fired our industries and the steel that made our cars they are owed a debt, and we can repay that debt with the new investments that are needed to grow the new economy,” he said.

Brandon Dennison, founder and CEO of Coalfield Development Corporation, also testified. His southern West Virginia nonprofit helps new businesses get off the ground and retrains workers. For example, the organization has converted a former mountaintop removal mine into a farm that sells produce regionally.

Dennison told the committee that as the transition away from coal continues, it creates not just an economic crisis for Appalachian communities, but a social and environmental one.

It also creates new opportunities for the region.

“The fact that coal isn’t coming back doesn’t mean that Appalachia has no future,” Dennison said. “The void left by coal’s collapse is actually making room for new entrepreneurial sprouts to grow up and Appalachia can be a vital contributor in the fight against climate change.”

Credit Rebecca Kiger
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Jacob Dyer at the Coalfield Development Corporation site.

Both Hille and Dennison testified to the opportunities created by previous federal investment in the region through the Appalachian Regional Commission’s POWER grants and the Abandoned Mine Land Pilot program. Both provide money for economic development projects and job retraining in economically distressed communities.  

But they noted any discussion about comprehensive climate change legislation or massive economic transitions away from fossil fuels must take seriously the damage such moves may further cause to extraction-based communities.

“If we don’t pay attention to the economic hurt of extraction communities and invest in solutions that show there is a viable path forward, we’ll only deepen the division in our country,” Dennison said. “We in Appalachia need to know we are valued and the country needs to know we have more to offer than just coal. Too often when discussing economic transitions policymakers announce ‘Well, we can just retrain those people.’ And I do need to say that that is always way easier said than done.”

A Friend of Coal

Not every witness from the Ohio Valley agreed with committee Democrats’ assumption that in order to address climate change, fossil fuels will continue to lose market share.

Bill Bissett, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Huntington, West Virginia, and former president of the Kentucky Coal Association, testified he believed coal mining and the now booming natural gas industry will continue to play a role.

“I believe and would suggest that many of my fellow West Virginians believe that we can produce coal and natural gas while also creating new economic opportunities for our citizens,” he said. “We simply do not have to sacrifice one industry to create new opportunities.”

Maryland Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown asked Bissett how he would better prepare for the ongoing economic transition and whether his organization had created a transition plan as the country’s energy mix continues its shift away from coal.

Credit Courtesy of Scott Shoupe.
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Courtesy of Scott Shoupe.
Scott Shoupe worked as a miner before retraining.

Bissett said currently the Huntington Chamber of Commerce hasn’t considered how the region might transition, in large part due to a recent upturn in West Virginia’s metallurgical coal industry.

Metallurgical, or met coal, is used to to make steel. Over the past 18 months, international demand from Asia has boosted demand and spurred production in West Virginia. Most analysts expect international demand for met coal to taper off in 2019.

Bissett expressed concern that federal efforts to tackle climate change will erase recent gains.

Credit Carrie Ray / MACED
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MACED
Scott Shoupe measuring energy consumption in a lighting system.

“Our concern again is that there’s going to be votes made here that’s going to put us back in that jeopardy,” Bissett said. “It’s a very tenuous time, a very fragile time.”

He told Brown the Huntington Chamber of Commerce is supportive of economic development initiatives.

“I think we can do both, Congressman,” Bissett said. “I think we can mine coal, I think we can have a new economy. I think we can do it all because that new economy will benefit from low-cost, reliable electricity generated from natural gas and coal.”

In response, Brown expressed concern that Bissett’s thinking was short-sighted.

“I’m not sure I agree with your assumption over the long term. I think you’re taking a bit of a short to medium term view of it,” Brown said. “How do we together plan the best possible transition here?”

A Green New Deal?

The hearing’s focus on preparing for the ongoing energy transition was superseded by a focus on a plan by Democrats called the Green New Deal, an ambitious policy package that aims to address both economic inequality and climate change.

Republicans on the committee criticized the policy objectives laid out in the Green New Deal, which would eliminate all U.S. carbon emissions from the energy sector and greatly reduce other greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture and transportation sectors within about a decade, in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

During a particularly testy exchange, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney decried the framework and said it called on Americans to cease airplane travel. California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, pushed back.

“I was just listening as the gentle lady said we want to outlaw cars and get rid of the military” Huffman said. “There comes a point where this type of questioning is so disingenuous and so completely disconnected from anything factual that there ought to be a mechanism to strike it from the record.”

Bissett To Take Over Lead for Huntington Chamber of Commerce

The current President of the Kentucky Coal Association is leaving the energy industry, for a job back in his hometown of Huntington. 

Bill Bissett will be the next President and CEO of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce starting November 1st.

Coming home.

The 50-year-old father of two decided being in his home state and hometown was more important than leading the coal association in Kentucky. 

“Huntington is home,” Bissett said. “I grew up here, I have three degrees from Marshall University. You have when you’re a West Virginian and you move to another state, a gravitational pull that seems to happen, especially if you hear Country Roads or something like that. It’s exciting to come home and just like everywhere we there are a lot of challenges and a chamber of commerce can be a solution for economic challenges, but other challenges as well.”

Dealing with a drug epidemic from the business side.

Bissett understands, though, he’s trading one controversial job for another that’s fraught with challenges. He says the ongoing drug epidemic in the region isn’t something the chamber of commerce can ignore, but he wants to highlight the positives of businesses and existing programs. 

“I think everyone knows that the drug issues of this country go well beyond the borders of Huntington or this region, into Southern West Virginia and Kentucky, we see very similar issues in Eastern Kentucky, to anywhere where there are challenges like this,” Bissett said. “People with money have these problems as well, so this is a bigger issue than just Huntington, but Huntington has to come up with solutions as well.”

Bissett says solutions that Huntington has come up with, such as the Drug Control Policy Office, a needle exchange program and naloxone training for the community need to be highlighted. He hopes those efforts will show businesses and shoppers that it’s ok to come to the area. He definitely wants the chamber to have a seat at the table when it comes to discussing how to deal with these issues and how they affect the community. 

“I do think that making sure the full story of Huntington is told is important,” Bissett said. “And I’m not talking about changing a perception, that would be doing a disservice to it. The chamber has to know it’s role, what it’s mission is and what it does and if that’s to benefit the people providing livelihoods in these two counties than that’s what we need to do.”

Connecting Huntington to Charleston.

It seems like Charleston and Huntington are two cities that are no long 500 miles apart, but are now 50 miles apart. — Bill Bissett

One of Bissett’s goals is also to create better ties with Charleston. He says the region would be economically stronger if these two cities were more closely aligned.

“It seems like Charleston and Huntington are two cities that are no long 500 miles apart, but are now 50 miles apart,” Bissett said. “The collaboration between the two mayors, we need to be working together. Every other state does that, we see that in Kentucky with Louisville and Lexington. We see an even greater opportunity to work more together and benefit both cities.”

Bissett is a former Chief of Staff at Marshall University, as well as the Director of Communications for the Departments of Agriculture and Transportation in the state. 

Bissett Leaves Ky. Coal Association for Huntington Chamber Job

The president of the Kentucky Coal Association is stepping down to lead a regional chamber of commerce in West Virginia.

Bill Bissett will resign at the end of October to become president and CEO of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. His first day on the job will be Nov. 1.

A West Virginia native, Bissett will replace Cathy Burns, who resigned to become Huntington’s city manager.

Huntington is Bissett’s hometown. He has two degrees from Marshall University, and was the school’s chief of staff and senior vice president for communications before taking the top job at the coal association 6 ½ years ago.

The coal association represents operators in eastern and western Kentucky and will launch a search for a new president.

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