Tag: Energy

Community Air Monitoring Data Would Be Inadmissible In Proceedings Under House Bill

A bill under consideration in the West Virginia House of Delegates would disallow community air monitoring data from being used in legal or regulatory proceedings.

A bill that received committee support in the West Virginia House of Delegates Tuesday would prevent publicly sourced air pollution data from being used in lawsuits and regulatory proceedings.

House Bill 5018 was drafted in response to the rise of community air monitoring in West Virginia. This refers to pollution data collected by members of the public, as opposed to governmental agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Proponents of the bill said it would ensure that air pollution data used in legal or regulatory proceedings meet standards set by accredited state and federal agencies.

But, at a meeting of the House Committee on Energy and Manufacturing, some lawmakers voiced concerns that the legislation would limit residents’ abilities to identify and substantiate air pollution concerns.

“I’m not a massive fan of this bill,” said Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha.

“I think more community air monitoring is a good thing, not a bad thing,” she continued. “We shouldn’t be hurting our citizens and getting rid of transparency. So, I’m a no on this one.”

Young said that lawmakers have not done enough to invest in air monitoring, despite recent EPA funding allocated to the state for these projects.

Still, the bill received support from a majority of committee members, who referred it back to the House with the recommendation that it be passed.

“Community monitoring is not forbidden by this bill at all,” said Del. Mark Zatezalo, R-Hancock, who sponsored the bill. Zatezalo added that the pending legislation would simply set a standard for what quality of data is admissible to official proceedings.

“Good data and better, supportable data is important for ongoing analysis,” he said. “I have a hard time trying to figure out why that is a big, big problem.”

Conversations From The State Legislature And Morgantown Welcomes Ukraine Veteran, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, the West Virginia Legislative session is in full swing, and lawmakers have been considering a number of pieces of legislation. We’ll listen back to a few of our conversations with our guests this week on our program The Legislature Today. Also, we’ll hear from a man who recently arrived in Morgantown from the front lines in Ukraine.

On this West Virginia Week, the West Virginia Legislative session is in full swing, and lawmakers have been considering a number of pieces of legislation – from education, jobs, energy, hunger and more. We’ll listen back to a few of our conversations with our guests this week on our program The Legislature Today. 

We also hear from a man who recently arrived in Morgantown from the front lines in Ukraine.

Liz McCormick is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

State Ranks Near Bottom In Electricity Reliability, Federal Data Show

West Virginia has the most frequent power interruptions except for three states. And it has the longest power interruptions of any state but one.

West Virginia has some of the worst electricity reliability in the country, according to federal data.

West Virginia has the most frequent power interruptions except for three states. And it has the longest power interruptions of any state but one.

That’s according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Electric Power Industry Report.

West Virginians experienced an average of nearly three interruptions a year in 2022, and an average duration of more than 15 hours. The U.S. average was 1.4 outages and 5.6 hours.

Most of those interruptions were not during major weather events, such as December 2022’s Winter Storm Elliott, when temperatures plunged into the single digits and below zero.

Only Florida, with two major hurricanes in 2022, had outages with a longer average duration. Alaska, Tennessee and Maine had more annual power interruptions.

The Road To A Second Chance On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, a criminal record can follow a person forever – and keep them from job and housing opportunities. More than a quarter of West Virginia adults have a criminal record, even for cases with no conviction or jail time. In the latest episode of Us & Them with host Trey Kay, we look at the road toward a second chance. In this excerpt, Kay talks with 37-year-old Amber Blankenship who hopes to expunge her record.

On this West Virginia Morning, a criminal record can follow a person forever – and keep them from job and housing opportunities. More than a quarter of West Virginia adults have a criminal record, even for cases with no conviction or jail time. In the latest episode of Us & Them with host Trey Kay, we look at the road toward a second chance. In this excerpt, Kay talks with 37-year-old Amber Blankenship who hopes to expunge her record.

Listen to the latest Us & Them episode “Expungement — Between Hope and Danger” on West Virginia Public Broadcasting Thursday, Jan. 25 at 8 p.m. or on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. Or listen to this episode now at wvpublic.org.

Also, in this show, new companies and new jobs are coming to West Virginia. And with those jobs comes the need for workforce development and new sources of energy. On our latest episode of The Legislature Today, Curtis Tate spoke with Bill Bissett, the president of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, and Dan Conant, founder and CEO of Solar Holler, about these issues.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Presentation: Renewables, Gas Poised To Dominate U.S. Power Grid

Curtis Wilkerson, founder and CEO of Orion Strategies, a public relations firm, said wind and solar are now the cheapest form of electricity.

What does the future hold for electricity generation? Renewables and gas will dominate the grid in the years to come, according to a presentation given to the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia.

Curtis Wilkerson, founder and CEO of Orion Strategies, a public relations firm, said wind and solar are now the cheapest form of electricity.

“One of the things that is a large misnomer is that people think that renewables are expensive. They’re now the cheapest form of electricity,” he said. “When you look at what’s called levelized cost of electricity – that means from construction through its natural lifespan – and wind and sun don’t cost anything.”

Wilkerson said the future power needs of the country will include growth in building electrification and electric vehicles, as well as data centers.

And what was considered baseload power in the past, namely coal and nuclear, will be overtaken by renewables and gas.

“Solar in particular, has fallen 90 percent in the last 10 years, the cost. And the next cheapest form of electricity, which is largely dispatchable, is natural gas,” he said. “Notice how much more expensive coal is and how much more expensive nuclear is. And that gives you why if the projections for the United States, energy supply or electricity supply will be renewables and natural gas for many years to come.”

Gas currently supplies about 40 percent of the country’s electricity. Big growth in renewables, especially solar, is expected over the next two years.

But as Wilkerson told the trade association, electricity demand will grow, and gas can capture some of the growth along with renewables.  

State Senate Calls On Congress To Reform Energy Permitting

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, said West Virginia is an all-of-the-above energy state and he introduced a resolution that calls on the state’s congressional delegation to reform the federal permitting process for a federal regulatory environment that encourages energy production. 

“The federal government’s permitting processes a system of unnecessarily complex, redundant and uncertain, thereby discouraging investment and job creation in the energy sector,” he said. “Delays caused by permitting inefficiencies inhibit the essential components for low cost and modern energy that are needed to support economic competitiveness, and also threaten domestic exports towards national security.”

Blair said he is the chairman of the Council of State Governments Southern Office (CSG South) as well as the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC). He said he expects the remaining 14 states in the southern group of states to present similar resolutions. 

“With CSG South and SLC we’re attempting to send a clear message to the federal government that the federal government exists for the purposes of the state, the states do not exist for the purpose of the federal government. This resolution gives us that flexibility,” Blair said. 

Senate Concurrent Resolution 16 passed the Senate unanimously and heads to the House of Delegates. 

Resolutions are not binding, and the United States is currently producing record levels of oil and gas. 

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