Tag: Government

Pipeline safety funding announced

Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, along with Senator Joe Manchin and Congressman Nick Rahall, today announced more than $697,000 in federal funding for pipeline safety efforts in West Virginia.  
 
“West Virginia’s booming natural gas industry relies heavily on pipelines, which means they must be safe, reliable and durable. As Commerce Committee Chairman, I’ve worked hard to make sure there is oversight of our pipeline operations to prevent accidents that could harm both our communities and our economy,” said Rockefeller.

“The importance of establishing the strongest possible safeguards against future pipeline explosions was never more apparent than after the devastating explosion in Sissonville last December. This funding is an important investment in our work to make pipelines as safe and secure as possible.”
 
“In West Virginia, investing in natural gas is important for job creation and economic growth, but the bottom line is that we need to make sure drilling is done safely,” Manchin said. 

“We are fortunate that no one was seriously injured last year when a gas pipeline ruptured in Sissonville. This incident proved that we constantly need to be prepared and safety should always be our top priority. This funding will help ensure the pipelines are being operated safely, maintained properly and inspected regularly so that incidents like the rupture last December don’t happen again.”
 
“It would be pennywise but pound foolish not to invest in pipeline safety,” said Rahall, top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with jurisdiction over PHMSA. 

“Our State just witnessed the consequences of pipeline failure and a strong federal partnership is a good insurance policy against future failures.  Constant maintenance and consistent inspections are key ingredients in keeping our families, businesses and industries, our infrastructure and communities safe.”  
 
The funding comes from the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), and was awarded to two agencies in West Virginia in the following amounts:
 

  • $496,943 – West Virginia Public Service Commission – The Commission received this funding through PHMSA’s fiscal year 2013 Pipeline Safety Base Grant program as a reimbursement to help alleviate the cost of the State’s pipeline safety programs.
  • $200,717 – West Virginia Emergency Response Commission – The Commission received this funding through PHMSA’s Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Grant Program, which gives States assistance in performing hazardous materials response duties.

As Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Senator Rockefeller is in charge of Congressional oversight of pipeline safety. Rockefeller authored legislation that was signed into law in 2011 to strengthen pipeline safety. He also held a field hearing on pipeline safety in Charleston earlier this year in response to the pipeline explosion in Sissonville, West Virginia on December 11, 2012.  The Commerce Committee has held four hearings on pipeline safety in the past three years.

Huckabee: Dems preventing state economy from growing

Former Arkansas governor and Fox News host Mike Huckabee made a stop in West Virginia to help energize the state Republican Party during a fundraiser Friday night.

An evening that started with state GOP Chairman Conrad Lucas poking fun at an array of federal indictments coming from Mingo County, all against Democratic leaders, transitioned to focus on what Huckabee called the true message of the Republican party—valuing every life based on inherent worth given by God and not status.

Much of Huckabee’s keynote address at the state GOP’s annual Fall Freedom Dinner had a religious undertone, calling for a spiritual and not political revival within the party.

Huckabee said he believes its time to begin to value and reward hard work, thus building a stronger national financial system and defeating a party who has “had their boots on the neck of West Virginia’s economy,” holding the state back.

He told Republican Party members to stop apologizing for who they are and stand for the dignity and worth of people across the country, spreading a message not of elephants or donkeys, but of value in human life.

Huckabee also touted a strong message of coal, saying God put the natural resource under the feet of West Virginians for the prosperity of future generations.

The dinner is one of the largest fundraiser of the year for the party, this year selling more than 500 tickets and raising about $1 million.

Also speaking at the dinner, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.

Huckabee reportedly said at the dinner his is interested in again running for President in 2016. The Republican won the state GOP caucus in 2008, but failed to receive more support nationwide than Arizona Senator John McCain.

On Saturday, Nov. 2, the Democratic Party hosts their annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Charleston featuring keynote speaker Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is scheduled to honor the career of long-time Senator Jay Rockefeller. The event is sold out.

Manchin leads effort to reschedule hydrocodone

Senator Joe Manchin held a conference call this morning to discuss the announcement that the Food and Drug Administration is recommending hydrocodone be reclassified.

  The FDA is recommending to the Department of Health and Human Services that hydrocodone drugs like Vicodin or Lortab be reclassified from a Schedule III to a Schedule II controlled substance.

Under this category, it’s acknowledged that the drug has a high potential for abuse, can cause severe psychological or physical dependence, and should be used with severe restrictions.

Manchin believes the rescheduling may curtail the frequent prescribing of the drug, making it less available to those who would abuse it.  

“Hopefully it’s going to help, it’s not going to cure our prescription problem that we have, but it will sure help and everyone that’s on the front line fighting prescription drug abuse has come forward and shown that something was much needed and it’s going to be a tremendous help to reducing the amount of pills that are on the street,” Manchin said.

According to Manchin the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to pass along the recommendation to the Drug and Enforcement Administration which will immediately begin the reclassification process. Manchin has been fighting to reschedule the painkillers for nearly two years.

Drug firms told to reveal W.Va. shipment records

A Boone County judge has ordered four pharmaceutical drug distributors to reveal their shipments to West Virginia pharmacies over the past five years.…

A Boone County judge has ordered four pharmaceutical drug distributors to reveal their shipments to West Virginia pharmacies over the past five years.
 
Circuit Judge William Thompson acted Thursday in a lawsuit filed last year by former state Attorney General Darrell McGraw. The suit accused the companies of helping to contribute to the state’s pain pill abuse epidemic.
 
The Charleston Gazette  reports Cardinal Health, Anda Inc., AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. and J.M Smith Corp. must disclose within 30 days every state pharmacy where they’ve delivered drugs.
 
West Virginia leads the nation in the rate of fatal drug overdoses. A report released this month by the Trust for America’s Health says that rate is now six times higher than it was about a decade ago.
 

Manchin proposes delay to ACA individual mandate

Senator Joe Manchin is proposing a delay in a key component to the federal Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate. Manchin defended his legislation…

Senator Joe Manchin is proposing a delay in a key component to the federal Affordable Care Act, the individual mandate. Manchin defended his legislation saying it allows the administration more time to fix glitches in the enrollment system, but a left-leaning policy group in Charleston maintains a delay will have significant negative impacts on West Virginians.

The individual mandate requires all Americans sign up for health insurance through the federal health care exchange by April 1, or face a penalty of $95 or 1 percent of their annual income, whichever is greater.

The penalty will be collected by the IRS and increases to more than $300 after the first year.

Manchin, however, said it’s too soon to punish Americans who are unable to sign up for health care because of problems with the federal enrollment website. He’s proposing that date be pushed back from April 1 to January 1, 2015.

“This should be a transition year,” he said in a conference call Thursday. “We’re seeing all the problems that they’re having rolling this thing out. It’s going to have some problems and they’re going to have to work through that, but people shouldn’t be facing a fine because they can’t log in.”

But Brandon Merritt, health policy analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, said the individual mandate is key and without it the Affordable Care Act will fall apart.

“The idea of the Affordable Care Act is to provide insurance to those who don’t have insurance and to help control the costs of insurance that has been creeping up for decades now,” Merritt said. “So, the individual mandate is what holds this together.”

Without that mandate, Merritt said healthy individuals won’t purchase plans, preventing more individuals from buying coverage and leaving insurance companies with a pool of sickly customers.

“Essentially what happens is that those who don’t seek as much treatment in any given year are helping cover the costs of those who do seek more treatment, and so under the Affordable Care Act, if the individual mandate is delayed likely what would happen is that only those who are sicker and going to require more care throughout the year are going to be the ones who purchase more health insurance,” Merritt said. “What that does is skews the risk pool so the health insurers essentially get set up with a sicker population that requires more treatment and is going to cost them more money.”

The more providers have to pay to cover their customers, the higher premium rates will climb thus preventing even more individuals from being able to access health care.

Manchin said that notion in Washington is being pushed by the insurance companies.

“I think everybody wants insurance if it’s affordable,” he said. “It’s part of who we are as Americans, but on the other hand, you have to have a marketable product. That’s where the insurance industry has to work with the administration and it has to be market forces that are driving it.”

Republicans have proposed similar delays in the hopes of preventing the ACA from taking root at all.

Manchin said his intention is not to get rid of the ACA in its entirety, but to put more pressure on the Obama administration and the industry to offer an affordable, quality product to consumers and to prevent Americans from being penalized before it is available.

“A lot of my colleagues keep saying delay, delay, delay. They want to delay it and never start it,” Manchin said. “Well, this is such a mammoth undertaking that you have to start down the road of (trying to work) within the marketplace, figure out where the problems are and if they can be fixed or not.”

Merritt doesn’t believe Manchin is trying to sabotage the bill’s implementation, but still, his analysis is blunt, saying straight out the senator’s plan won’t work. Merritt said now is not the time to tread lightly on a subject that affects thousands of West Virginians.

“While I understand Senator Manchin’s approach to say let’s try to find a common ground, I don’t think this is the compromise we really want to see because this is going to have negative impacts not just politically, but here in West Virginia with those who are unable to get insurance and those who do get insurance on the private market will see increased premiums,” he said.

“So, it’s really going to hit us here at home if we delay this aspect of the Affordable Care Act. I think it’s really important that we put it bluntly to say that this is a bad idea.”

When asked if the bill would receive a signature if it made it to the President’s desk, Manchin said he was unsure, but he hopes the bipartisan support will force the President to consider it.
 

W.Va. Public Service Commission hears electric bill concerns

The West Virginia Public Service Commission got an earful from Eastern Panhandle electric customers unhappy with Potomac Edison’s billing practices during a public hearing Wednesday evening and Thursday morning in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Customers are upset because last winter and spring they received estimated monthly bills that were much higher than normal. In some cases the electric company did estimated readings several months in a row. Delegate Stephen Skinner (D-Jefferson) was among those who spoke during the hearing.

“You can’t expect people to be hit with the kind of bills that they’ve been hit with here and not have problems,” Skinner said. “The folks on fixed incomes, some of whom are here today, can’t deal with these business practices.”

Potomac Edison and Mon Power are supposed to read meters every other month, and can send estimated bills in months when actual readings aren’t taken.

Before the PSC heard comments, Potomac Edison representatives gave a power point explanation for the problem, saying two big storms last year, the derecho and October snowstorm affected the ability to actually read the meters.

Skinner was among those who didn’t buy that explanation.

“What I heard this morning about the reasons for why we’re in the situation that we’re in was excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse,” he said. “And then I heard that there were some issues in need of enhancement. I have yet to hear the real personal responsibility from First Energy and Potomac Edison for the problems in the Eastern Panhandle.”

Several customers who received extraordinarily high bills testified. One was Kevin Bohrer, who is retired from a power company where he worked at a generation plant. Bohrer says the inconsistent billing has been hard on him.

“This is the way I’ve been paying my electric bill now for the last two-to three years: I have to send them an extra $100 or $200 extra every month because I don’t want to get hit with no $500, $600 electric bill like I did one time,” Bohrer said. “I can’t afford that I’m on disability now.”

Some customers described getting multiple bills in a single month, and others expressed concern that the power company doesn’t have good enough documentation to accurately estimate a meter reading. Sharon Wilson offered a solution.

“I think the only way to get a bottom line accurate estimate for everybody is to mandate that for a 12 month consecutive period that the meters get read every month,” Wilson said. “And that to me would give a base line then and would probably make future bills be more accurate.”

Potomac Edison spokesman Todd Myers said the company encourages customers to call when they have a problem so the Potomac Edison can work with them. Several company representatives were on hand to meet with customers during and after the hearing.

Myers said before First Energy bought Allegheny Power, the employees who read meters had other duties, like collections, hook ups and disconnections.

“Now meter readers do nothing but read meters,” he said. “The other responsibilities have been split off.”

“So people say there’s not as many meter readers,” he said. “There may be a little bit less meter readers but they are meter readers who are 100 percent dedicated to reading meters all day long. And we’ve clustered their routes together.”

Potomac Edison representatives were on hand at the hearing to help people find a solution to their individual billing problem. The PSC also took comments from Mon Power customers Thursday night and Friday morning in Fairmont, W.Va.

Exit mobile version