Public Hearing Story Archives - Page 2 of 3 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Public Hearing On Abortion Law Debate Highly Charged, Emotional

More than 100 people signed up to speak at a public hearing Wednesday on the abortion bill.

With so many wanting to speak, each person was given 45 seconds. Several were escorted out of the chamber by police for running overtime.

Several of the women who spoke said they have had one or multiple abortions. Others said not having an abortion made their lives better.

Rev. Emily Harden, a Presbyterian minister, said she did not regret her two abortions.

“They’ve made my life better. They’ve made my children’s lives better,” Harden said. “It is perfectly acceptable within my religious faith that I’ve done this. The way that we are using religion to make laws that govern our bodies is truly evil. And I hope that you all know that the blood of West Virginians will be on your hands.”

Lorie Lugursky, with West Virginians for Life, said she got pregnant at 15 and was told abortion was her best choice.

“Wrong. At five months pregnant laying on an abortionist table, God saved my baby girl,” Lugursky said. “The abortionist told me to get out as I was being uncooperative. And my daughter now, praise God, is a mother of three. She’s a pro life warrior.”

Sean O’Leary, Senior Policy Analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy spoke of cause and effect.

“Too often, policies in the state disproportionately harm vulnerable people, abortion bans are no different,” O’Leary said. “Seventy five percent of people who seek abortions are low income people without access to family work supports like parental leave or affordable childcare. Over half have recently gone through disruptive life events such as death of a family member or job loss. Most already have a child when access to abortion is denied. The consequences are profound.”

Tranae Mathis listed her representation as a servant of Jesus Christ.

“We as women know that two pink lines mean that we are carrying life and abortion stops that beating heart,” Mathis said. “The goal of an abortion is always prenatal death, and the baby is the only one with no bodily autonomy because her mother has deemed her insignificant.”

The public hearing was requested by legislators as a part of the proceedings for House Bill 302, called by the governor to clarify the state’s conflicting abortion laws.

W.Va. DEP Holds Public Hearing On Rockwool Stormwater Permits

More than 100 people spoke at a public hearing in Shepherdstown this week hosted by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.

The hearing was for two proposed stormwater-related permits to be issued to Denmark-based Rockwool in Ranson, Jefferson County.

Jefferson County’s predominantly karst geology – a porous, spongy type of rock that is prone to sinkholes – was a major talking point at Wednesday night’s public hearing.

“Our karst geology should not be a toilet for Rockwool’s contaminants,” local resident Ruth Hatcher said from the podium of the Storer Ballroom in Shepherd University’s Student Center.

Hatcher was one of more than 100 speakers at the DEP’s hearing who spoke out against issuing two stormwater management permits to Rockwool.

Rockwool, a stone wool manufacturing plant that is currently under construction in Ranson and has drawn heated debate across the region for more than a year, is requesting for its Construction Stormwater Permit (WVR108876) to be reissued. The permit requires regulation of erosion control and stormwater runoff during construction of a facility.

Rockwool is also requesting an Industrial Stormwater Permit (WVG611896), that would regulate stormwater after construction is complete.

But residents are concerned that if an accident occurs, the runoff would affect the area’s karst geology, seeping into the ground and contaminating drinking water for a large portion of Jefferson County residents.

Out of the more than 100 speakers, only one person spoke in favor of the stormwater permits.

Those opposed to Rockwool are hopeful that if the permits are not issued, it could effectively stop construction of the Rockwool plant.

The public comment period ends at 8:00 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2019.

Public comments can be submitted via email at dep.comments@wv.gov.

West Virginia House to Hold Public Hearing on Controversial Education Reform Measure

The West Virginia House of Delegates will hold a public hearing on a long, sweeping and controversial education reform bill. At the request of Speaker Roger Hanshaw, the House Finance Committee will allow members of the public to share their thoughts about Senate Bill 451 at 8 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 11.

The bill, which passed the Senate this week on an 18-16 vote, ties teacher and school service personnel pay raises to a long list of provisions public educators and their unions oppose. Those include the establishment of charter schools and education savings accounts.

The House Education Committee unveiled this week a proposed strike-and-insert amendment to the measure. That version of the bill removes a non-serverability clause and a provision that would force members to sign off annually on the deduction of union dues. Other significant changes to the bill are included in the Education Committee’s version of the proposal, which is still being considered by that panel.

As of now, the strike-and-insert is only formative and would become the official version of the bill if and when the amendment is adopted on second reading on the House floor.

With the bill still being discussed in the Education Committee, Speaker Hanshaw called Thursday for the public hearing.

“We said from the start of our deliberations that we would accept input from all sides in this process, and that includes hearing from our teachers, students, parents and administrators,” Hanshaw said. “A public hearing will allow our citizens, and all those affected by this bill, the opportunity to have their voices heard.”

The Education Committee met Thursday morning and had planned to continue consideration of the bill the same afternoon until Hanshaw had made the request for the public hearing. That committee will resume consideration of the bill Thursday evening and at 9 a.m. Friday.

According to House Rule 84, the House Finance Committee will be able to consider the bill following the public hearing.

The public hearing on Senate Bill 451 will come just days after education and service personnel unions will gather members in Flatwoods for a statewide meeting on Feb. 8. Local chapters are voting this week to decide whether to authorize their leaders to call a work stoppage if they deem it necessary.

Residents Speak Out Against Mountaineer Gas Pipeline and Rockwool at Public Hearing in Shepherdstown

The West Virginia Public Service Commission traveled to Shepherdstown this week for a public hearing to address concerns about a pipeline expansion project in the Eastern Panhandle. About a hundred people showed up to rally before the event. Dozens went on to speak during the hearing – and many took the opportunity to mention the controversial Rockwool manufacturing company.

Martinsburg resident Stewart Acuff was one of several people who spoke against the pipeline and Rockwool at the PSC’s hearing Wednesday night.

“The people of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia have said over and over and over again in huge numbers, we don’t want this damn pipeline, and we don’t want Rockwool,” Acuff said.

Many attendees asked the PSC commissioners not to approve Mountaineer Gas’ expansion pipeline into the Eastern Panhandle.

That pipeline is being built between Berkeley Springs and Martinsburg, and construction began in March. It will be more than 22 miles long.

Project developers Mountaineer Gas and TransCanada say the pipeline will bring natural gas to Jefferson and Morgan Counties.

Mountaineer Gas has proposed to invest nearly $120 million for infrastructure replacements and system upgrades from 2019 through 2023, including roughly $16.5 million for ongoing investments to expand and enhance service in Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties.

But several residents at the hearing shared concerns about the pipeline’s impact on the Panhandle’s karst geology of sinkholes, springs and caves.

Speakers also mentioned a controversial insulation manufacturing plant being built in Ranson just a few miles from public schools and homes. The plant, Denmark-based Rockwool, will make stone wool insulation. The Ranson facility would feature two, 21-story smokestacks releasing chemicals like formaldehyde.

Rockwool has said the gas pipeline would be crucial for its operation.

“Rockwool has been working with Mountaineer Gas Company,” said General Counsel for Rockwool North America Ken Cammaroto. “And we have committed to being a loyal gas customer to Mountaineer Gas.”

Of the roughly 100 people who came out to the hearing, about five spoke in favor of the pipeline and Rockwool plant.

PSC Communication Director Susan Small says the commission will now have two months before making a ruling on December 28. The public can still submit formal comments on the issue online.

EPA Gathers Coal Country Comments about Climate Plan Repeal

The coal industry and environmentalists are squaring off at a two-day public hearing over the Trump administration’s planned repeal of an Obama-era plan to limit planet-warming carbon emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency is holding the only scheduled hearing on the reversal in Charleston, West Virginia. The state is heavily dependent on coal mining.

The Clean Power Plan sought to ratchet down use of the dirtiest fossil fuel. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of the carbon emissions driving climate change.

Among those testifying Tuesday was Bob Murray, chief executive Murray Energy Corp. He derided the Obama plan as an illegal power grab that devastated his industry, costing coal miners their livelihoods.

Sierra Club’s climate-policy director Liz Perera countered that the proposed repeal ignores scientific reality.

EPA to Hold Hearing on Climate Plan Repeal in West Virginia

The Trump administration announced Thursday it will hold a public hearing in West Virginia on its plan to nullify an Obama-era plan to limit planet-warming carbon emissions. The state is economically dependent on coal mining.

The Environmental Protection Agency will take comments on its proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan in Charleston, the state capital, on Nov. 28 and 29.

“The EPA is headed to the heart of coal country to hear from those most impacted by the CPP and get their comments on the proposed repeal rule,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “The agency looks forward to hearing from all interested stakeholders.”

No other public hearings have yet been scheduled. EPA will also accept written comments about the proposed repeal through mid-January.

“We encourage stakeholders to participate, and submit comments online — including any requests for additional public meetings,” said Liz Bowman, an EPA spokeswoman. “As this is a vital issue that affects people across the country, we will do our best to respond to requests for additional meetings.”

Under the Obama administration, EPA held four multiday public hearings — in Washington, Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Denver — to collect feedback before issuing the Clean Power Plan in 2015. About two dozen conservative-leaning states and a battery of fossil-fuel companies immediately sued, successfully preventing the carbon reduction plan from taking effect prior to the election of Donald Trump, who as a candidate pledged to repeal it.

A Republican lawyer who previously served as the attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt was among those who fought the Clean Power Plan in court. Since his appointment by Trump to lead EPA, he has made the delay and reversal of recent environmental regulations negatively impacting the profits of coal and petrochemical companies a priority.

Though Trump, Pruitt and others have blamed environmental regulations for the loss of coal-mining jobs, many industry insiders concede that it has been the accelerating shift of electric utilities using cheaper and cleaner-burning natural gas that is the primary culprit.

Pruitt has also sought to cast doubt on the consensus of climate scientists that the continued burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of global warming. Scientists say climate change has already triggered rising seas and more extreme weather, including killer heat waves, worsened droughts and torrential rains.

A Government Accountability Office report released earlier this month concluded that the impacts from climate change are already costing the federal government money, and those costs will likely increase over time.

U.S. taxpayers spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and insurance payouts from floods and crop failures. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year’s wildfires and three major hurricanes, expected to be among the most costly in the nation’s history.

The report predicts these costs will only grow in the future, averaging a budget busting $35 billion each year by 2050 — a figure that recent history would suggest is a conservative estimate.

Bill Price, an organizer for the Sierra Club based in West Virginia, worried that by holding the public hearing where support for both Trump and coal are the strongest, the administration hoped that those opposed to that agenda might be more reticent to speak out.

“There is a concern that the scheduled hearing in West Virginia has all the markings of a sham, that only gives a dying industry a venue to intimidate people,” Price said. “It is our hope that the hearing will provide a safe place where all viewpoints can be heard.”