Shelley Moore Capito Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

EPA Foes Vow To Block Power Plant Rules. It May Not Matter

Regardless of whether the rule stands or falls, the standards it sets could happen anyway.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued its final rule to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants Thursday, and the reaction from state officials was swift.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said he’d take the case to court. Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said she’d introduce a repeal resolution in the Senate. Democrat Joe Manchin, who’s not running for re-election, said he’d support her measure.

Regardless of whether the rule stands or falls, the standards it sets could happen anyway.

Morrisey was successful in his bid to block President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with him in West Virginia v EPA two years ago.

The policy never took effect. But as Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis for the Natural Resources Defense Council, points out, the goals it set were met, and earlier than planned.

“That was also a rule at that time, there were concerns about whether or not the power sector would be able to achieve it, and it ended up achieving those standards 11 years early, even though the rule was stayed,” she said.

Now, as then, critics of the rules, including some in the electric power sector, say they can’t be achieved. Manchin points to the 2021 winter storm in Texas that caused deadly power outages.

“We saw what happened in Texas, how many people’s lives were lost, how much was disrupted in the economy, went to heck in a handbasket down there when their gas lines froze up.” he said.

The failures in Texas, and more recently in the eastern United States in late 2022, were mostly of fossil fuel infrastructure, especially natural gas. Renewables and battery storage helped hold the Texas power grid through last summer’s heat.

Levin says the new EPA rules come at a time when electric utilities are rapidly building wind, solar and battery storage. They’ve already surpassed coal and even nuclear.

“Clean energy sources are now the cheapest and fastest growing source of new power generation,” she said.

Even West Virginia is building more solar and will soon begin building storage batteries.

Mon Power activated the largest solar facility in the state in January in Monongalia County and is building another one in Harrison County.

Form Energy is building a long-duration storage battery plant in Weirton. Other companies coming to West Virginia, including steelmaker Nucor, wanted access to renewable power.

Phil Moye, a spokesman for Appalachian Power, which operates three coal plants in West Virginia, says the company is looking at the EPA rules to see how they affect plant operations and future investments.

“The development of new dispatchable generation resources and storage technologies will be critical in determining how quickly the industry can meet the requirements of the new rules,” he said.

Appalachian Power is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Eastern Panhandle Celebrates Decade Of Inpatient Hospice Care

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Hospice of the Panhandle’s inpatient campus in Kearneysville. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., delivered a speech to commemorate the anniversary.

For patients with terminal illnesses, hospice care is a form of health care that provides enhanced comfort and quality-of-life resources when few medical options remain.

But ensuring a hospice patient’s comfort and happiness can be tricky in a traditional hospital setting, according to Maria Lorenson, development director of Hospice of the Panhandle located in Jefferson and Berkeley counties.

Crowded medical settings often come with loud noises and fewer lifestyle supports, she said. But that’s where inpatient facilities come in.

Inpatient facilities like Hospice of the Panhandle’s campus in Kearneysville provide a residential health care setting.

Here, patients continue to receive support, but also experience a level of normalcy harder to access in a traditional hospital, Lorenson said.

“It’s very quiet, peaceful (and) serene.”

While Hospice of the Panhandle has operated since 1980, this year marks the 10th anniversary of its current inpatient facility. To celebrate, residents of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle and beyond visited the campus Monday.

During the celebration, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., delivered remarks regarding her parents’ history undergoing hospice care, as well as the importance of supporting end-of-life health care facilities.

“This is a real soft spot for me, hospice care,” she said.

Hospice of the Panhandle CEO Nikki Bigiarelli welcomes guests to a celebration of the inpatient facility’s tenth anniversary.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

“The way to care for either life-ending illnesses or folks with dementia — or whatever the issue is — is something that I think all of us… will live,” Capito continued. “Every tender touch, every warm and friendly smile, every professional engagement is so absolutely important.”

Capito’s sentiments were echoed by Patti Maerten Hicks, whose husband, Dan, was admitted to the facility after receiving a pancreatic cancer diagnosis at age 47.

As her husband’s condition worsened, Maerten Hicks said that staff members volunteered to host an impromptu ceremony at the facility that would allow her husband to take part in their children’s high school graduation.

Maerten Hicks said that seeing facility staff and the local community rally around the ceremony brought joy to her husband and family during a particularly challenging period of time.

“Our family experience is just one story, one experience, that demonstrates how important the inpatient facility is to our community,” she said.

Hospice of the Panhandle is a health care facility located in Kearneysville, Jefferson County.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Lorenson said that operating an inpatient facility can be costly, which has limited the prevalence of inpatient care nationwide.

But residents can access hospice care using Medicare or Medicaid benefits, which prevents any financial burden from falling on the facility’s patients themselves, she said.

Plus, with the creation of the inpatient facility 10 years ago, Lorenson said that she and her colleagues feel they have enhanced medical resources available to the rural community surrounding the facility.

In a speech to the celebration’s guests, Hospice of the Panhandle CEO Nikki Bigiarelli said that the facility remains committed to continuing to serve residents like these in the years ahead.

Since opening 10 years ago, the inpatient facility — which can serve up to 14 individuals at a time — has admitted more than 3,000 patients for care, she said.

“I was born and raised here in the Panhandle, and taking care of our own people is very near and dear to my heart,” Bigiarelli said. “We’re going to continue to find ways to serve and take care of the deserving people of this Panhandle.”

Manchin, Capito Steer Federal Funds For State Projects In Budget Bill

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, both members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, each released a list of more than 100 projects that will receive federal funding from the budget bill.

West Virginia’s U.S. senators brought home tens of millions of dollars in funding for projects statewide in a budget bill Congress approved late Friday.

They include $12 million to finish a section of Corridor H from Wardensville to the Virginia state line. As well as $10 million to upgrade the water system in the town of West Union.

They also include funding for a farmers’ market in Martinsburg, to upgrade the historic Capitol Market in Charleston and to build the Capital Sports Center nearby.

Fire stations, communications systems, locks and dams, community colleges and universities, military bases, streets and sidewalks, courthouse security and police cruisers will benefit from what used to be called earmarks, now congressionally directed spending.

Manchin’s and Capito’s seats on the Appropriations Committee give West Virginia unusually powerful sway on where and how federal funds are spent.

See Manchin’s list of earmarked projects here.

See Capito’s list here.

Miscalculation Means Fewer College Students May Get Federal Aid Than Expected

Fewer college students than anticipated will be eligible for Pell Grants this year after a miscalculation from education officials. Last week, Congress passed a bill rectifying the error, but reducing student eligibility for the program.

Fewer college students may be eligible for federal financial aid this year than initially anticipated, following a miscalculation from education officials.

Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Education began to overhaul its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

The FAFSA determines how much federal and state aid college students are eligible for based on factors like household income and assets, but has long been criticized as overly complicated.

The overhaul slashed the number of FAFSA questions by about two-thirds. It also allowed students to submit financial data through the Internal Revenue Service directly, instead of reporting it themselves.

Additionally, the change reconfigured the FAFSA eligibility formula, expanding federal aid eligibility to more students. These adjustments initially brought a three-month delay to this year’s FAFSA process.

But that delay only grew when, in January, education officials discovered a miscalculation in the new aid formula overstated how many students qualify for a federal grant called the Pell Grant by at least 100,000.

The Pell Grant provides low-income students thousands of tuition dollars that they are not required to repay.

In the weeks following the discovery, lawmakers have scrambled to fix the FAFSA process so students can receive financial aid information before making college decisions.

On Thursday, the United States Congress passed a resolution that corrected the formula error, reducing the number of students who will be eligible for federal grants in the year ahead.

Some Democratic lawmakers expressed concern in reducing financial aid eligibility. However, several Republican lawmakers said the resolution passed last week preserves the integrity of the FAFSA process.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., expressed support for the formula fix in a press release Monday. She said it ensured this year’s federal aid distribution adheres to the law, and that it will end the repeated FAFSA delays.

“I was proud to help author a fix to the FAFSA Simplification Act,” she said. “I am hopeful that this fix will sustain and shore up the Pell Grant program for the future.”

The Department of Education plans to help colleges and universities process FAFSA information this month. West Virginia University and many other state institutions across the country have delayed application deadlines because of the complications.

Capito Will Rise To Senior Senator. What Does That Mean For W.Va.?

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election. When he leaves the chamber next January, that elevates Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s seniority.

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito will become West Virginia’s senior senator next year. What does that mean for the state’s clout in Washington?

Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election. When he leaves the chamber next January, that elevates Capito’s seniority.

Capito is a member of the Senate Republican leadership, and she is the senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Both serve on the Appropriations Committee, which gives West Virginia an unusual amount of say over federal spending. Manchin, though, is a committee chairman of Energy and Natural Resources. His departure could diminish the state’s influence.

Unless Republicans wrest control of the Senate after November, which would make Capito chair of the environment committee. That committee authorizes road and bridge projects, as well as water and wastewater infrastructure. Capito took a lead role in what became the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which has brought billions of dollars in funding to the Mountain State. Manchin had a hand in it as well.

West Virginia has a long history of senators leveraging their seniority, up to and including Manchin and Capito. Capito says she’ll continue to leverage hers.

“Well, I will be the senior senator after this next election,” she said. “And that means that my clout is more powerful, and my voice will be more powerful.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Thursday he’d be stepping down as Republican leader in November. McConnell said he’d complete his term. Still, Political observers in Kentucky say that will diminish the influence the state has long enjoyed.

It’s similar to West Virginia’s longtime Sen. Robert C. Byrd. Byrd served in various leadership positions, including majority leader, and he spent more than 50 years in the chamber, using his influence on the state’s behalf. After Byrd’s death in 2010, Manchin took his place.

Capito took the place of Sen. Jay Rockefeller in 2015. By the time he retired, Rockefeller had been in the Senate for 30 years and was chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Capito Receives Award For Senate Support Of Public Broadcasting

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has received an award for her support of public broadcasting.

Capito accepted the Champion of Public Broadcasting Award from America’s Public Television Stations on Wednesday.

The two-term West Virginia Republican is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that maintains federal funding for public broadcasting.

In another role on a Homeland Security subcommittee, Capito has supported funding for public broadcasting’s emergency communications services.

“Public broadcasting plays a significant role in our communities and helps inform Americans on what is happening around their state, our nation, and our world,” Capito said. “It certainly does in my state of West Virginia.”

The organization also presented Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee alongside Capito, with the same award.

The award is the highest given by the organization, to state and federal leaders who have made an extraordinary contribution to public television.

The organization presented Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat, with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Blumenauer founded and chaired the Congressional Public Broadcasting Caucus.