West Virginia Citizen Action Group Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

West Virginia American Water Seeking Rate Increase

West Virginia American Water has applied to the Public Service Commission to build a new water plant at the former Century Aluminum site in Jackson County to support development planned there by Berkshire Hathaway.

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Ravenswood lost hundreds of jobs when Century Aluminum closed, and the new development could help to bring jobs back to the area. However, residents will see an increase in their water rates.

The average customer that uses 3,000 gallons of water a month will pay a $0.38 increase or $4.56 annually. This increase will be for all customers of West Virginia American Water, not just those in Jackson County.

“Should people in other counties be paying to support jobs in Jackson County?” asked Gary Zuckett of Citizen Action Group. “The economic development authority obviously thinks that’s the case, we’ll see what the Public Service Commission says. The project is supported by the West Virginia Economic Development Office.”

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reached out to West Virginia American Water, the Public Service Commission and the county commissions in Jackson and Kanawha counties but all declined to comment on the project application.

Two Groups Oppose Sale of West Virginia Coal-Fired Plant

Environmental advocates are urging West Virginia’s Public Service Commission to reject two power companies’ proposal to pay $195 million for a 37-year-old coal-fired power plant, saying it will saddle 530,000 ratepayers with the expenses and market risks.

Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. this year proposed purchasing the 1,300-megawatt-capacity plant along the Ohio River near Belmont from Allegheny Energy Supply.

They called it “the least-cost source to meet a steadily increasing capacity shortfall” in the utilities’ service areas that would initially cut average ratepayer bills by about $12 annually.

In a brief to the commission, West Virginia Citizen Action Group and West Virginia Solar United Neighborhoods say the sale among FirstEnergy Corp. entities mainly shifts risks and costs from the corporation to customers whose rates would rise later.

Women’s March on Capitol Grounds: 'We Want our Voices Heard'

About 2,800 people gathered outside the Capitol in Charleston on Saturday, Jan. 21, to show their support for women’s equality one day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The march was one of roughly 600 “sister marches” to the Women’s March on Washington in Washington, D.C., which was organized as a march for women’s equality as well as for other marginalized groups. Hundreds of thousands of people attended the Women’s March on Washington.

More than 1,000 people RSVP’d to the Charleston march online. According to event organizers, approximately 2,800 people participated in Saturday’s march at the West Virginia State Capitol.

The event was organized by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, the West Virginia Citizen Action Group and West Virginia Focus on Reproductive Education and Equality.

"I'm here so that my daughter has what she needs to have a good life. Everybody has the right to love who they want to love and raise their children the way they want to raise them to be healthy and safe." -march participant Jessica Ball.

“Everything that we’ve been fighting for for years I think is at stake here,” said one of the marchers, Mary Bolton, who lives in Institute, West Virginia. “As an African American mother and grandmother, I’m concerned about the state of affairs in our country. I’m concerned about the rhetoric, and what our current president has unleashed in our society. And I am determined to have a voice and to educate and to help other women, men and children turn this tide around.”

Although most of the marchers were women, men also participated in Saturday’s march, saying they were there to support women’s rights, and equality for all people.

Many women brought their children to the march, including Jessica Ball, of Barboursville, West Virginia, who marched with her 12-year-old daughter, Ireland Grace Ball.

“I’m here so that my daughter has what she needs to have a good life,” Ball said. “Everybody has the right to love who they want to love and raise their children the way they want to raise them to be healthy and safe.”

Ball is a social worker, and she said she would like to see people be able to keep their health care under a Trump presidency.

Many women at West Virginia’s march also said affordable health care was a major issue for them. Other issues that brought women to the event were concerns for a safe and healthy environment for their children, and fair rights for LGBT individuals.

West Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore also released a statement on Saturday.

“They always say you never know someone’s struggles until you walk a mile in their shoes. While today marks an unfathomable act of togetherness, we need to be sure we’re bringing this energy, determination and fight home with us,” she wrote in an email. “We need to grab our clipboards, our walking shoes and we need to fight for the future of West Virginia. We can’t give up and we can only do the most good for West Virginia and her people if we do it together.”

According to the Associated Press, more than 1 million people rallied at women’s marches in the nation’s capital and cities around the world on Saturday.

Group Weighs in on APCo's Bid for W.Va. Power Plant

West Virginia Citizen Action Group is asking state regulators to postpone a ruling on Appalachian Power’s request to acquire the remaining portion of a coal power plant.

The group said it filed a motion with the Public Service Commission on Monday asking it to order the company to look at buying other power plants instead.

Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power are asking to buy half of the Mitchell coal-fired generating plant in Moundsville.

West Virginia Citizen Action Group wants regulators suspend the case until the companies produce an economic analysis of the cost of purchasing plants for sale by Duke Energy and AES Corporation in Ohio.

The group says the move would protect ratepayers by having the company look at possible less expensive options to the Mitchell plant.

Minimum Wage Bus Rolls into Charleston

An organization working to lobby law makers to raise the minimum wage made a stop in Charleston today. The group called, Americans United for Change, is behind a tour across the country the in the “Give America a Raise” bus.

While in the state, they are joined by West Virginia Citizen Action Group, local faith and labor leaders, a small business owner, and low-wage workers.

Campaign leaders applaud West Virginia and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin for signing a bill into law Tuesday that raises the minimum wage to $8 on Jan. 1, 2015, and again to $8.75 in 2016. ~But the campaign is advocating for more. They’re calling on federal lawmakers to stand in support of raising the minimum wage to $10.10.

The organization sites a MIT study which says that a living wage in Charleston today is 17-thousand dollars annually to be able to afford housing, medical care, transportation and food. If full-time West Virginia workers made $10.10 an hour, they’d earn more than 21-thousand a year.

The federal minimum wage has stayed the same since 2009. The current minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, means a full time employee makes $15,000 a year.

Vigil held to show opposition to strike on Syria

With the possibility of a U.S. attack on Syria still in limbo, a new poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center and USA Today suggests an overwhelming majority of Americans stand in opposition. A group sharing the same sentiment came together for a vigil in Charleston Monday night with hopes that Congress will hear their message.

West Virginia Citizen Action Group and West Virginia Patriots for Peace organized the vigil along Kanawha Boulevard in front of Haddad Riverfront Park. Members of the groups and other concerned citizens held signs saying “No Boots, No Bombs, No Way” and others urging passersby to call their representatives in Congress and speak out against possible military force.

Executive Director for West Virginia Citizen Action Group Gary Zuckett said he cares about the people caught in Syria’s civil war but he believes military action might only make matters worse.

“We feel bombing [Syria] is not the road to peace and that we really need to have an international solution and an international community working on a solution to that—hopefully a peaceful solution,” said Zuckett.

“Going in there right now and bombing Assad’s equipment is not going to stop the killing and may very well escalate the conflict out of that country and into the whole region,” he argued.

Zuckett said the Charleston vigil was one of countless events Monday around the state and country showing opposition to U.S. military action in Syria.

Despite growing national sentiment against U.S. military involvement in Syria, other groups in the area have recently called on President Obama to strike. Members of the West Virginia chapter of the Syrian American Council and others gathered at the state Capitol on Wednesday, August 28 to rally in support of the use of U.S. military force.