On August 11, 2020 the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality rejected a water permit for a 75-mile branch of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Overall, the MVP is a 300-mile project designed to transmit gas from nothwestern West Virginia to Virginia. NCDEQ explained that the North Carolina branch depended on completion of the MVP mainline […]
The West Virginia oil and gas industry and the surface owners’ rights lobby want to shift the cost of plugging abandoned oil and gas wells to a federally funded program. Several bills introduced in the Legislature last session would have made oil and gas drillers themselves pay a fee for this purpose upon applying to […]
BP, one of the world’s largest oil companies, announced August 4, 2020 that it would cut its oil and gas production 40% and increase its renewable electric power output twenty-fold within the next ten years. It also expects to direct a third of its capital spending — $5 billion to $7 billion — toward low-carbon […]
Elliot Simon has been appointed by the Jefferson County Republican Party to challenge incumbent John Doyle for Delegate in the 67th District, including Harpers Ferry and Shepherdstown. The original Republican candidate, Mark Everhart, withdrew after disclosure of prior legal troubles. Simon ran against Doyle for the same set in 2010 but narrowly lost. In 2012, […]
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner announced on July 27, 2020 that absentee ballots will be available to those who apply and list as a reason “illness, injury or other medical reason which keeps me confined.” Because the state continues under Governor Justice’s stay at home order, we are all “confined” and eligible for […]
On Wednesday July 22, 2020 the House of Representatives passed the Great American Outdoors Act on a bipartisan vote of 310 to 107. The Act passed the Senate last month by a wide margin and is now ready for the President’s signature. When fully enacted the GAOA will provide $9.5 billion over 5 years to […]
Starbucks is testing out a new cup. It’s hoping you won’t notice. On Monday, the coffee chain started trialing a new recyclable and compostable cup in some locations in New York, San Fancisco, Seattle, London and Vancouver. The new version of the cup is still made from paper, and should look and feel the same […]
In early 2019, thirty-two West Virginia legislators introduced Resolution 25 in the West Virginia House of Delegates. The Resolution called for an amendment to the West Virginia Constitution creating a right to clean air, pure water, and the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic, and aesthetic values of the environment. Modeled on a similar amendment in Pennsylvania, […]
Remember when grocery clerks would ask this question at the checkout counter? Now stores simply default to plastic bagging. I have always assumed that plastic bags became the grocery industry’s packaging of choice because of the cost savings to the grocers. This is basically true. I have also assumed that paper bags were better for the […]
