Higher Registration Fees For Hybrid Vehicles – What’s Up With That?
Awhile back, a good friend of mine spent half an hour complaining to me about having to pay an additional $100 when he registered his Prius hybrid vehicle. That caused me to wonder why West Virginia would want to discourage the ownership of…
Industry To West Virginia: We Can’t Be Bothered
They’re at it again. Under the cover of the Covid pandemic, when citizens can’t rally in numbers, the West Virginia legislature is poised to gut one of the key protections of the Aboveground Storage Tank Act enacted after the 2014 water…
Purchase Power Agreement Bills Introduced in Legislature
Bipartisan support seems to be gathering around the idea of authorizing purchase power agreements (PPAs) in West Virginia. A PPA would allow a solar installation, or other alternative generation project, to be built on a customer’s property…
Harold Ward Appointed New DEP Secretary
Governor Justice recently appointed longtime Division of Environmental Protection official Harold Ward to be Secretary of the agency. Ward had been serving as the DEP’s deputy secretary of Operations and director of the Division of Mining…
America’s Newest National Park Is West Virginia’s First
Tucked into the omnibus spending bill that passed Congress at the end of 2020 was a measure creating the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. This is the sixty-third national park, but the first one in West Virginia. To achieve this was…
What’s In the New Spending Law for the Environment?
On December 27, 2020, seemingly at the last minute, President Trump signed the omnibus spending bill negotiated in Congress. Much of the news has been about the pandemic relief provided in the law. But the law also funds many new energy…
FERC Permits Mountain Valley Pipeline to Proceed
The Mountain Valley Pipeline, which seeks to transmit fracked natural gas from Northern West Virginia to markets in Virginia and North Carolina, has been on hold since 2018. At that time the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated authorizations…
Biden’s Pro-Environment Cabinet Picks
President-Elect Biden has named former Secretary of State John Kerry to be Special Climate Envoy. Kerry will sit on the National Security Council as an internationally-focused climate czar. Biden will also appoint a domestically-focused…
Clean Air Act Has Had Profound Effect on Birds
In a paper released on November 24, 2020, researchers from Cornell University concluded that the Clean Air Act not only has saved human lives, it has spared 1.5 billion avian lives. The reason is the reduction of ground level ozone concentrations…
Denmark Agency Agrees to Investigate Rockwool
Local opponents of Rockwool have scored a big legal victory. NCP Denmark, a Danish government organization, will formally investigate Rockwool's compliance with international business guidelines. The announcement follows an informal investigation…
