E-Council Bill Update

Week 6 of Session seemed to never end! Here’s an update on our bills. Reminder that Crossover Day is in a week and a half, on February 26th (this means bills have to have gone through one chamber entirely to still be considered “alive”).

AST

HB4079 – The above ground storage tank rollback bill! This bill exempts tanks within zones of critical concern (ZCC) from the AST act! We are strongly against this bill, and Delegates have reported getting upwards of 800 emails opposing the bill! The bill is currently parked in House Energy.

Coal

HB4574– Establishing Just Transition Support for Coal-Related Jobs . This is a great bill to help coal jobs transition into other careers through creating a small state agency for assistance. The bill passed House Small Business, Entrepreneurship & Economic Development and now goes to House Government Organization!

Manufacturing

See our other post for updates!

Oil & Gas / Wells

HB4088 – Disposition of funds from certain oil and natural gas wells due to unknown or unlocatable interest owners. This bill takes money sitting in county circuit courts due to oil & gas well owners that cannot be located or identified and places it into the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund to go towards plugging wells. The bill passed the House and was referenced to Senate Finance.  

Rules

HB4217 – These rules were bundled (list here) and include federal updates to Air Quality Standards and also the Mine Subsidence rule. Yesterday during the amendment state, Judiciary Chairman Shott amended the bill to take the monetary rate to 120% of the pre-mining value in case of subsidence, raising it from 100%, giving more money to landowners. The rule bundle passed the full House today very narrowly after a long debate, and will now go to the Senate.

Solar

SB583 – The Utility compromise Solar Bill that replaced the house version last week passed the Senate today unanimously! Look for an update next week as for where it is referenced in the House.  

Waste

HB4690 – Relating to Solid Waste Facilities.  This bill was recently introduced by Delegate Jordan. The bill rewrites several portions of code relating to solid waste facilities and was taken up in House Judiciary earlier this week. It was there we learned the bill was written to assist one company in opening a new landfill on the Fola Mine site in Clay and Nicholas counties. The company plans to ship waste from the Northeastern states by rail and fill this former mine site.  We oppose this bill. HB4690 passed House Judiciary and today was on 2nd Reading in the House where it was laid over so more research can be done.

Water

HB4542 / SB678 – Clean Drinking Water Act of 2020! This bill monitors PFAS in water, sets standards, and creates a response team to keep our drinking water clean. The House Bill is in House Health & Human resources and the Senate BIll is Senate Judiciary. CALL MEMBERS AND ASK THEM TO ADD THE BILL TO THEIR AGENDA ASAP!

HB4787 – This bill was introduced just this week. It takes steps to deter polluters from breaking the law by allowing the WVDEP to increase penalties for water quality violations. The bill is in House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

 Senate Originating Bill re: Source Water Protections: A few weeks ago, Senate EIM originated a bill that was a result of the Source Water Protections interim committee. The draft legislation would require public water systems to receive notice of violations from polluters upstream of their intakes. There were stakeholder meetings that we were a part of and this week the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee recommended it be referred to an interim study commission.

If you have any bills you are watching that we are missing, or any bills you want more information on, please contact Karan (karan.ireland@gmail.com) and Kayla (hellokaylayoung@gmail.com) for assistance!

Reminder – These links are helpful for keeping up with session:

Bill Status

Bulletin Board (Daily Schedules and Events)

Releases (Another place to find schedules announced for next day, and news from legislators)

Lastly, if you’re on Twitter, make sure you’re following us (@WVECouncil) and the House (@WVHouse) and Senate (@WVSenate)!