GREEN, Volume 30 Issue 15

Hello and Happy Fall!

We open this month’s newsletter with a big welcome to Hannah King, our outreach coordinator and interim lobbyist! Please read Hannah’s article on her background and interests and you’ll soon see why we are excited to have her on our team.

Hannah’s top priority is putting together our annual meeting taking place virtually on November 12 from 6-8PM. We purposefully held the meeting off until after the election so we could come together as a movement to recap and reflect. Help us put together our 2021 legislative priorities by filling out this quick survey so we can discuss them next month. Please register in advance for the annual meeting here. 

And, finally, this past week we sent out our first fundraising letter of the year. If you didn’t receive it, or if you’d prefer to donate online, please go here. We can’t do what we do without your support!

Thank you!
Linda Frame
WVEC President

Click an article title or thumbnail image to read the full article (text below is only an excerpt).

Southeast West Virginia Solar Co-op Launches
Solar United Neighbors
Nonprofit group Solar United Neighbors (SUN) is excited to announce the launch of the new Southeast West Virginia Solar Co-op to help area residents go solar.
Tagged: Renewable energy

Affected by Pipeline Development?
OVEC
OVEC is collaborating with Drs Caretta and Carlson at WVU on the research project titled “Supporting community capacity-building against extractive interests through place-based visual and narrative inquiry.”
Tagged: Coal, Mountaintop removal, Oil and gas

A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change
WVEC
This week, the newly formed West Virginia Climate Alliance released A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change. This colorful publication outlines the science of why our planet is warming, the impacts of climate change, and potential solutions for addressing the climate crisis. 
Tagged: Climate change

DEP Stormwater General Permits – Back Door Back Sliding

The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) administers the federal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program in West Virginia for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In doing so, the DEP writes Stormwater General Permits that provide standards for construction and operation activities across the state that could poison or pollute water resources.
Tagged: Pollution, Water

A new book on the 2014 West Virginia drinking water crisis
WVEC
“I’m Afraid of That Water: A Collaborative Ethnography of a West Virginia Water Crisis” was published this spring by West Virginia University Press.  It’s a collection of oral histories collected in interviews following the 2014 Elk River chemical spill which became a nationally recognized disaster when it polluted the largest public drinking water system in West Virginia.
Tagged: MCHM, Pollution, Water

New Member of Our WVEC Team
WVEC
Hi everyone! My name is Hannah King and I was recently hired as the Outreach Coordinator and Interim Lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council.

WVEC Member Group Profile: Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance (MLPA)

Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance was started in 2013 to bring the facts to the public, and local governmental bodies. We described the permanent environmental damage that is occurring due to the construction of these unnecessary pipelines being built on the backs of electric utility ratepayers when the majority of the gas will be exported for corporate profit.
Tagged: Energy, Oil and gas, Pipelines

Thursday, October 22 “Climate Generations” Webinar — Register Now!

YOU ARE INVITED to attend a free, live, expert-led webinar -- on Thursday, October 22, from 6-8 PM USET – titled "What Do We Tell The Kids -- and What Are They Telling Us? -- Generational Perspectives and the Climate Crisis."
Tagged: Climate change