I don’t know if this has already been sent around.

WV Legislature Adjourns . . . Sort Of

By Donald S. Garvin, Jr.

WVEC Legislative Coordinator

            The 79th session of the West Virginia Legislature – the 2009 session – adjourned at around midnight on Saturday, April 11 (actually, the House of Delegates adjourned at 11:40 PM that evening, leaving a long list of bills still awaiting final action on its calendar).

            The recent practice has been for both houses to reconvene the following week to take up the state budget.  But this year they adjourned until May 26, when they will reconvene, apparently for about ten days, to do the budget, and a host of other things.

            They have already announced that an abbreviated May Interim Session will coincide with reconvening for the upcoming “Extended Budget Session.”  And the Governor has announced that he will call a Special Session to coincide with the extended session.

            At this point, none of the major bills affecting the environment have been signed by the Governor, and the Legislature is sending him small packets of bills for his approval, thereby nullifying the normal 15-day deadline for signing or vetoing a bill.

            So a final wrap up article from me for the 2009 Session will likely have to wait for the July issue of the Voice.

            According to the Legislature’s web site 2,113 bills were introduced during the 2009 Session, with only 226 of those bills ultimately being passed by both the House and the Senate.

            Here is a brief summary of some of the environmental bills that made it through the sausage-grinding process, and some that did not.

HB 2535, Solar Energy Tax Credit – awaiting Governor’s signature. The bill provides a state personal income tax credit of up to $2,000 for the installation of a residential solar energy system, and would also require a “net metering” credit for any excess electricity generated. The bill was sponsored by Del. Bill Wooton (D-Raleigh), with a “same as” bill in the Senate sponsored by Sen. John Unger (D-Berkeley).  WVEC lobby team member John Christensen worked hard in lobbying for passage of this bill.

SB 40, Repeal of WV Nuclear Power Ban – died early in Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. The bill’s chief sponsor was Sen. Brooks McCabe (D-Kanawha), who argued that new generation nuclear power was “safe” and that “nuclear power should be included in the state’s energy mix.”  We felt otherwise.  However, look for this issue to be “studied” in upcoming Interims.

SB 600, Special Reclamation Fund Tax – awaiting Governor’s signature. As proposed, the bill would have extended for five years the 14.4-cent special reclamation tax imposed on each ton of coal mined.  The tax is to be used for reclamation of coal mines abandoned after the passage of the federal Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act. However, coal industry lobbyists were successful in extending the tax for just two years. Everyone knows this fund is totally insufficient to deal with current and future needs.

SB 461, Extending Selenium Effluent Limits Compliance Time – awaiting Governor’s signature. This terrible bill gives the coal industry a more than two-year extension to comply with water quality standards for the toxic selenium they discharge from their mining operations, in addition to the current 3-year extension already granted to the industry.  Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman first said he opposed the bill, but then in the final week of the session changed his tune and said he supported it. Every committee that dealt with this bill was told by committee staff attorneys that the measure did not comply with provisions of both state and federal law for changes to water quality standards, and that the federal EPA would likely not approve the change.  Apparently the Legislature was in no mood to consider such trivialities.

SB 45, Authorizing DEP Secretary to Sign NPDES Permits – died in House Judiciary Committee. WVEC has successfully opposed this perennial agency proposal for several years now. The federal Clean Water Act clearly states that NPDES permit authority rests with the head of the state water permitting division, in order to comply with conflict of interest provisions of the federal law.

SB 753, Limiting Land Development Ordinances – died in House Judiciary Committee. This bill would have prevented counties and municipalities from adopting ordinances to regulate natural resource extraction (such as mining, oil and gas drilling, and timbering). WVEC lobby team member Leslee McCarty worked hard in lobbying against passage of this bill.

HB 2931, Removing Timber Severance Tax – awaiting Governor’s signature.  This bill gives the timber industry a 3-year “holiday” from paying the almost insignificant timber severance tax.  The Governor has opposed this in the past.  We will have to wait and see how he’s feeling this year.

            Finally, the Governor announced in his State of the State address a series of “major” energy initiatives.  Four major bills were introduced. Only one of the four bills successfully passed both chambers.  Here’s the current status of those bills.

SB 297, Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act – won final approval from the House on the last day of the session, but was sent back to the Senate without all of the House amendments attached. So it’s dead for now. The Governor’s bill created a phony “Renewable Portfolio Standard” that included lots of “clean coal” technologies and burning waste tires, and lacked any emphasis on implementing energy efficiency measures.

SB 375, Office of Coalfield Community Development Master Land Use Plans – died in the House on the final night (I am told it was held hostage over a bill dealing with Sunday liquor sales!). This was the Governor’s post-mining land use bill, and is basically another attempt to get around the “approximate original contour” provisions of SMCRA and to promote “clean coal” projects on mountaintop removal mine sites.

HB 3000, Transmission Line Tax – died in the House on the last day for bills to pass out of the house of origin. The tax on electricity transmission proposed in this bill was the Governor’s excuse for not opposing the construction of the proposed huge TrailCo and PATH transmission lines.  Imposition of this tax posed major constitutionality questions.

HB 2860, Regulating Sequestration and Storage 0f Carbon Dioxide – awaiting Governor’s signature. This bill sets up a beginning regulatory structure for the underground injection of carbon dioxide.  It establishes a “carbon sequestration working group” under the supervision of the DEP to further develop the regulations and to tackle issues such ownership of the “pore space” where the CO2 is to be stored and the long-term liability for the storage. WVEC was successful in getting several improving amendments adopted to this bill, including a seat for the environmental community on the working group.

            It’s a sure bet that one or more of these bills that failed to pass in the regular session will be included in the Governor’s special session at the end of May.

Finally, no matter the ultimate outcome of the 2009 Session, the West Virginia Environmental Council’s lobby team again had a respectable presence at the Capitol and made a significant impact on environmental legislation.  And we thank the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy for its continued support.