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WV Citizen Action Group Action Alert |
Jan 11 2014 Alert Archive |
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Minimum Wage Should Provide At Least a Minimal Quality of Life
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'Inequality for All' Screening (Free Showing of "Inequality for All" has been Postponed)
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Marcellus Drilling Waste and Landfill Caps Unite Environmental Movement
2014 Session
Begins
by Gary Zuckett
Anticipation and Trepidation are two words that come to mind as the WV
Legislature rolls into town for their 60-day session.
Anticipation (and hopes) to get a raise for Minimum Wage workers, fix
inadequate Marcellus laws, start up a WV Future Fund, and move many more
progressive issues further down the field if not across the goal line.
Trepidation is over the David & Goliath aspect of many of our
initiatives. We’re building grassroots coalition power working with
allied groups to counter the big money and influence of the extractive
industries and those business interests solely focused upon profit
rather than any thoughts of social, economic and environmental justice.
We have a big fight on our hands every year and the stakes are high –
the wellbeing of West Virginians and the environment they love.
Since this is the second year of the legislative session (two year
sessions correspond to the terms of all WV House of Delegate members)
many bills “roll-over” and are automatically reintroduced from last
year. That being said, the House and Senate have introduced a total of
1058 bills – not bad for day two!
The internet age has made the job of tracking all these much easier for
both us here in Charleston and citizens who want to keep up on what
going down at the legislature. Fortunately, the legislative services
folks have a top-notch web page at
www.legis.state.wv.us
where anyone can find updated info including printable copies of any
bill, look up lawmakers contact info, and even listen in on certain
committee meetings and floor sessions. Bookmark this page on your web
browser to have it handy over the next two months.
The Capitol Eye will go out to our subscribers at least every other week
during the session, but this year we have a new blog to post
fast-breaking news and commentary. Check it out on our home page at
www.wvcag.org
. Supporters can also send in a contribution toward our lobby efforts by
clicking the “Donate” button, hint, hint.
If you’re getting this on-line and would prefer a paper copy, there are
two options – got to the web page and print out the PDF file formatted
to print, or send us a note requesting we snail mail you a copy. Don’t
forget that we are also on Facebook. Please look us up there and “like”
our page so you get our feed there too.
Let the sausage making begin!
Election Reform Update
by Julie Archer
Election Protection & Campaign Finance Reform Continue to Top WV-CAG
Public Policy Priorities
Ensuring fair, free and transparent elections and increasing the voice
and participation of average citizens in the electoral process continue
to be among WV-CAG’s top public policy priorities.
During the 2014 legislative session, we will be is working to
further these goals as follows:
Supporting Publicly Financed, Voter-Owned Elections
In 2010, in response to scandals involving the state Supreme Court and
former Massey Energy CEO, Don Blankenship, then Governor Joe Manchin
recommended and the legislature established a public financing program
to help restore confidence in our judiciary -- making us an example for
the rest of the country. In 2012, Allen Loughry became the first
candidate to successfully use public financing to be elected to the WV
Supreme Court of Appeals.
Based on the pilot project's success, the legislature made public
financing a permanent part of West Virginia Supreme Court elections to
ensure a fair and impartial judiciary. We are working with our coalition
partners, legislative allies and the Secretary of State’s office to
secure
a dedicated, permanent source of funding for the program.
Supporting Post
Citizens United
Reforms
If there was one 'silver lining' in the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling
in
Citizens United vs. FEC:
it’s that the court affirmed that states can require those who ‘pay to
play’ in our elections to fully disclose their financial sources. WV-CAG
supports legislation aimed at increasing accountability and transparency
in West Virginia elections, including reforms that strengthen and
improve enforcement of existing campaign finance disclosure laws that
would require corporations and other entities to fully disclose
expenditures made for political activities to the Secretary of State and
the public. This
transparency will enable the electorate to make more informed decisions
and help give proper weight to different speakers and messages.
We will also continue supporting Congressional action opposing
Citizens United
regarding the constitutional rights of corporations,
including an amendment to the U.S. Constitution providing that
corporations are not “people” entitled to the “rights” of natural
persons, specifically so that the expenditure of corporate money to
influence the electoral process would no longer be a form of
constitutionally protected speech.
Opposing to Voter Suppression
WV-CAG opposes unnecessary and restrictive “voter ID” laws. We already
have a good working system to prevent unauthorized voting. Voter ID laws
are designed to prevent a specific type of voter fraud – voter
impersonation. However, there are no documented cases of voter
impersonation that this measure this added measure would stop. We
shouldn’t enact voter suppression in the name of election protection.
West Virginia has had historically low voter turnout in recent
elections. Voter ID is
really targeted voter suppression. Minority groups have been the
historic targets of disfranchisement efforts in this country and new
voter ID laws are targeting them once again. This is no time to enact
measures that risk depressing the vote of seniors, students, people of
color and others.
Supporting Preservation of Post-Election Audit Requirement
WV-CAG opposes proposals that would limit the scope or otherwise
undermine the intent and integrity of the post-election audit.
Nearly all elections today are counted using electronic voting systems.
These voting systems have produced result-changing errors through
problems with hardware, software, and procedures. Well-designed and
properly performed post-election audits can significantly mitigate the
threat of error, and are an integral to the integrity of our vote
counting system.
West Virginia has one of the strongest post-election audit requirements
in the country. We require a hand-count of the votes cast in five
percent of randomly selected precincts in each county, and compare those
counts to the vote counts originally reported, as a check on the
accuracy of the results.
2014 Legislative Priorities
by Gary Zuckett
The working draft of WV-CAG’s 2014 legislative agenda is now posted on
the
www.wvcag.org
web page. It’s a long list but take a peek. We are not the lead group on
every one of these but we’ll be in there swinging with our allies to get
as many priorities as we can made into public policy to help make West
Virginia a better place to live, work, and raise a family. You can help
by taking action on specific bills as they come up, developing a
relationship with your legislators (they’re working for you – you pay
their salary) and, if you haven’t’ already,
renewing your membership/support
for WV Citizen Action. Thanks in advance!
Minimum Wage Should Provide
At Least Minimal Quality of Life
by Brooke Drake
Minimum wage employees are forced to rely on government assistance to
support their families. This doesn’t help our country’s bottom line.
Most
business owners
are willing to make the necessary adjustments over a reasonable period
of time. Workers in other states are asking as much as $15 per hour. The
low cost of living enjoyed in West Virginia allows a more modest
increase. House Democrats are asking minimum wage be raised to $8.25 per
hour. This increase of $1 still earns a family of three below poverty
wages. One concern is that this single, time-released dollar will not
keep up with increasing prices. Ohio has linked inflation to minimum
wage increases since 2006, when voters passed a State Constitutional
Amendment. Statistics from across the country skew the facts about the
need for an increase in wages for our workers. Here, the average minimum
wage recipient is a single mother, with some higher education, working
full-time and still unable to completely provide for her family. This
undermines any opportunity that American family has for pride in a hard
day’s work. It will only serve to repeat the cycle of reliance that
plagues our society. Earnings of low wage workers go directly into the
economy that sorely needs a boost. Increasing low wages allows unskilled
workers the freedom to grow themselves to be the workers of tomorrow.
Providing livable wages for all workers will prevent tax payers from
footing the bill for greedy businesses. WV-CAG will be working with
allied groups to help pass a new WV Minimum Wage. A press conference is
planned at the Governor’s Conference Room in the Sec of State’s office
at 10 AM on Tuesday to kick-off the campaign. Stop by if you can to show
your support and call your Legislators and let them know too.
Martin Luther King Jr. State Celebration
Join Governor Tomblin’s Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday Commission
as they carry forward Dr. King’s message of justice and equality for
all. Beginning at
10:30 a.m. on
Monday, January 20, 2014 with Ecumenical Service at Asbury Methodist
Church (501 Elizabeth St, Charleston, WV 25311), the group will then
travel onto the Capitol Grounds. After a 12:30 p.m. Ringing of the Bell
for Peace, a 1p.m. invitation only awards luncheon will be held at the
Cultural Center. To conclude the celebration, a Unity in the Community
Concert will be held at 3p.m. in the same location. To RSVP for the
luncheon or for more information, call (304) 558-3179.
“Taste of Fracking” Comes to Charleston
by Gary Zuckett
“Don’t drink, cook or even bathe in the water,” I heard the announcer
say on public radio tonight. Not something you hear everyday about your
tap water. On the drive home from the capitol I stopped as did most
everyone else to pick up a case of water. However, most were not buying
a case but a shopping cart full, quickly depleting the local supply. A
water crisis, who would have thought it on the second day of the WV
Legislative session? Not just for Charleston, but for many surrounding
counties that WV American Water services.
Today was Transportation Day at the capitol. Many days are “celebrated”
by specific policy groups. My favorite is probably “A Taste of West
Virginia” when all the State Park resorts and places like Tamarack hold
court in the rotunda and share samples of their fine cuisine.
Today, our whole WV Legislature got to share the same “Taste of
Fracking” that many rural farm families have gotten from the Marcellus
Shale industry. I remember the Jackson Co. couple who called our
www.wvsoro.org office several years back. They raised two sons on their
farm with fine well water. The same water that started making them sick
not long after a Marcellus well was drilled near their home.
After going to the doctor and having their water tested, they were told
not to drink the water, or even bathe in it! Their grown sons who were
still taking jugs of that good ‘ol farm water back to Ohio homes were
also affected. This retired farming couple ended up renting a house on
the edge of town and suing the drillers to get their water replaced, if
even possible.
Charleston and WV Lawmakers, this is how it feels. This is a “Taste Of
Fracking” right here in the capitol city. Ironic that the cause was the
coal service industry. Maybe both need better monitoring and regulation?
Ok, I grant the argument can be made that the rural wells are isolated
problems. The fact is several WV municipal water supplies have already
being impacted by Fracking. Fracking fluids are currently making their
way into our watersheds by runoff, spills, dumping, “accidents”, leaking
holding pits and have spiked certain Safe Drinking Water Standards
around the state. One particular component of both the Frack fluid and
tailings is Bromine, which combines with the Chorine used to disinfect
drinking water to produce cancer causing compounds like organo-chlorides
& trihalomethanes (thm’s) that are regulated in drinking water.
Municipal sewage plants are now barred from accepting Fracking fluid for
treatment partly because the river’s load of these salts was making it
hard for the drinking water plants to meet safe water standards.
In addition, Marcellus drilling tailings (solids) are laced with
low-level radioactivity, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals and
God knows what else. We are now rapidly filling up our landfills with
this toxic sludge when they were built to hold our household garbage.
Where will we put our trash when they’re all filled up with toxic
Marcellus mud?
Why are we letting ourselves be the WV guinea pigs for this Fracking
experiment when other states have closed loop systems to better contain
Fracking excrement, many are better regulated and some even won’t allow
it on their dirt until science weighs in on the safety of the whole
process?
What’s the rush to drill when there is such a glut of gas in the
marketplace already? We need to slow things down, take a deep breath,
and make sure we’re not sacrificing our most valuable long-term
renewable resource, our clean water, for the quick bucks that the
Marcellus promise…
The Campaign for Energy Efficiency in WV
by Stacy Gloss
We at Energy Efficient West Virginia (EEWV) are glad to be back for
another year of advocating for energy efficiency at the WV legislature
in 2014. Among the benefits
of energy efficiency are job growth and economic development, energy
independence, and energy security.
This year we plan to provide education to our state's leaders on the
effectiveness of energy efficiency and common sense policies that would
assist the Public Service Commission in planning for a diversified
portfolio in least cost electricity production from supply-side
(generated electricity from coal, gas, and renewable energy) and
demand-side (conservation and energy efficiency) resources to ensure
reliable and affordable electricity for all West Virginians.
In the Capitol Eye, you can look forward to explanations about
integrated resource planning, creating an energy efficiency resource
standard, and other opportunities that would promote energy efficiency
in our state. Our 2014
goals are to educate our law makers about:
Integrated Resource Planning (H.B. 2803)
Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (H.B. 2210 and H.B. 2323)
Tax credits for new construction of energy efficient buildings (H.B.
2200)
A water conservation bill focused on replacing public urinals with
waterless urinals to save 40,000 gallons of water annually (S.B. 89)
Property Assessed Clean Energy – introducing a nationally recognized
financing opportunity for commercial property owners to make energy
efficiency related upgrades
CAG will also continue to keep an eye on issues pertaining to unfair and
improper billing practices by Mon Power and Potomac Energy. We'll also
continue to offer insight about our WV Supreme Court appeal of the
Public Service Commission's decision allowing Mon Power to acquire the
Harrison coal plant saddling a greater than $750 Million bill on the
backs of West Virginian's to bail out Ohio based First Energy.
For more information about EEWV visit
www.eewv.org
and sign up for our updates about energy efficiency in the Mountain
State.
Citizen Advocacy Trainings are for Everyone!
If you would like to better understand the legislative process, you are
encouraged to attend the Advocacy Trainings sponsored by the area’s most
progressive organizations. The free trainings this month are on
Saturday, January 25 from 12-2 PM at Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church
in Shepherdstown, and Monday, January 27 from 6-8 PM at the Marshall
University Memorial Student Center in Huntington. American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) WV, WV Citizen Action Group (CAG), WV Coalition
Against Domestic Violence (CADV), Direct Action Welfare Group (DAWG), WV
Environmental Council, Fairness WV, West Virginia FREE, National
Association of Social Workers (NASW) WV, and Planned Parenthood Health
Systems are offering tips on speaking with elected officials and
learning about issues in West Virginia.
For more information please contact Justin at
justin@fairnesswv.org
or (304) 806-2220.
'Inequality for All' Screening
Free Showing of "Inequality for All" has been Postponed: Due to unregulated "clean coal" chemicals leaking into our city's water supply, the Free Showing of "inequality for All" has been postponed. We will keep you updated about when this event will take place.
A special screening of 'Inequality for All' will be held at the Cultural Center on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 from 5:30-7:00 PM. Refreshments will be provided and a discussion panel will follow. Please RSVP to aclements@wvpolicy.org or visit www.ineqaulityforall.com for more information. This event is sponsored by West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, West Virginia AFL-CIO, West Virginia Citizen Action Group, West Virginia Alliance for Sustainable Families, National Association of Social Workers- West Virginia Chapter, West Virginia Community Development HUB, West Virginia Education Association, Kanawha County Federation of Democratic Women, West Virginia Alliance for Retired Americans, American Federation of Teachers- West Virginia, WV FREE, and American Friends Service Organization.
Marcellus Drilling Waste and Landfill Caps Unite Environmental Movement
by Norm Steenstra
By a stroke of a pen, DEP Secretary Randy Huffman voided the law that restricts the size of WV landfills. He did so to accommodate the drilling industry’s need to dispose of potentially toxic waste. Huffman declared that drilling waste was exempt from tonnage caps. Chairman of the Wetzel County Solid Waste Authority, Bill Hughes, arguably the citizen expert on solid waste and Marcellus issues, researched the impact of Huffman’s action and discovered that in 2013 more than 600,000 tons of drilling waste was deposited in just three state landfills- Wetzel, Wheeling, and Clarksburg. Recently, with authorized maximum of 9,999 tons, Wetzel took in over 40,000 tons in one month.
But wait, it gets worse! It is widely acknowledged that Marcellus Shale is radioactive. It also contains significant amounts of heavy metals. Radioactive material is prohibited from being disposed of in state landfills. DEP has not specifically tested horizontal drilling waste for radioactivity nor for that matter have the landfills.
OK. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that radioactive material is dangerous and undesirable. It’s the gift that keeps on giving and giving. Back in 1991, the environmental community, with much assistance of the Caperton Administration, worked to pass a comprehensive solid waste law that limited the size of landfills. The rationale for placing limits was health and traffic safety issues. The law gave local control to county solid waste authorities to establish limits based on need and public safety. The limits were also meant to extend the life of existing facilities and thus reduce the number of new landfill siting battles.
This 600,000 extra tons of waste is a bonanza for the DEP. The REAP Program and the State Solid Waste Management Board all of which receive extra income from additional tipping fees.
WV-CAG and the environmental community will be working to have the landfill caps restored and pushing for the DEP to do its job on testing and enforcement of radioactive materials. Stay tuned!
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