Below:

• Big *Big* BIG Party at the Capitol March 8

• Water Protection Bill Almost to the Finish Line

• Urge Senators to Oppose HB 4346

• HB 4346 Fact Sheet

• Urge Legislators to Oppose HB 4411

• Listen LIVE to WV Public Broadcasting Blog from the Capitol

 Big *Big* BIG Party at the Capitol March 8

Come celebrate the close of the legislative session with WVRC and allies from 11am-4pm in the Upper Rotunda of the Capitol Building in Charleston. We will have speakers, music, and food as we celebrate clean water and democracy! Learn more.

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 Water Protection Bill Almost to the Finish Line
Via West Virginia Rivers Coalition Alert

Thanks to the hard work of many delegates and the calls they received from WVRC supporters, a strong water protection bill (SB 373) passed the House this week and is on its way back to the Senate. An agreement on the bill must be reached by midnight tomorrow for the legislation to go to the Governor to sign. Here is an important action to take today for clean water:

Contact the House Speaker, Senate President, and the legislators that represent you. Tell them:

1. Do not support any weakening of SB 373, as passed by the House.
2. Instate reasonable fees to make new water protection programs funded by industries and not taxpayers. 
3. Remove provisions that prevent us from knowing what chemicals are near our drinking water.

Speaker Tim Miley: tim.miley@wvhouse.gov 
Phone: (304) 340-3210.

President Jeff Kessler: jeff.kessler@wvsenate.gov
Phone: (304) 357-7801

Find your legislators here, if you do not know who they are:
http://openstates.org/

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 Urge Senators to Oppose H.B. 4346

The House of Delegates passed a bill that creates a laundry list of difficult and confusing elements for the DEP to consider before responding to draft EPA Clean Air Act 111(d) rules that will first be released in June. The bill is now being considered in the Senate and will be up for a final vote tomorrow. 
Please contact your Senators and urge them to oppose this anti-EPA coal bill. 
H.B. 4346 is an ALEC bill with similar legislation popping up elsewhere like Kansas and Arizona. 
The danger of this bill is that it holds up the state's ignorance on renewables and energy efficiency - that they are not possible solutions, and would not be able to join the solution for reducing carbon emissions or mitigating climate change. 

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 H.B. 4346 Establishing Separate Standards of Performance for Carbon Emissions

THERE ARE HIDDEN COSTS TO H.B. 4346

H.B. 4346 will drive up the state's cost of compliance with EPA standards.

H.B. 4346 will drive up power bills for W. Va. rate payers. 

Utility companies Appalachian Power and Mon Power / Potomac Edison need flexibility with “in-the-fence” and “outside-the-fence” compliance options.  This bill limits utility flexibility and will make it really expensive for the power companies to be in compliance.

SEVERELY LIMITING SOLUTIONS FOR FUTURE COMPLIANCE

H.B. 4346 jumps the gun by severely limiting solutions for compliance before WV knows what the standards will be. The EPA issues its draft rules in June, 2014. 

“Outside-the-fence” compliance options like energy efficiency, renewables, or other low carbon resources would likely count toward compliance, but are absent from the bill.

CREATING UNCESSARY RISK OF FEDERAL TAKE OVER

H.B. 4346 unnecessarily constrains the WV DEP in its ability to develop a state implementation plan and creates a high level of risk that EPA would not approve WV's plan. In the event EPA disapproves WV's plan, the EPA could take over the state program.

ZERO PUBLIC INPUT

H.B. 4346 does not include transparent input from stakeholder groups like the Division of Energy, the Public Service Commission, Appalachian Power, Mon Power, the public, environmental groups, or policy experts on this issue.

ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL LEGISLATION DOES NOT FIT

H.B. 4346 is likely an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) bill – the same bill is going through the Kansas legislature right now with Kansas H.B. 2636 and other states including Arizona and Kentucky. Our state implementation plan will be very different than theirs. The one-size-fits-all legislation doesn't fit West Virginia's unique needs.

DO NOT PASS H.B. 4346

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 Urge Legislators to Oppose H.B. 4411

H.B. 4411, a bad bill that permanently blows the tonnage caps off both Class A & B landfills so that they may accept unlimited amounts of Marcellus drilling waste is now working it's way through the Senate. As amended by the Senate Government Organization Committee the bill no longer contains a sunset provision, that put a time limit on how long the landfills could continue to accept this waste. It would also allow landfill to displace municipal solid waste with drill cuttings. With the changes made by the Senate the bill will need to go back to the House for concurrence. If the House does not agree, the bill will go to conference committee to try to work out the differences. 

Please contact your legislators and urge them to oppose H.B. 4411. 
Find your legislators here: http://openstates.org/

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 Listen LIVE to WV Public Broadcasting Blog from the Capitol!

Click this link to listen to the LIVE Blog from the Capitol hosted by WV Public Broadcasting.

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