From the Well

It is the informal gathering place for lobbyists, reporters, constituents and lawmakers.

Centrally situated between the chambers of the House of Delegates and Senate,

The Well is where information is often shared, alliances are formed, and deals are made.

December 2022

Interim Meetings

December 8, 2022

Delegate Joe Statler of Monongalia County addressed the Joint Committee on Volunteer Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services Tuesday afternoon to give a report from a subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Volunteer Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services that met Monday morning.

The subcommittee discussed Senate Bill 420, which was introduced during the regular 2022 legislative session. The bill looked at the funding formula for VFDs and EMS units and proposed to raise funding from .55% to 1% from funds collected from surcharges on fire and casualty insurance policies.

The Subcommittee recommended the bill be taken up again during the 2023 legislative session to make some technical changes and to determine how the additional .45% in funding should be split between VFDs and EMS units.

The Joint Committee received the subcommittee’s report and concurred with the recommendation.

Jeff Miller, Director of the West Virginia Parkways Authority, addressed the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on Department of Transportation Accountability to give an update on toll-system upgrades and improvements to travel plazas.

Director Miller announced toll-system upgrades are hitting planned milestones with the back-office systems upgrade about 50% complete.

Director Miller noted an increase in all transactions, noting that about 65% of total transactions involve EZ Pass vehicles. In surrounding states, EZ Pass accounts for 80% of transactions, he said.

Committee members asked Director Miller whether he expects toll increases to pay for the travel plaza upgrades. He said travel plaza upgrades are coming from the capital improvement fund, which is currently about $190 million.

The Director said the travel plaza improvement project will cost about $150 million over four to five years

“We are doing what we said we would do,” Director Miller said.

Turnpike travel plazas have not been remolded since 1992.

During the December 2022 legislative interim meeting on Monday, the Joint Committee on Children and Families heard presentations about the importance of maintaining health insurance for children.

Kelly Allen, Executive Director of the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy, told the committee about the importance of maintaining health coverage for children and families after the end of the COVID-related federal public health emergency.

She said federal initiatives during the pandemic increased eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP coverage for children and families in the state.

Ms. Allen told the committee that as the pandemic subsides, eligibility requirements will tighten. As a result, many will likely lose health insurance coverage because of procedural issues, such as failure to file the appropriate paperwork. Others will lose coverage because they are eligible for private health insurance as the result of an increase in the family’s income.

In the U.S., about 7 million children are at risk of losing health insurance, she said. In West Virginia, the number is 19,000. However, many of those children remain eligible but will lose their coverage because they have changed where they reside or the appropriate paperwork needs to be submitted.

Ms. Allen said a working group is currently in place to plan for the future of the end of the public health emergency. The task force includes the Department of Health and Human Resources, providers, managed-care providers, and other interested parties. DHHR will have to determine whether children remain qualified after the public health declaration.

Finally, she outlined the importance of the Legislature’s involvement in funding a communications campaign to educate and inform families and care providers of upcoming changes. She cautioned that the state’s Medicaid team will need time and staffing to determine eligibility for current Medicaid and CHIPs enrollees.

Speaking Monday during the West Virginia Legislature’s interim meetings, Jeremiah Samples, Senior Advisor to the Legislature on healthcare issues, pitched the advantages of a foster parent communications portal.

Mr. Samples told the committee that the portal was the idea of Delegate Jonathan Pinson of Mason County. The portal, tentatively named the “Foster Parent Collective Access Response and Engagement (CARE) portal, would be an online application to facilitate communications among key stakeholders supporting children in foster care. The portal would be used by foster parents, Child Protective Services (CPS), youth services, guardian ad litems (GALs), providers, biological parents, CASA workers, and child-placement agencies.

Samples said the online portal would improve communications, drive accountability, be a resource aggregator, and a recruitment and retention tool. He noted that other states already use similar tools, and the current system is antiquated and inadequate.

Mr. Samples outlined the risks in implementing the portal, such as determining who will have access, addressing inaccurate or outdated information, and resolving inherent communications failures. However, he said the state could mitigate those risks by engaging a work group of stakeholders to run parallel to the legislative process.

The work group, he said, could develop specifications, engage technology leaders, identify and map sources of current communications failures, and allow stakeholders to provide insight and feedback.

Mr. Samples said it would now be up to the Legislature to authorize the portal’s development and provide the necessary funding. He indicated that he has spoken to a company based in Minnesota that sells an application similar to the one he described. The company said its product would cost about $900,000 and take several months to implement fully.

Finally, Mr. Samples informed the committee of the recent release of a study addressing issues involving foster children with acute behavioral problems. He said the study had been distributed to the committee so members could review its findings.

Speaking Tuesday to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability (LOCHHRA), Shevona Lusk, Chief Operating Officer of the Office of Health Facilities (OHF), reviewed some of the facilities her office supervises.

Ms. Lusk said OHF data shows 344 staff vacancies in 2020, and the high number has continued. She said a lot of contract nurses left during COVID to earn more money in other states.

In response to a questionnaire to LOCHHRA, Ms. Lusk said all 50 states have a state-run mental health facility.

She said OHF has about 226 contracts that consist mainly of nursing, medical providers, medical equipment, car rentals, and several others. All seven state facilities use Medsphere’s CareVue as the electronic medical record for their facilities. NetSolutions is used for state-owned long term care facilities.

“OHF is the only DHHR office that provides support and oversight of seven state-owned facilities,” she said.

Regarding competency restoration, Ms. Lusk said it requires factual understanding, rational understanding, and ability to assist counsel. The probability of restoration includes competence assessment, an individualized treatment program, competence restoration educational experiences, anxiety reduction, additional education components for defendants with low intelligence, and other components.

She said trainers meet with defendants one to five days per week in competency program sessions. Ms. Lusk emphasized that Sharpe has been doing competency restoration since the 1990s, and in 2022 it had a success rate of 87% in return to competency, which is above the national standard.

Referring to the Disability West Virginia report from a Joint Committee on Health meeting, Delegate Mike Pushkin of Kanawha County asked about the numbers of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) patients at the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Lewis County and the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Cabell County.

Pat Ryan, CEO of Sharpe, responded that it is a mix of “not restorable” or not guilty by reasons of mental illness or civil patients.

Delegate Heather Tully of Nicholas County asked Mr. Ryan several questions largely based on allegations that Disability West Virginia presented to the Joint Committee on Health. She asked whether there is a process for staff to make an anonymous report to DHHR. Mr. Ryan responded affirmatively.

“We want an eyes-on review,” he said.

Delegate Tully asked when DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch last visited Sharpe Hospital.

“It’s been about two to two and a half years, but we probably talk four to five times a week,” responded Ryan.

Jeffrey Pack, Commissioner for Bureau for Social Services, also responded to a LOCHHRA questionnaire. Among many duties, the Bureau oversees the state’s foster system and adult guardianships. He described how the agency works, including partnerships with agencies, such as the Bureau for Public Health and Bureau for Juvenile Services.

On July 1, 2022, DHHR launched its Child Welfare Dashboard, which provides information on child abuse and neglect referrals. He provided a listing of the Bureau’s current contracts, memorandums of understanding, and the services BSS receives from the Office of the DHHR Secretary.

Delegate Tully asked what type of follow-up has been done to improve the reporting process following communications glitches that resulted in a child fatality.

Commissioner Pack said he’d like to answer the question generally by asking himself, “Have we done all we can do to keep children from falling through the cracks? How can we best use technology, and what technology is available to better inform our decisions about which referrals need to be investigated?”

Janie Cole, Interim Commissioner for the Bureau for Family Assistance (BFA), continued the format of presenting answers to the LOCHHRA questionnaire.

She said BFA provides services such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Child Care Grants to meet the needs of West Virginians. BFA has a north region with 34 counties and a south region with 21 counties; each has a regional director. Ms. Cole described the various offices within the Bureau and their responsibilities, duties, and legal authority.

“We do believe the BFA should be continued,” she told the committee.

Senator Amy Grady of Mason County, Co-Chair of LOCHHRA, asked about complaints of unresponsiveness, particularly to phone calls made to BFA. Ms. Cole said it’s a top priority and under her watch this would change.

Marilyn Pearce, liaison to the Bureau for Social Services for Commissioner Pack, discussed foster care outcomes. She reported that stakeholders met to review roles and responsibilities to assist foster care. Performance-based measures would capture outcomes and a greater understanding of the level of care. There is an emphasis on increased efforts to overcome communications issues, she said.

“Each stakeholder has a valuable role in child welfare. It’s imperative that we work as a unified team,” Ms. Pearce said.

The last presenter was Cammie Chapman with the Bureau for Social Services. She presented a workforce study developed with West Virginia University and consultant ICS during 2021 and 2022. They conducted a salary study and comparison with surrounding states, conducted staff interviews, and met with small focus groups.

One result of the salary study is that a CPS trainee position is being eliminated and new employees will enter the system as a CPS worker.

“Our salaries struggle with competing with Maryland and Virginia, which makes it difficult in our Eastern Panhandle,” Ms. Chapman said. There is now a special hiring rate for Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan counties to help compete for workers.

“Increasing salaries may help attract candidates, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle,” Ms. Chapman said.

Inefficiencies within the system need to be addressed, she said.

“Our workers are doing the best they can,” Ms. Chapman emphasized, but the workload study says the agency can do better.

One recommendation in the study is to update programs and policies.

“Just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean we have to keep doing it in the future,” Ms. Pearce said.

The report says communications with field staff need to improve. It also makes recommendations about recruitment and reviewing job descriptions.

Gaylene Miller, State Director of AARP WV, and Janie Lou White, Executive Director of Preston County Senior Citizens Inc., provided a report and recommendations on Tuesday to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health from their work with the West Virginia Direct Care Task Force.

Ms. Miller said the task force was to address West Virginia’s direct health care workforce shortage by developing recommendations to address the shortage while taking into consideration the state’s known challenges and resources.

The Task Force has held four meetings with the goal to significantly increase direct-care workforce recruitment and retention. To that end, they proposed three categories of recommendations:

·     improved compensation;

·     better education and training opportunities; and

·     better job design, also referred to as job improvements.

Ms. Miller described the task force membership as a balance between service providers, consumer advocates, medical professionals, and others with expertise.

During the four task force meetings, discussion centered around workforce obstacles, research, and the development of recruitment and retention reforms. Ms. Miller emphasized the majority of the task force members supported the report.

Ms. Miller turned the presentation over to Ms. White, who said, “As you might imagine, rural West Virginia has experienced shortages in their direct-care resources,” noting that an aging population contributes to the shortage. She provided a summary of recommendations by category, which included:

Compensation

1. implement a pilot program to provide incentives to providers;

2. implement a voluntary financial incentive program for providers to increase benefits, including affordable health insurance, paid time off, and stipends for child care and transportation;

3. complete a study on the negative impact of the “Medicaid cliff” and its effect on direct care workers;

4. initiate a thorough review of current long-term care needs;

5. review supplemental health care staffing agencies; make sure they meet standards.

Training

1. implement a training surge; include marketing the program and financial assistance for training costs;

2. implement a pathway for specialized care, such as end of life care.

Job Improvements

1. implement a two-year workplace improvement pilot program, including funding;

2. implement a pilot program for up to 20 West Virginia providers willing to adopt a proven and holistic change model designed to improve long-term services and supports.

Ms. White described her personal experience that began when she was a teenager and helped to care for an elderly neighbor.

“I value direct-care services,” she said, describing how it helped her care for her father in his home until the end of his life. “We need to act quickly and decisively,” Ms. White said, encouraging members to study the report.

“We should be leading the nation in long-term services and supports because everyone benefits,” Ms. White concluded.

Ms. Miller followed up saying AARP is proud of the report, which includes evidence-based research. She asked the committee members to think about their own experiences with the population that needs direct care.

She asked, “Have you ever tried to transition a loved one from the hospital to a nursing home? Do you rely on a sibling for a parent’s care? Or are you one of the lucky few who hear these conversations and feel relief that you are not in this situation?”

Speaking to those who have not has that experience, she said: “It’s just not you – yet.”

Sydne Enlund, Senior Policy Specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures, gave an overview on Tuesday to the Joint Committee on Health about national data and what other states are doing, noting the state has many options to model.

Ms. Enland gave examples, including offering tax credits as incentives for a variety of providers for practicing in rural areas and giving exposure to health career pathways starting in grade school.

The meeting began with a presentation from Mike Folio, Legal Director for Disability Rights West Virginia. During the presentation, legislators heard several allegations about the Department of Health and Human Resources regarding William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Lewis County.

At the end of presentations, Chairman Matthew Rohrbach, M.D., of Cabell County, told the committee he was departing from the agenda to ask DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch to respond. Secretary Crouch, referring to Mr. Folio’s presentation, said, “That was an attack on DHHR.”

Bill Crouch, Secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources, confirmed on Monday that his agency is cooperating with a federal investigation of discrimination allegations at state-run facilities for disabled people.

WVMetronews reported that lawmakers heard about conditions at state-run facilities during an interim meeting of the Joint Committee on Health, with the main presenter describing “a vicious cycle of institutionalization.”

“We don’t want anyone discriminated against, and we will not tolerate that,” Secretary Crouch said during a briefing about a variety of state topics.

Click here to read more from WVMetroNews.

The Joint Committee on Technology heard three presentations on Monday during its December interim meeting.

Click here to read more from the West Virginia Press Association.

First, Pooja Tolani, Associate Corporate Counsel for Microsoft, gave a policy briefing on consumer privacy legislation. Her presentation included a historical overview of consumer privacy laws and regulations in the U.S. and worldwide. She focused on the keys to effective consumer privacy legislation.

She said effective legislation must hold companies accountable for the information they collect, empower consumers to control their data, require companies to be transparent about their collection practices, and include robust enforcement provisions.

Secretary of State’s Office outlines digital efforts

Chuck Flannery, Chief of Staff and Deputy Secretary of State, outlined the Secretary of State’s efforts to digitize state government services and knowledge.

Mr. Flannery highlighted the Secretary of State’s efforts to deliver government services from a single portal rather than requiring consumers to visit separate state agency websites.

The Secretary of State, he said, has been at the forefront of state government efforts to provide services digitally. He noted that 99% of business reports are filed online from the state’s 110,000 businesses.

Mr. Flannery said the Secretary of State is focusing on digitizing a knowledge base to serve customers better. The concept will allow state government to respond to customers’ questions from a single hub. The technologies will create a more cost-effective infrastructure for state agencies to provide services to the state’s taxpayers, he said.

Chancellor describes Higher Ed’s IT programs

Finally, Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker, Chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission and the Community and Technical College Commission, discussed higher education’s information technology programs.

Dr. Tucker provided the committee with data on the growing job growth in the IT sector. She also informed the committee on the types of IT programs offered by higher education in the state and their impact on the state’s workforce. She noted that a significant challenge is the pace at which technology changes and the difficulty for faculty to keep up.

Learn-and-earn programs that harness the training opportunities the state’s businesses provide are key to keeping up with technological changes, Dr. Tucker said. Unfortunately, learn-and-earn programs are unavailable to baccalaureate students. She said her office is focused on that challenge and sees it as a critical initiative in growing the state’s IT sector.

The Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary heard presentations on Monday in Senate Chambers concerning public nuisance law, juror incentivization, and the definition of “sexual contact” in West Virginia code.

Peri Di Christopher, Prosecuting Attorney from Monongalia County, introduced a new definition of sexual contact from SB498 that would remove a marital exception in the case of forceable sexual contact.

She provided context of how marriage and rape laws have evolved over time in other states and the ideology on ongoing consent in marriage.

She answered questions from legislators mostly concerned about how a change in language could increase false accusations against men in divorce and family court proceedings.

Public nuisance laws examined

Attorney Elbert Lin, who formerly served in the state Attorney General’s Office, described the role of public nuisance laws as giving government the ability to stop local criminal interference in the public right.

Mr. Lin, now a partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth, correlated the expansion in the definition of public nuisance laws since 1979 to an increase of lawsuits against businesses because of “catchall unpredictable liability.”

Mr. Lin said legislatures have an important role in creating reasonable protections from public nuisances and from unnecessary lawsuits that are permitted by vague public nuisance code.

Tony Majestro, a partner at Powell and Majestro, followed Lin and gave contrasting testimony, cautioning that a narrowing of public nuisance law could limit public protection. He gave the example that public nuisance laws aided in holding opioid manufacturers responsible for their role in the opioid epidemic.

Juror incentivization discussed

Senate Judiciary Counsel Liz Schindzielorz answered questions about proposed interim legislation on juror incentivization measures. The proposed bill would create two new sections of code and amend two existing sections of code.

The bill would create a tax credit for employers who provide compensation to employees for the first five days of jury duty, eliminate juror excuses for reasons of “extreme inconvenience,” and increase juror per diem to a flat $40. House Judiciary Chairman Moore Capito introduced a motion to defer further discussion until January Interims.

Dr. Cynthia Persily, Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, addressed the Joint Standing Committee on Education Monday to discuss the current need for behavioral and mental health services in West Virginia and how mental health services affect employers.

Dr. Persily said employers reported a 48% increase in employees requesting mental health services. Schools also are reporting an increased need for mental health services but have inadequate staffing to meet the need. She said children at hospitals are seeing increased wait times before seeing mental health professionals.

Dr. Persily said West Virginia would need to add 1,400 behavioral and mental health providers to meet the need in the state. Currently, West Virginia has one mental health professional for every 500 citizens. The national ratio is one provider for every 370 citizens.

Melissa White, Chief Counsel for the House Education Committee, introduced behavioral health legislation to help study the supply and demand for mental health services and to incentivize and promote the psychiatric profession in West Virginia.

On day two of the December interim meetings, the Joint Committee on Energy heard from representatives of PJM, a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Lory Murphy Lee, Manager, Regulatory and Legislative Affairs for PJM, explained the effects that electric vehicles pose on the electric grid.

Ms. Lee told the committee that PJM has been studying the impact of the increased use of electric vehicles on the electric power grid managed by PJM. Battery-powered and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are two types of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). She explained that plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) would ideally draw electricity from the grid during off-peak or low-price periods.

That timing would enhance the efficiency of the grid by reducing the difference between off-peak and peak demand levels and enable traditional power plants to operate more steadily and efficiently. Currently, those hours typically are on nights and weekends.

She told the committee that a sharply higher outlook for PEV sales spurred the decision to factor the impact of plug-in electric vehicles into the 2020 PJM Load Forecast Report. She said some PEVs can provide electric services to the grid. This concept is called vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology or demand response.

Large numbers of electric vehicles plugged in and virtually aggregated as a single resource, such as a fleet of school buses, can serve as a large “battery on the grid” or “virtual power plant.” As such, they can provide some electricity services similar to what more traditional power plants supply today.

Lee said one such service is frequency regulation, which is used to balance short-term variations between load and generation that might affect the stability of the power system.

Frequency regulation, a service procured through PJM’s Regulation Market, adjusts generation output or load consumption to maintain the system’s desired frequency and power flow. She gave as an example a study by V2G technology at the University of Delaware that showed EVs can both charge and discharge and earn revenue, making it similar to a generation asset.

Lee told the committee that PJM looks forward to playing a role in powering the future fleet of PEVs and enabling them to interact with the grid in innovative ways to maintain reliable and cost-efficient electricity.

Steve McElwee, Chief Information Security Officer for PJM, spoke about the organization’s cybersecurity efforts to protect the electrical grid. He told the committee that managing the modern electric grid requires tremendous data and robust information technologies. He said PJM is conscious of the threats to the power grid and makes significant efforts to protect its integrity.

McElwee said PJM shares the responsibility for protecting the grid from cyber threats with its transmission partners. Explaining the various cyber threats, he noted that ransomware and distributed denial of service (DoS) are significant threats to the grid.

He said PJM’s security management approach focuses its security objectives to:

·     identify threats and develop the organization’s strategy to manage cybersecurity risk;

·     protect and fortify its systems;

·     detect events through 24/7 monitoring;

·     respond quickly using well-defined plans; and

·     recover quickly from an event using multiple contingency plans to minimize the impact.

The Joint Committee on Natural Gas focused on hydrogen, beginning with a presentation on the Federal Program for Hydrogen Fuels from Andrew Robinson, Director of Economic Development for Senator Joe Manchin.

Speaking Tuesday at the Capitol, Mr. Robinson told the committee that Congress basically passed 10 years of legislation in one year with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. He said that although West Virginia is historically known as an energy community, it is becoming an innovative energy community.

“Innovative companies are coming to us, using innovation that provides cleaner and more efficient energy,” Mr. Robinson said.

Explaining the funding, Mr. Robinson said the bipartisan infrastructure law will provide $8.5 billion in carbon capture funds as a means for fossil fuels to burn in a cleaner manner so industries can stay alive. It also will provide $750 million to coal communities for innovative manufacturing and energy production and $11.3 million for abandoned mine lands. The act further provides $8 billion for regional clean-hydrogen hubs.

Additional funding is provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes another $8.3 billion investment in coal production. The biggest piece of the IRA is another $4 billion for innovative energy manufacturing exclusively for coal communities, such as areas that used to have a coal-burning power plant.

“This reinvests back into communities,” Mr. Robinson said.

Production tax credits for hydrogen also are in IRA. West Virginia natural gas and coal can be used to create hydrogen and recruit hubs to the state, he said.

“Senator Manchin is very optimistic that we can attract and build a hydrogen hub in West Virginia,” Mr. Robinson concluded.

The next presentation was “West Virginia’s Role as a Leader in Hydrogen Fuels.”

Arria Hines, CEO of Allegheny Science & Technology (AST), told the committee her company is based in West Virginia.

“We are an ‘all-of-the-above’ energy company, as Senator Manchin likes to call us,” she said.

Why hydrogen now? The bipartisan infrastructure law and the IRA provides the ability to develop a clean-hydrogen hub, she said.

The hydrogen hub requires a regional approach, and it will connect producers and users throughout the United States, Ms. Hines said.

The Department of Energy (DOE ) will award six to 10 hubs, requiring a minimum of a 50% cost share for industry.

“It will be executed over eight to 10 years, but industry doesn’t want to take that long, so we are hoping this time frame will be expedited,” Ms. Hines said. Key factors include production, showing a life-cycle development, and having buyers.

Why West Virginia?

She said this is an unprecedented time in the energy sector, and West Virginia is centered in the nation’s second-largest gas-producing region with substantial private-investment interests.

Ms. Hines said West Virginia already has engagement and support from labor, community colleges, and many other organizations, including West Virginia University and Marshall University. West Virginia also has a connected energy-delivery structure that she described as a critical component.

She said Senators Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, Congressman David McKinley, and Governor Jim Justice put together the West Virginia Clean Hydrogen Coalition. The West Virginia Development Office contacted AST to assist based on its experience with DOE.

“We pulled together an industry day on July 28, meeting with a lot of industry,” Ms. Hines said.

Prior to that, she said, there was a request for information to gauge interest, a review of available technologies, and discussions about the investment requirement.

She added that they developed a memorandum of understanding with AST, several companies, WVU, the state of West Virginia, and many others. She said 150 interested participants included three transit authorities, eight community and technical colleges, several labor and job organizations, and many others.

Ms. Hines said steel operations, cement factories, refineries, and other manufacturing facilities produce a lot of carbon, and tax credits mean a lot to those industries.

“Savvy businesses will take advantage of this opportunity, and we want to create it in West Virginia,” Ms. Hines said.

The Justice 40 initiative, authored by the White House, is also an important factor, she said.

“We have to show a 40% impact (not necessarily dollars) to disadvantaged communities. I was born and raised in a holler in West Virginia, and I know what it means to be disadvantaged,” she said.

Justice 40 calls for lessening burdens that affect disadvantaged communities.

In describing the path forward, partners are looking for Department of Energy approval. The application is due April 27, 2023.

“We need business plans, responsibility matrix, and many other components,” she said.

She described community outreach and engagement as important components.

”We have to connect with communities. We have to keep the energy and momentum in our communities, including availability of training,” she said.

Regarding hydrogen production, she said, the Legislature must pass laws by modeling other states. She provided a to-do list for legislators, including:

·     identify best practices;

·     enable uniform standards;

·     address trucking and fueling;

·     have a community benefits plan.

“If you know of anyone in your communities we should be talking to, connect me with people,” she asked of legislators.

Delegate Evan Hansen of Monongalia County asked Ms. Hines whether she could help them visualize what this will look like in size, what it looks like on the ground, pipelines, and the scale.

She explained that it is conceptual at this point, and the projects are not defined.

“Right now, we’re looking at at least five projects throughout our region, with connecting pipelines and water from the Ohio River. There will be multiple locations, including existing facilities that they want to convert,” she responded.

She noted there could be multiple locations in West Virginia, as well as training facilities.

Delegate Hansen asked how Justice 40 would apply to communities in West Virginia. She directed him to the DOE website, which defines disadvantaged communities throughout the U.S.

Interim Meeting

January 8-10

2023 Legislative Session

January 11

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