From the Well | February 4, 2021

This week we learned that with their new supermajority, Republicans plan to roll out a number of initiatives including tax cuts, rollback of regulations and professional licensing requirements, expansion of charter schools and the imposition of new restrictions on gubernatorial and judicial powers. It appears unlikely that Senate and House Democrats will be able to muster any real opposition to these efforts. So, while it will certainly be an interesting legislative session, perhaps the only real question is to what degree COVID-19 restrictions will allow for public access to Capitol.

WV Metro News | By Brad McElhinny | February 2, 2021

Covid-19 is likely to dominate West Virginia’s coming legislative session, both in policy and practicality.

Senators this week said they will consider a range of bills relating to the pandemic, including how the pandemic would affect business liability and the extent of the governor’s emergency powers.

And senators are preparing to take precautions that could include limiting public access and participating in committee meetings from their own offices.

And, unfortunately, uncertainty will also be a factor.

We don’t know what future lies in front of us whether the covid situation gets better or worse,” said Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley.

Those were recurring themes during a Legislative Lookahead preview sponsored by the West Virginia Press Association in partnership with AARP WV and WVU Today.

The first lookahead event, which was online, included Blair, the incoming Senate president, and senators Ryan Weld, Patricia Rucker, Rollan Roberts and Mark Maynard, all Republicans. Also speaking were Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin and Senator Rich Lindsay, Democrats.

The West Virginia Capitol Complex remains open for official business, but it’s been closed for non-business visits. So public access to watch legislative decisions up close and interact with lawmakers is in question.

“The Senate is going to be accessible. When I say accessible, I mean it’s going to be accessible digitally,” Blair said.

He described livestreaming Senate floor sessions, as well as committee meetings. The Senate’s system has a video archive, too. And he said the Senate aims to distribute videos highlighting current initiatives.

The Senate is likely to experiment with lawmakers participating in committee meetings online from their own offices, he said.

“Otherwise, there will be limited access into the building because of the covid concerns. We want to make sure members and staff and those who would be in the building are protected to the best of our ability,” Blair said.

He added, “That shouldn’t slow the process of being able to get our work done.”

Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, recognized the challenge of communicating with the public during the pandemic. He described having virtual office hours and public availability sessions on a regular basis, although the timing is still being worked out.

And with accessibility at the Capitol limited, Baldwin worried attempts at influence will be even greater after-hours. Democrats will introduce a bill aimed at limiting opportunities for lobbyists to take lawmakers to dinner, Baldwin said.

Several more pieces of legislation are lined up in reaction to the pandemic.

Both Republicans and Democrats said the social distancing demands of the pandemic have illustrated the need to strengthen broadband capacity in West Virginia.

Baldwin and Lindsay said the pandemic shows the continued need to focus on healthcare, too. Lindsay described increasing a Medicaid match for healthcare providers to make sure their finances are strong enough to continue to operate.

“We’ve got to protect people’s health. We’ve got to protect public health right now,” Baldwin said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee will probably examine liability for employers during the pandemic, said Weld, the vice-chairman of that committee. Weld said such legislation would aim to curb frivolous lawsuits — although defining what constitutes a frivolous lawsuit is one likely area of debate.

Weld, R-Brooke, said that priority arose because “We had seen it all over the country, suits arise out of covid liability. Other states have taken on covid liability.”

More focus may be on the governor’s emergency powers. 

Gov. Jim Justice’s orders issued over nearly a year now have been based on his own State of Emergency declaration on March 16 and a section of state code describing the governor’s emergency powers.

In other words, Justice has been citing the large-scale threat of the virus to restrict people’s movements.

Lawmakers will look at aspects of those powers, including how long they really should last and what powers should be more defined, Weld said.

“How can we improve upon the governors’ powers? How can we put more of those powers into the Legislature’s hands, just to balance the power of state government?” he said.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders gave the governor relatively high marks for his handling of the pandemic.

Baldwin said he would have preferred earlier legislative involvement in issues such as oversight of the state’s use of millions of dollars of federal relief.

But, Baldwin said, “Overall we think the governor has been very responsive.”

Blair concurred, saying he hasn’t liked every move by the governor but favoring the overall effort. In particular, Blair praised West Virginia’s vaccination distribution effort.

“One of the things I can say is when I’ve had complaints from constituents and I’ve voiced them to the Governor’s Office, normally they reacted within 24 hours and addressed those issues,” Blair said.

WV News | by Charles Young SENIOR STAFF WRITER | February 3, 2021

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — On Wednesday, leaders in the House of Delegates laid out their agendas ahead of the 2021 Legislative session, which begins next Wednesday.

Speakers during a virtual event hosted by the West Virginia Association included Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, Dels. Amy Summers, R-Taylor, and Paul Espinosa, R-Jefferson, and Minority Leader Doug Skaff, D-Kanawha, and Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell.

This year’s session will be “unlike any other we’ve had” due to precautions in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hanshaw said.

“We know that just in the past couple of weeks two states have already convened their legislative sessions and had them go in recess because of coronavirus outbreaks in the legislative sessions in those chambers,” he said. “We are cautious, we are trying to make certain that we take every precaution we can to keep people as safe as we can.”

The GOP plans to introduce the bulk of its legislation early in the session, Hanshaw said.

Numerous GOP-backed proposals related to broadband internet expansion are currently being written, Hanshaw said.

“You’ll see us very early in the session have another broadband expansion bill. People are working around the clock on those proposals right now,” he said. “There are proposals for additional middle-mile construction, there are proposals for making it easier to attach fiber to utility poles, there are proposals for making it easier to deploy wireless technology in West Virginia.”

Although Democrats face a 77-member Republican supermajority, they still plan to fight for issues most important to their constituents, Skaff said.

“We have 23 members strong and we’re excited to get to work,” he said. “We want to work together with the majority party on the things that we can agree to.”

His caucus considers broadband expansion to be its “No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3” priorities, Skaff said.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders expressed support for examining the scope of emergency powers afforded to the governor.

“When an emergency turns into an ongoing situation or a long, drawn-out saga, I think we need to take a look at how those roles are defined,” Skaff said. “I don’t think having one person in charge of allocating all that money is in the best interest of all West Virginians.

“Regardless of party, regardless of who’s in charge I think that’s something we can agree to and work on together and see how we address that situation moving forward.”

Democrats hope to work together to create opportunities for “all West Virginans,” Skaff said.

“We want to create an opportunity where they can stay, where they can rebuild their lives and where they can succeed here in West Virginia.”

Charleston Gazette-Mail | By Phil Kabler Staff writer | Feb 2, 2021

With a new supermajority, West Virginia Senate Republicans plan to roll out 125 key bills for the 2021 regular session.

The bills would run the gamut of the national GOP playbook, including tax cuts, rollback of regulations and professional licensing requirements, expansion of charter schools and the imposition of new restrictions on gubernatorial and judicial powers.

New Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, told a virtual version of the annual West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead on Tuesday that all tax cuts — including a proposed phase-out of the state personal income tax — will be “revenue neutral.”

“There is no way you can take $2.1 billion of personal income tax and eliminate it in one year,” he said, citing the amount of revenue the tax — the largest component of the state’s $4.7 billion general revenue budget — brings in each year.

“I can tell you right now, it will be revenue neutral or less. Working West Virginians will have more resources in their pockets,” he said, suggesting there will be no tax increases to make up for lost income tax revenue.

That’s unlike a failed 2017 proposal to phase out the income tax that Blair and other Senate Republicans championed. It would have increased the state consumer sales tax to 8% and eliminated several exemptions.

Blair said the tax plan, which still is being devised, will be funded through “finding efficiencies in state government” — a euphemism for budget cuts — and growth in state population and businesses. He reiterated an unsubstantiated claim that elimination of income taxes would result in 400,000 people moving to the state in the next decade.

Blair also said the 2021-22 state budget will be an essentially unchanged “flat-line” for the third straight year. Given annual inflation, that would effectively amount to a spending cut for state agencies and programs.

Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, said Senate leadership will unveil 125 bills he said will take “bold steps to change the course of the future.” He offered this breakdown:

·    27 government reform bills, including making permanent rollbacks of regulations temporarily eased during the pandemic. Other bills would lessen professional licensing requirements and restrict gubernatorial power during states of emergency.

·    Nine judicial reform bills. One would limit business liability in COVID-19 claims by employees and customers.

·    21 education reform bills. Senate Education Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said those include legislation to expand permitting of state-funded charter schools. Legislation passed in 2019 has yet to produce an operating charter school in West Virginia.

·    12 tax reform bills.

·    16 economic development bills.

·    Nine Health and Human Resources bills.

·    Nine elections bills. Roberts did not offer details, but Republican-controlled legislatures in other states are pursuing rollbacks of election-reform laws, including automatic voter registration, expansion of absentee voting by mail and of early voting dates and locations.

He said the list also includes three transportation and infrastructure, three agriculture and 16 “miscellaneous” bills.

Judiciary Vice Chairman Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, said leadership also will push for resolutions for amendments to the West Virginia Constitution, including expanding legislative impeachment powers after the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that the Legislature overstepped its constitutional authority in attempting to impeach four justices.

He said other proposed constitutional amendments would give the Legislature authority over taxation, powers that are currently restricted by tax provisions written into the constitution. Another amendment would give the Legislature power to approve or reject rules adopted by the West Virginia Board of Education.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, said the Democrat superminority in the Senate will advocate for investment in water and sewer infrastructure and — on one issue with clear bipartisan support — for expansion of broadband internet statewide.

Baldwin said Democrats also want to see additional efforts to fight the state’s opioid drug crisis, a topic he noted was conspicuously absent from presentations by Senate leadership Tuesday.

Baldwin said Democrats also are concerned about accessibility, accountability and transparency during a legislative session that will be conducted in a Capitol that is effectively closed to the public.

“Sometimes, this place can be a bubble for 60 days, and I’m afraid that will be more the case with COVID,” he said.

Concerned that, without Capitol access, lobbyists will redouble efforts to wine and dine legislators after hours, Baldwin said Democrats will introduce a bill to prohibit lobbyists from buying meals for legislators.

He said Democrat senators also will maintain virtual office hours for the public, and he plans to conduct virtual briefings for legislative reporters who will not have access to the Senate floor this session.

Blair downplayed issues with accessibility, noting that the Senate for years has had technology providing livestreamed video telecasts of all floor sessions and committee meetings. By contrast, House of Delegates committee meetings are audio-only livestreams.

“We’ve got cellphones, we’ve got the digital technologies,” added Blair, who said he wants accessibility but also wants to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak among members, staff and the limited number of visitors to the Capitol.

Under the constitution, legislative regular sessions in years following gubernatorial election years are delayed for one month, with the 60-day session getting underway Feb. 10.

WV Metro News | By Brad McElhinny | February 3, 2021

The House of Delegates and its 100 members may have to be particularly flexible and quick this year.

House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, speaking to reporters Wednesday, acknowledged the many uncertainties brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The regular 60-day session of the Legislature begins next week, Feb. 10.

Daily factors could include staff availability, schedules, committee agendas, locations of meetings and degree of public access.

“We will be making sort of a game day decision each day,” Hanshaw said.

He described an aggressive beginning to the session, with the aim of passing major legislation in relatively short order — not knowing when a possible outbreak might require a shutdown.

“We do anticipate working a fairly aggressive agenda early in the session because other states have seen their sessions shut down because of COVID,” said Hanshaw, R-Clay. “If we’re shut down we can still have a positive legislative session realizing there may be things left undone.”

Hanshaw and other leaders in the House’s Republican majority described legislation dealing with issues like broadband expansion, the extent of the governor’s emergency powers, education choice including more flexible charter schools provisions and some deregulation measures that could include issues like certificate of need provisions for healthcare providers.

Delegates spoke during a Legislative Lookahead preview sponsored by the West Virginia Press Association in partnership with AARP WV and WVU Today.

The streamed event included Hanshaw, Majority Leader Amy Summers and Delegate Paul Espinosa, who is the majority whip, all Republicans. Speakers also included the new Minority Leader Doug Skaff and Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, Democrats.

The House of Delegates, like the Senate, has a Republican supermajority this year, which could make passage of major legislation easier — if consensus exists within the caucuses.

An ongoing issue during the pandemic will be public access. The state Capitol has remained closed to the public except for those with official business.

Hanshaw said the public may observe legislative activity through livestreaming.

Floor sessions and some committee meetings will be in the House Chamber this year. Other committee meetings will be in an East Wing room that people often call the Government Organization committee room. “We want to minimize the amount of time committee members are in close proximity to each other,” Hanshaw said.

There is video streaming in the Chamber, but the Government Organization room is only equipped for audio streaming.

The pandemic has brought out the need for some areas of legislative consideration, said Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor.

She cited a possible need to strengthen telehealth options and local health departments.

“Have they been able to react effectively? Are they well managed? Some have been able to manage fine, others have had trouble; how do you coordinate that in a pandemic like this?” Summers asked.

And she described legislation that could place a limited timetable on the governor’s emergency powers. Gov Jim Justice has been operating under an emergency decree for almost a year now.

“We want our governor to be flexible and able to react, but at what point do we want some buy in or legislative approval for that?” Summers asked.

Skaff, D-Kanawha, agreed the emergency powers need examination.

“When an emergency turns into an ongoing situation or a long drawn-out saga, we need to look at how those roles are defined,” Skaff said.

Disruption to classrooms has also made some parents want additional options, Summers said. The Legislature passed a provision allowing charter schools almost two years ago, but so far none have been approved. One likelihood is legislation that would provide additional paths for approval.

Democrats, at least early on, talked about working across the aisle. “We want to be working together,” said Hornbuckle, D-Cabell. He added that the pandemic has “really uncovered a lot of commonalities we have with one another.”

Hornbuckle described the need to focus on food insecurity for citizens, support for parents who are struggling and providing a better framework for small businesses, including restaurants, to compete.

Skaff underscored the common desire to improve internet connectivity in the state. “Broadband access is now our No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 priority,” he said.

He laid out a vision of strengthening communities and a continued focus on “keeping our best and brightest in the state of West Virginia.”

But he also recognized the role of the minority party to sometimes place checks on the majority.

“You will see us hold everyone accountable for pieces of legislation that we think aren’t in the best interest of all West Virginians,” Skaff said.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting | By Emily Allen | Published January 26, 2021

Almost a year after adjourning last March, lawmakers returned to the state capitol early in January to prepare for the upcoming legislative session.

But this time, they wore face masks. Some had to work away from the floor, in spectator galleries, apart from the colleagues with whom they normally would sit side-by-side.

West Virginia legislators say they’re prepared to convene in less than a month. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, leaders say they’re aiming to complete a 60-day in-person session. Meanwhile, other U.S. statehouses in Mississippi and Missouri already have reported COVID-19 outbreaks and cases this year.

“We’re prepared for ‘worst case scenario’ and we’re prepared for ‘best case scenario,’” said Senate President Craig Blair, a Republican from Berkeley County.

Each chamber of the West Virginia Legislature is responsible for enacting its own guidelines and rules for COVID-19 precautions. The capitol complex is still closed to the public, minus those who have appointments, by the governor’s executive order from last March.

Clerks from both the House and Senate said that from each chamber, staff and lawmakers formed COVID-19 working groups over the summer. They talked through different scenarios, reviewed guidance from state and federal experts and applied their discussions to the legislative process.

Lawmakers are still determining what precautions they’ll take to avoid coronavirus spread or outbreaks. Clerks for both chambers said that members likely won’t vote on everything until closer to Feb. 10, the first day of the 2021 legislative session.

“It’s been a very fluid situation,” said House Clerk Steve Harrison. “We realize that things can change between now and February. Hopefully things will be improving, but we’re prepared to operate in the current environment if we need to.”

An image of House delegates voting on House Resolution Five for implementing pandemic safety procedures.

House delegates voted on Jan. 13, 2021, to pass House Resolution Five, for pandemic safety procedures.

So far, the House of Delegates is the only chamber that’s voted on any COVID-19-related rules. Delegates passed House Resolution 5 on Jan. 10, during an organizational one-day session, for “implementing pandemic safety procedures.”

The resolution bars anyone other than a delegate or authorized employee from entering the House floor, where lawmakers sit and vote, during the 2021 session. It further requires that all lawmakers on the floor wear a mask, unless speaking to the entire chamber or eating

Lawmakers who choose not to wear a mask are assigned a space in one of three spectator galleries, normally reserved for the public. A second gallery has been designated for lawmakers who want to wear their masks and sit farther from their colleagues.

Away from the House floor, in committee meetings where delegates review and debate legislation, House Resolution 5 requires that all members wear a face covering “or maintain appropriate social distance from all other persons attending committee meetings.”

House Democrats — who this year are up against a Republican supermajority — unsuccessfully asked their chamber to include a requirement that lawmakers must wear masks “properly,” covering both the nose and the mouth.

“This is a disease that is affecting all of us in our districts,” said Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia. “Many of our families, many of our places of work, places of worship … this is serious business, and us, as legislators, are not spared.”

Before rejecting the proposal, House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, said the Democrats’ amendment would lead to “points of order left and right.”

“I think we all know the proper way to wear our masks, and we’re expecting each other to do that,” Summers said during the vote. “If someone is choosing not to do that, or if you’re concerned about that, we as the House have provided you other opportunities to be more socially distanced in the galleries.”

Meanwhile, In The W.Va. Senate

Senate Clerk Lee Cassis said lawmakers likely will vote on COVID-19 guidelines once the session kicks off next month.

After hearing from other clerks in states that have convened for in-person sessions during the pandemic, Cassis said the West Virginia Senate will use a combination of guidelines and rules for mask-wearing, social distancing, and maybe even alternative ways to conduct committee hearings, so lawmakers aren’t all in the same small room for hours at a time.

“Committee rooms are more difficult than the chambers,” said Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin. “The chamber is a much easier space for social distancing than the committee rooms are. So, we would like to see the public and members participate in committees, virtually.”

Baldwin said his party is still negotiating with the Republican majority, when it comes to COVID-19 rules for the upcoming session.

Earlier this year, Senate staff upgraded committee rooms, which already were capable of live-streaming videos of meetings, to include video-conferencing equipment for outside presenters and members of the public.

The House offers less online access in its committee rooms. While archived and live videos from the House floor are available online, House committees live-stream audio from their meetings. The recordings don’t allow for playback.

COVID-19 Vaccines

Senate President Blair said that ahead of the session he has prioritized vaccinating as many senators and staff as he can, who are willing.

Blair estimated that a majority of his senators have been vaccinated at this time. While the governor has prioritized state lawmakers in his allocation plan for the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s unclear how many Senate employees — many of whom work full time, seasonally and part time — have access to or have accepted the vaccine.

In the House, leaders declined to report how many have been vaccinated so far, citing privacy reasons.

Dave Mistich contributed to this report.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Charleston Gazette-Mail | By Lacie Pierson Staff writer | February 3, 2021

Eliminating state funding to West Virginia and Marshall universities are among options House Majority Whip Paul Espinosa listed in a poll sent to Republican colleagues.

Espinosa said he wants to know which tax increases and budget cuts Republicans are willing to make to eliminate the state’s personal income tax. In an informal poll Espinosa, R-Jefferson, sent to GOP members of the House, he asked delegates if they would consider things like increasing the state’s sales tax to 8% and eliminating state funding to Marshall and WVU as well as halting the Promise Scholarship.

The poll asked lawmakers to consider 12 options lawmakers could exercise to offset the cost of losing $2.1 billion in revenue if the income tax is repealed during Gov. Jim Justice’s current term, which ends in 2024.

“Such a plan requires measures that are not politically popular standing alone,” Espinosa said in the poll first shared by Dragline, a blog following politics in West Virginia. “We need to determine if you would support such measures in order to achieve the goal of eliminating [personal income tax].”

On Wednesday, Espinosa joined a panel of House leaders in speaking to media during the West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead, which took place via teleconference.

Espinosa said any suggestion the options in the poll are part of a firm plan is “ludicrous.”

“Generally speaking, we routinely reach out to our members to gauge their perspective on various issues or even components of issues to gauge whether they’re components of legislation they can support or, just as importantly, if not more importantly, which components are non-starters,” Espinosa said “Frankly, we even sometimes ask our members questions when we have a sense that it may be a non-starter or may not have much support just to confirm that.”

“I think it’s fair to say … some of those are non-starters.”

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, has said elimination of the personal income tax would be funded through “finding efficiencies in state government.” Gov. Jim Justice also has expressed his support for eliminating the tax.

In Espinoa’s poll, he proposed the following options:

·    Increase sales tax to 8% and potentially higher

·    Broadening of increased sales tax to include previously untaxed items such as professional services, advertising, hair care and contracting services.

·    Reinstate food tax at 2.5% to 3%

·    Special additional sales tax on luxury goods beyond regular increased sales tax

·    Increase personal income tax on high earners temporarily until tax is ultimately eliminated

·    5% to 10% budget cuts, including public and higher education and Department of Health and Human Resources.

·    Tiered severance tax on coal and gas resulting in immediate increase in taxation of metallurgical coal

·    Reduction in higher education funding

·    Eliminate all state appropriations to WVU and Marshall

·    Transfer of soft drink tax from WVU’s medical school to general revenue

·    Elimination or reduction of Promise Scholarship

·    Marijuana legalization and taxation

For the current budget year, the state allocated $110.7 million to WVU’s general fund and $49.2 million to Marshall’s.

The list doesn’t specify whether proposed cuts to Marshall and WVU would include the state allocations to their respective medical schools. The state allocated $16.4 million to WVU’s Health Sciences Center and $13.6 million to Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

WVU also receives all of the revenue for West Virgina’s pop tax, the tax on soft drinks. The legislature generally doesn’t deal with revenue from the pop tax, since state law specifically states it goes to WVU “construction, maintenance and operation of a four-year school of medicine, dentistry and nursing.”

In fiscal year 2020, the pop tax generated $13.5 million, according to a report from the West Virginia Legislative Auditor’s Office.

The West Virginia Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Feb. 10 for its regular 60-day session.

WV Metro News | By Brad McElhinny | February 3, 2021 

Former Senate President Mitch Carmichael is coming on board the Justice administration as the state’s economic development director.

Gov. Jim Justice today said he’d planned to announce Carmichael’s appointment during next week’s State of the State address, but then described the hiring when he was asked about it during a regular briefing.

“I don’t know that we have officially announced that yet, but what we’re doing is we’re trying to break out and be more efficient on our economic development. And we feel like Mitch can be a terrific asset there. He will become our economic development director.

“We feel like with his personality — and his stuck-on on personality and everything — that he can really bring some real oomph to us there.

At the end of the day what we want to do in West Virginia is lots and lots and lots of good things. We need to constantly work on economic development, expanding tourism, expanding diversification.”

“I was really going to do that in my State of the State That may very well be out and everything. If it is, that’s where we’re moving.”

Continue reading . . .

Charleston-Gazette Mail | By Mike Tony Staff writer | Jan 30, 2021

Chris Hamilton’s tenure with the West Virginia Coal Association has paralleled Joe Manchin’s rise in politics from the state House of Delegates in the 1980s to his run as a U.S. senator.

That history, Hamilton said, makes him optimistic the Democratic senator will be an ally in working to keep the federal government from forsaking coal amid moves toward a carbon-free economy.

“We’re obviously hopeful that Senator Manchin .. would be an ally in trying to prevent a forced conversion of baseload generation into renewable power,” Hamilton said.

Now Manchin wields more power than ever in an evenly divided Senate under his party’s control. The coal country native who founded a coal brokerage is the incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources, where he will play a critical role in shaping federal energy policy.

“I think his role’s going to be pretty doggone important going forward,” Hamilton said. “No question about that.”

Helping fuel the intense scrutiny that Manchin has received in the early days of the President Joe Biden administration is Manchin’s reputation as a centrist. That has inspired optimism among environmentalists who see in his track record signs he will embrace measures toward a climate-conscious energy transition in the Biden era as long as it yields investments in coal communities in West Virginia.

“[Manchin] recognizes the urgent need to act on climate issues, but to do it in a way that helps West Virginia build a new and sustainable economy,” West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser said. “He is the right leader in the right position at this critical time to help our state and nation through this transition.”

Continue reading . . .

Charleston Gazette-Mail | By Mike Tony Staff writer | February 3, 2021

Joe Manchin’s positions, from his support for preserving the filibuster to his opposition to raising the minimum hourly wage to $15, have been under scrutiny like never before, given the centrist Democrat’s bolstered clout in an evenly divided U.S. Senate.

Presiding over a hearing Wednesday on global climate trends as incoming chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, West Virginia’s senior senator urged sticking with the facts, the most important being that climate change is a “critical” issue every country must face.

“No doubt, we will all have differing views on the best way to do that,” Manchin said. “But first, I believe we must begin with a common understanding of where we stand today and what got us here.”

The committee heard from a panel of five energy and climate expert witnesses who agreed that it would be a steep challenge reducing greenhouse gas emissions enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050, in accordance with the international Paris Agreement. The United States rejoined that pact after President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20.

“[T]oday’s policies are enough only to secure a flattening of global emissions out to 2040, a trajectory far from what will be needed to avoid severe impacts from climate change,” International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said.

Continue reading . . .

Senator Robert H. Plymale (D – Wayne, 05) February 2; Senator Rupie Phillips (R – Logan, 07) February 17; Delegate Ben Queen (R – Harrison, 48) February 7; Delegate Mike Pushkin (D – Kanawha, 37) February 8; Delegate Ed Evans (D – McDowell, 26) February 9; Delegate Cody Thompson (D – Randolph, 43) February 12; Delegate Chris Toney (R – Raleigh, 31) February 13; and Delegate Lisa Zukoff (D – Marshall, 04) February 27.

2021 Legislative Calendar

First Day – February 10, 2021: First day of session. (WV Const. Art. VI, §18)

Twentieth Day – March 1, 2021: Submission of Legislative Rule-Making Review bills due. (WV Code §29A-3-12)

Thirty-fifth Day – March 16, 2021: Last day to introduce bills in the House. House Rule 91a does not apply to originating or supplementary appropriation bills, and does not apply to Senate or House resolutions or concurrent resolutions.

Forty-first Day – March 22, 2021: Last day to introduce bills in the Senate. Senate Rule 14 does not apply to originating or supplementary appropriation bills, and does not apply to Senate or House resolutions or concurrent resolutions.

Forty-seventh Day – March 28, 2021: Bills due out of committees in house of origin to ensure three full days for readings.

Fiftieth Day – March 31, 2021: Last day to consider bill on third reading in house of origin. Does not include budget or supplementary appropriation bills. (Joint Rule 5, paragraph b)

Sixtieth Day – April 10, 2021: Adjournment at Midnight. (WV Const. Art. VI, §22)