The President wants to repeal The Clean Power Plan, which would require West Virginia to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2025. The EPA head, Scott Pruitt, now denies that the climate is changing. He is from Oklahoma and a puppet of the extractive industries there. So to make sure everyone in the public had a chance to speak about this proposed repeal, EPA planned one hearing in the whole country that the public could attend, over two days, in Charleston, West Virginia, the state where I live. We elected a Democratic governor, who met with the US President and became a Republican. All the Republicans and many of the Democrats and leaders of unions here are in the pockets of the coal industry.
I'm on the Council of the one city in West Virginia that agreed to follow the Paris Climate Accords, so I decided to go and testify in Charleston, 165 miles from home.. One could sign up for Tuesday or Wednesday, and thinking "Let's get this over with on Tuesday," forgetting that I had a 5:30 City Council meeting that day, I signed up. They sent back an e-mail saying I would go on between 2 and 2:30 P.M. Tuesday.
I had it all worked out, down to the CDs I would take in the car (Beck's "Midnite Vultures," the first Christina Aguilera album, "Ragged Glory" by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, and Nelly's Country Grammar)". I had to leave about 9:30, have lunch at the Subway in Elkview, just north of Charleston, which was closed because of a washed-out bridge for over a year, thanks to climate-related flooding last year. I would arrive about one, park, find which of three possible rooms I would be in, and be ready to go by 1:30. I brought extra copies of what I planned to say. We were given five minutes; my speech would be three. I put on a suit, and found I couldn't button my collar: too fat, or just my old-guy neck in the way.
All of that happened. I checked in early, and the EPA staffer asked if I would be willing to speak early. I thanked her, and said that would be helpful. They called up two people at a time from the people waiting to speak. Our audience was Cosimo Servidio, the EPA Administrator in our district, and two other staffers. They didn't react to what anyone said.
I wasn't called right away, and they took a fifteen-minute break at 2:30. I asked a staffer if I could be called soon, because I was scheduled before 2:30, and I had to get back. She spoke to someone, and I was first at 2:45.
Most of the people I heard were in favor of keeping the Clean Power Plan, including religious groups talking about caring for the planet, scientists speaking about the health effects of carbon emissions, and civil rights groups who explained that power plants are more likely to be built in minority communities, with negative health outcomes for those communities.
The people I heard speak in favor of abolishing the plan included a coal miner ("I'm a coal miner, my father was a coal miner, and I'm proud to say my son is a coal miner. And I'm not paid like all these people who oppose repealing the plan."), and the head of the Illinois Coal Association, saying the Clean Power Plan would be an economic disaster for all of Illinois, except those liberals in Chicago. I heard later that Bob Murray, of Murray Coal Company, spoke first and brought a cadre of coal miners with him. Murray was a major donor to the current President's campaign.
Here's what I said:
"Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to speak here today about the Clean Power Plan. I am Barry Lee Wendell. I live in Morgantown, where I have been on the city council since July 1 of this year. I do not speak for everyone on the Council; this is my own testimony.
"Climate change harms our communities. Scientists have predicted that with rising ocean temperatures, storms will be more severe.This year, we saw hurricanes that hit Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico with unprecedented force. In West Virginia, there were floods in Wetzel County, and in my own Monongalia County; last year there was severe flooding in Greenbrier, Kanawha and Clay Counties. Every nation in the world has signed on to the Paris Climate Accords, only this administration in our country wants to pull out of it. Many politicians in West Virginia are climate skeptics, and while most claim to be sincere in their beliefs, the amount of money the coal industry pours into their campaign coffers makes that assertion dubious, at best. The current City Council in Morgantown, at the behest of our Green Team, has signed our city to the Paris Climate Accords, not to thumb our noses at the national Administration, our Senators and Congressional representatives (that is just an added bonus), but to help save the planet.
"From Morgantown one can see the plumes of steam from the two coal-fired power plants at the north end of our county, and from my home, I can often smell the emissions from these plants.
"One coal mogul in West Virginia was jailed for safety violations in his mines that led to the death of coal miners; another has been fined. Some coal companies refuse to release medical information from their own doctors in order to deny black lung benefits to miners. Safety regulations have been gutted thanks to our feckless state legislators, and I read in The Charleston Gazette-Mail that Congressman Mooney introduced a bill to overturn the rule that coal companies have to release records of safety violations to stockholders. As companies declare bankruptcy due to falling prices and corporate malfeasance, miners and retired miners are left with no pension and no health insurance. This is an industry that badly needs reform, and yet, it is being coddled by the United States President because coal mine owners are big campaign contributors and have his ear. The President’s rhetoric will not bring back coal jobs.
"The Environmental Protection Agency was founded under Richard Nixon as a bipartisan effort to clean the water and air in the United States. Scott Pruitt, the current head of the agency, wants to return us to the days of toxic smog and flaming rivers to benefit the oil, gas, and coal industries that support him and the President.
"I want everyone in West Virginia to have access to clean air and clean water. To accomplish this, and also to grow our state’s economy, we need to look to the future. We can appreciate the past and honor it, but we cannot live there. The Clean Power Plan is forward-looking, will create new jobs, and can be implemented in West Virginia. I absolutely support it.
"Barry Lee Wendell
Morgantown, WV "
I only added to this that I was not paid to be there.
The woman called up with me was from the NAACP. She said many of the same things I said, and also that most coal-fired plants are located in minority communities. She gave specifics about rates of asthma in children, and other negative health effects of coal-fired plants.
Three women who came down from Morgantown on a bus with the Sierra Club greeted me, and I thanked them for coming. I brought my Council cards, and several people asked for them. I was nervous at first when I spoke, talking to an EPA big-wig, but I got into it, remembered my acting training, slowed down, spoke clearly and looked up. It went well.
I was out by three and had eighteen minutes left on my parking meter. I bought gas at the convenience store/gas station across the street from West Virginia's Capitol, and bought a bag of trail mix (5 servings of nuts and dried fruit). I made it to City Council 12 minutes late. We had two meetings back-to back, and Christine Wallace, wife of Councilor Ryan Wallace, brought us some yummy vegetarian food for between the meetings. The second meeting lasted until 10:30. I came home and screamed at Joe about the meeting for fifteen minutes, then fell deeply asleep.
Wednesday I only went out of the house to walk for an hour in the afternoon. I needed to decompress. I couldn't make myself do anything. I thought this whole hearing was a scam. The EPA under Pruitt is totally owned by the oil, gas and coal industries and what we say may not have any impact. But at least we said it.
By Thursday morning, Hoppy Kercheval, a Republican commentator on radio and in newspapers, was crowing about how West Virginia finally got a chance to defend its coal industry. He didn't say that most of the speakers at the two-day hearing opposed repealing the Plan. That's how they do. Confronted by evidence, they ignore it.
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| West Virginia's Sate Capitol building, Charleston, 3 P.M. 11/28, 66 F. |
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