The Clean Power Plan

Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day in West Virginia, sunny and 65 F. in Morgantown. Of course, a "typical" November 28 has a high of 48, and it's typically overcast and damp. Climate change has possibly been good for us, maybe not good for the trees and agricultural products.

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.

West Virginia's Sate Capitol building, Charleston, 3 P.M. 11/28, 66 F.

Caution: Partisan Political Rant

I suppose I ran for office because I couldn't stand the lies, bigotry and stupidity we were getting from our elected officials in West Virginia. I was told I didn't "understand" West Virginia. During the campaign, I met a group of old (my age) hippies, brainy college professors, and the smarter class of college students and recent grads, most either from here or who have resided here for decades. Not knowing many people in town, not having the strength to go door-to-door, not advertising on the radio or in the newspaper, I still got twenty-five percent of the Democratic votes in our primary. The final tab was 3,971 for me. People, even those who warned me against running, now say I should consider running again in two years. I might.

Many people in West Virginia have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. West Virginians For Affordable Health Care points out that "more than two dozen hospitals saved $265 million" by treating people who now have health insurance. Before the ACA, the hospitals had to write this money off as a loss. And yet our Republican Junior Senator, Shelley Moore Capito, has voted a few dozen times to repeal the ACA.  Why? Our recent "non-partisan" election for a state Supreme Court justice was won by Beth Walker, with half a million dollars in ads from the Republican Governor's Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. For some reason, our nation's largest private healthcare provider supports Republicans. Los Angeles School District pays for my Medicare supplement and for Joe's insurance through Blue Cross. We don't have a choice, living outside of California, unless we lay out quite a bit of money for other insurance. I'm thinking about it.

Chris Regan, Vice Chair of West Virginia's Democratic Party, has a blog called "Home Yesterday" (www.homeyesterday.com) In an April 13 post, he wonders how Peabody Coal, following in the steps of other coal companies, has declared bankruptcy, gotten out of its pension and health care obligations, and given their CEO, who already makes ten million dollars annual salary, a bonus of several more million. He calls it "the looting of West Virginia."

Meanwhile, our state Attorney General, Patrick Morrisey, is fighting the Obama administration''s attempts to shield gender non-conforming and trans students from being forced to use a bathroom not appropriate to their appearance or identity. He and many so-called religious conservatives are up in arms, not about bathrooms, apparently, but the fact that there are trans students at schools.

What is the relationship between coal bankruptcies, the Affordable Health Care Act ( Obamacare) and trans people in the bathroom? This: Theft is against the Bible. A CEO, receiving millions of dollars for his work, who takes away pensions and health insurance from people who have worked- worked hard and at great risk in the case of coal miners- and gives himself and other executives millions more in bonuses, is a thief. He should be in prison. Where is the outrage among religious conservatives about this? And why are people not outraged that healthcare is considered a privilege for those who can afford it, and not a right for everyone? The ACA was a compromise to let everyone buy insurance.

The outrage is in the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The important difference is that Trump is a phony and Sanders is the real deal. The outrage is why the favorite of the Republican elite, Jeb Bush, couldn't get traction, and why Hillary Clinton, despite her traditional liberal credentials, is having such a hard time winning the Democratic nomination. Trump says he will put coal miners back to work (at lower pay and with no benefits, no doubt, if he can even do that). Sanders will try to limit executive compensation, find new work for miners and protect workers' benefits. The anti-Bernie people say "He can't do it." Maybe, but no one else will even try.

Here in West Virginia, there is no state budget for July 1. By law, the budget must be balanced. Governor Tomblin called the legislature back into session this week. As of Thursday morning, they have done nothing. Most of our Republicans have signed Grover Norquist's "No New Taxes" pledge.
Meanwhile, the coal moguls, including Bob Murray, who doesn't live in West Virginia, are demanding a cut in the coal severance tax. He and another coal mogul, the lately jailed Don Blankenship, are supporters of many of our Republican delegates. One might be tempted to say that our Congressperson David McKinley, is a whole owned subsidiary of the coal companies.

Meanwhile, the state is bleeding money and population. We will likely lose a congressman in the next census due to the state's declining population. Even in our temple, we will lose four families this summer. The state has a scholarship for in-state students, called "Promise." With no guarantee that these scholarships will be available in the fall, our smartest students are making plans to go elsewhere. Most will not be back.

My own life now is good. Joe and I have friends here. We are both popular teachers  at Life-Long Learning, all our students  over fifty and most past seventy.. Joe's current six-week class was oversubscribed and people had to get on a waiting list. We like it here. "Going back" is not an option. Still, should Tree of Life close, or get tired of Rabbi Joe, should we find ourselves victims of discrimination, we have the option of leaving. What happens a generation from now should not be our problem, but I, like Bernie Sanders, eight years my senior, want the world and West Virginia to be a more just, equitable and free place.  I'll be out working for Mike Manypenny for Congress and Doug Reynolds for Attorney General this year, attending West Virginia's Democratic Convention in Charleston in a few weeks as a Sanders vote, and supporting my fellow Democrats for Delegate and State Senator. I'm not done yet.