QUICK
OVERVIEW:
SUNDAY: The House and Senate will convene Sunday at 5pm to begin the special Session
on Marcellus shale drilling regulation. Tonight at the opening of the session, in the House
the bill was read
and single referenced to Judiciary Committee which will meet at 9am Tuesday.
In the Senate, the bill was NOT read, but simply announced
(puzzling...usually done when
they're trying to kill a
bill), and double referenced to Judiciary and Finance
Committees.
Senate Judiciary will meet at 9am tomorrow, Monday.
MONDAY:
THIS
IS WHEN WE NEED THE NUMBERS!!!
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO
OR SAY ANYTHING – JUST SHOW UP
12 noon, we will hold a
press conference in the Lower Rotunda
DRILLING “CITIZENS” THERE IN MATCHING
T-SHIRTS.
A few things about our capitol for
newcomers……….
Directions: The
Capitol is in the East End of Charleston, off of I-64, take the
Parking: Rarely
available on capitol grounds, fair luck on side streets, but there is a public
parking lot next to nearby Laidley Field with a shuttle bus to the capitol
building.
Ground level
entrances to the capitol will lead you to our meeting area
under the dome at the Information Desk. With few exceptions, all areas of
the capitol building are freely open to the public.
We can guide you to
offices of your officials and provide with talking points.
Dressing appropriately and being courteous and friendly goes a long way toward overcoming indifference and resistance from the lawmakers
Here are contact
numbers for you if needed.
Chuck Wyrostok – Sierra Club 304 545
6325
Carol Warren –
Julie Archer – WV Surface Owners Right Organization SORO
304 610 9094
Denise
BACKGROUND:
Following three years of
deliberation and after months of labor by the Joint Select Committee, Governor
Tomblin took a knife to their “agreed upon” bill, hacking out vital parts like
an apprentice butcher. Here’s what we
know so far:
Some of the things
the governor’s bill would do:
Allow pits to be buried on
site
Eliminate
the provision that allowed for DEP to call a public hearing on a drilling permit
application. It looks like they also eliminated the public (publication) notice and
comment.
Reduce
the distance from a water well for required testing 2,500' to 1,500
feet
Make
the landowner go to court to get water replacement and there is a now definition
of
"water purveyor" that may limit who gets notice.
Eliminate the legal notice to
adjacent landowners
Reduce
some of the buffer zones for rivers, streams, wetlands,
etc.
Eliminate
the "special conditions" amendment
Remove the amendment regulating air
quality
Remove the traditional power of local government to regulate zoning and
land
development of gas activities as well as other
aspects, such as the time and the
place of operations to protect health,
safety and welfare of the general public
through local ordinances and enactments.
SUNDAY: The House and
Senate will initially convene a Special Session Sunday at 5:00 PM.
The bill will be read a first time and then referred to committees.
Environmental lobbyists will be there to monitor this. No voting on this
can take place
until it’s in the committee rooms and then back out into the Senate and
House.
MONDAY: 12 noon, we will
hold a press conference in the Lower Rotunda (ground
floor
under the dome). Citizen groups and landowners who know from personal
experience about their own small private hell will speak. If
you have
experienced drilling travesties and can be there, please contact me at
outreach@marcellus-wv.com and plan
to arrive by 11:30am. Earlier arrivals
can meet us there to plan action for the day. Environmental lobbyists from
several organizations will be there to meet, greet and guide
you.
MONDAY 4:30pm House of
Delegates will hold a public hearing in the House Chamber.
Anyone
can sign up to speak.
Get there early to sign up. The
gas industry will
rally their people at a
nearby church between 2:30 & 3pm. They will show up
at the public hearing all wearing the same color
t-shirts. Their message
will be to support the industry -- no particular position on
the bill.
TUESDAY: The bill will
be taken up by House Judiciary.
It will be crucial to have a large presence there to
make our needs known to our Delegates and Senators and press them to pass strong rules in
spite of the Governor’s betrayal of the people. If you only do one
thing against this blatant industrialization of our hills, please
make this the one. This is a pivotal point in this
campaign and we need to throw everything we've got at preventing
them from passing an empty bill and calling it "fixed". They are all
accountable and we will call for a moratorium on further
permits unless we get the elements into law that are nothing more than our human
rights.
If you cannot be there,
you can play a powerful role by calling
or emailing your Delegate and Senators. Tell them you are a constituent in their
district. They must thoroughly understand our determination to secure
our rights for a safe supply of water and air and for preservation of
our rights as landowners. How forcefully citizens make their legislators
carry out their sworn constitutional duties will determine what kind of future
we will have here in
The bill and a bill summary are posted
online:
10 page summary of bill
at:
Complete 99 page bill at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bulletin_Board/Proclamation/2011/Governor%27s_Marcellus_Shale_Bill.pdf
It is
citizen pressure that caused the calling of this Special Session and it
will be citizen pressure that will ensure passage of a strong Marcellus
bill.
Toll free 877 252 0257, E: outreach@marcellus-wv.com, www.marcellus-wv.com