The state Legislature moved fast to
repeal a controversial alternative fuels law adopted six years ago.
House and Senate Energy committees
voted unanimously Thursday to roll back the Alternative Renewable Energy
Portfolio Standard, a law opponents derisively call a state version of
cap-and-trade.
The law is designed to lower emissions
from West Virginia
The new Republican majority announced
earlier that repealing “cap-and-trade” would be their first order of business,
but they found support when all Democrats on the two committees joined in the
move.
The law was pushed through in 2009 at
the behest of then-Gov. Joe Manchin, who still supports it. Manchin said in a
recent interview with MetroNews that his goal was to encourage the development
of more efficient and less-polluting alternatives, including carbon-based
sources such as coal gasification and liquefaction. Now a member of the U.S.
Senate, Manchin was not happy with Thursday’s votes.
At the time, even the coal industry
supported the measure, though now it has backed away. West Virginia Coal
Association president Bill Raney spoke at both committee meetings Thursday in
favor of repealing the law.
“It’s a different day today than it was in 2009,” Raney
said. “We just don’t think the No. 2 coal-producing state with the best coal
miners in the world need to be in the position of suggesting that we make
electricity with something other than coal.”
Several committee members reporting
hearing concerns from homeowners who have installed solar panels and now fear
the repeal will prevent them from selling excess energy to utilities. An
official with First Energy said, however, that if the law is revoked, the state
Public Service Commission would still require power companies to buy the
home-grown alternative electricity.
The bills revoking the alternative fuels law now head to the
Judiciary Committees in both houses.
