Issue: NextEra is proposing a 500-kV transmission line from just north of Fort Martin across WV and MD to northern Virginia
• The proposal is for a 105 mile 500-kV transmission line and 500/138-kV substation called the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link. This would string lines across private farms using eminent domain.
• It is intended to supply electricity to northern VA data centers. If built, this would likely prolong the life of coal-fired power plants.
• It would also cut through Coopers Rock, protected Wildlands, and the Youghiogheny, Maryland's only Wild and Scenic River.
• This project provides no benefit to the citizens fo West Virginia and Maryland but only benefits massive data centers in Northern Virginia. See map below.
Action: See below for various public responses to this proposal.
• NextEra has held multiple public meetings where people could submit their opinions on this operation.
• A hand-out has been created by an organization named PowerUP For Our Future, a quad-state coalition and is available here.
• The Preston County Commission unanimously approved a resolution opposing the proposed Mid-Atlantic Resiliency Link project by NextEra Energy, following significant public opposition voiced during a recent meeting.
• A group of local residents began meeting near Morgantown in March. Organized by some local legislators, the group includes local landowners in the proposed corridor. They are doubtful that they can stop the project, mostly want to move it off their property. Meanwhile, residents in Maryland are more organized and actively opposing the line. No word yet on opposition in PA or Virginia. A key need is to determine more precisely what electricity sources would feed the line. The National Sierra Club supports transmission that relies on renewable energy sources and argues that cheap wind power from the Midwest might increase economic competition with coal-fired power plants.
• A group of Western Loudoun Property Owners who do not want their properties to become the infrastructure corridor for Eastern Loudoun data center expansion have a website here.
Issue: Fairmont Brine Processing (FBP), north of downtown Fairmont, was set up to recycle fracking wastewater.
• The site is directly uphill from the Monongahela River. Radionuclides or other hazardous substances have the potential to impact the river either by overflow of the ponds on site or through an existing outfall.
• A June 2024 EPA report found high levels of radiation still present on the site. The agency said the radiation is most dangerous when it’s ingested or inhaled.Taxpayers will pay to remove the waste, under the EPA’s Superfund program.
Action: Since the discovery of the contamination, local activists and Delegate Evan Hansen (D-Morgantown) have prevailed upon the EPA to at least seal off the site and provide security.
• Questions about ownership of the site and who has responsibility to deal with the mess have led to delays in action. The EPA Region 3 has opened a website and provided contact information. It has also mailed postcards to residents within 1.5 miles of the site.
• WV DHHR has reviewed data from radiological testing which occurred in 2019 as part of routine compliance testing and also conducted new tests of both raw (untreated) and finished (treated) drinking water at the Morgantown Utility Board water treatment facility in October 2023. All testing results for regulated radionuclides are well below EPA drinking water standards.
• More than 80 people attended a public meeting in Fairmont in mid November of 2024 to hear from the West Virginia Department of Health (DoH), Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about the status of attempts to clean up radioactive waste.
• Officials at the November meeting said they’re working on finding a place that will accept the material, which can’t be sent to just any landfill. They also must find a contractor qualified to remove the material. According to the EPA, the current radiological risk to the public has been significantly lessened by physical site controls (such as fencing and signage) that have been put into place.
• According to the EPA's bi-weekly update (5/30/2025) removal work is underway at the Fairmont Brine site. It includes conducting air monitoring for radiation and particulates throughout the duration of site activities. To date no air exceedances have been observed indicating that no airborne contamination is leaving the site.
Issue: In 2019 Longview Energy applied for a permit to construct a gas-fired power plant adjacent to their coal-fired power plant on the Monongahela River north of Morgantown.
• Burning gas is cleaner than burning coal but extracting it by fracking can create even more pollution than burning coal.
Action: An on-line public hearing was held 6:00 p.m. on Tues., Oct. 19, 2021.
• An in-person public hearing with the Mon County Commission was held Jan.7, 2020 following a public rally in front of the Mon County Courthouse. Further meetings were held with the Mon County Commission. Stopping a new fossil fuel plant on our home turf is always a major goal.
Result: The DEP granted the permit in January of 2022 but there seems to be a lack of investors so no construction has yet begun.
• Passing the Build Back Better Act last year has made fossil fuel plants less attractive to investors.
• In November, 2024, Longview’s proposed gas-fired plant was granted a five-year extension from the PSC to begin construction. They now have until April 3, 2029 to start construction and April 3, 2034 to complete the job.
• There is now talk of a data center planned for the Longview site.
• For further information on this please go to the Chapter website here.
Issue: Gov. Morrissey just signed a new bill (HB 2014) for “microgrids” to expedite development of data centers in WV.
• Microgrids allow large users to establish solar farms independent of PSC oversight, but the proposed bill is clearly directed at new gas or coal-fired power plants, and includes subsidies to fund fossil gas and coal energy producers.
• Data Centers are huge warehouses full of computers that require vast amounts of energy to process, store, and transmit data 24/7. Data centers being proposed include the Fidelis Mountaineer Gigasystems project in Mason County (ARCH2), two Adams Fork facilities (mentioned below,) Fundamental Data Center in Tucker County, and proposed projects near Morgantown (Longview,) Beckley, and Bluefield.
• The Tucker, Mingo, and Logan County projects filed for air pollution permits in March, and propose very large gas-fired electric generating plants. The specific size is redacted but based on pollution discharges and other info, these would be at least 400 MW, probably up to 2,900 MW.
Action: People in Tucker County are very fired up to stop the data center/power plant. See here.
• After receiving hundreds of letters of concern, the WV DEP’s Office of the General Counsel labeled Fundamental Data’s Air Quality permit “Incomplete,” largely due to the heavily redacted contents of the permit application, but has since deferred to Fundamental Data after their response. We are now awaiting the WVDEP to set up a comment period after the technical review.
• A new grassroots group meets in person and on zoom to discuss action plans. Visit their website to register or simply stay informed and/or to learn how you can help.
• View the 100 Days in Appalachia website to learn more and take action.
Issue: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing to repeal the rule that protects large, roadless tracts of national forest from timbering and exploitation.
• New research indicates that wildfires are four times more likely to start in areas with roads than in roadless tracts.
• The U.S. Forest Service already provides many timber sales that are “below cost,” meaning it costs taxpayers more to manage the sale, build the roads, and repair the damage, than the Forest Service makes from the timber sales.
Action: The Sierra Club is asking people to contact our Congressional delegation and ask them to protect roadless areas in West Virginia since hese areas represent the heart of the state’s tourism industry and are much more valuable as they are than if they are opened up for timber extraction.
• You can also ask them to support permanent legal protection by co-sponsoring either HR3930, or S2042, the Roadless Area Conservation Act.
Issue: The U.S. Forest Service approved a plan last August to clearcut 3500 acres of the Monongahela National Forest – the Upper Cheat River Project.
• Mature and old-growth forests cover nearly three-quarters of the targeted land. The Mon’s forests protect our waters and provide clean air and sanctuary to 225 bird species, which in turn bring tourism and offer recreation opportunities to locals and visitors alike. On the Mon’s forest floor live federally-protected West Virginia Flying Squirrels, endangered Eastern hellbenders, threatened green salamanders and Northern Long-Eared bats.
• It seems particularly egregious that an aspect of the forest Service’s proposal is for helicopters to be used to take the trees on the steepest slopes. Forests on those perilous pitches prevent soil from eroding and clogging the Upper Cheat River, one of the largest undammed watersheds in the eastern United States. Brook Trout are among those who survive there because shaded waters are cool. Further, the job is projected to lose $1.4 million, as a result of needing helicopters from Colorado to do the work.
Action: Sierra Club and Friends of Blackwater, along with other groups, held a rally in Elkins lin November 2022 in front of the regional office of the US Dept. of Forestry to protest the clearcutting.
• The rally attracted counter-protesters: the West Virginia Forestry Association, whose argument is always jobs. Counter-protesters are always useful for attracting media attention, essential for any rally. There was a rally to publicly demonstrate our support for protecting these old trees on Friday, April 21, 2023 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Morgantown Courthouse Square, 243 High Street, Morgantown, WV. To add your name to a petition against the Upper Cheat River logging go to the Friends of Blackwater website and complete the form there.
Result: US Forest Service announced a final “Amended Environmental Assessment… and Decision Notice” on April 1, 2025 for the Cheat River Project that removed a few timber jobs from the project, but continues to rely on low estimates for carbon losses from soil. The project has a negative “Net Present Value” meaning that the Forest Service projects it will cost taxpayers over $1.3 million.
Issue: Transgas subsidiary Adams Fork Energy proposes to build the world’s largest ammonia production facility in Mingo County.
• They propose to use coal bed methane, CCS, and mine water for cooling. Flandreau Santee Sioux tribe in South Dakota is a partner. CNX had proposed partnering as part of the ARCH2 hub, but dropped out in Dec. 2023. (CNX is still proposing an ARCH2 ammonia facility in southern WV). Air permit issued in Jan. 2024, but not much other progress.
• They proposed two new “Data Centers” on March 26, one about 2 miles west of the ammonia plant site in Mingo County, the other at the Harless Industrial Park in Logan County. Air permit applications for the two are nearly identical, each proposing gas-fired power plants as large as 2925 MW (just slightly smaller than the 2932 MW John Amos plant). Much of the technical information in the application is redacted, making it difficult to determine a lot of the key details. No draft permit is yet available.
Issue: The state Public Service Commission (PSC) is encouraging public comments on the proposal by Mon Power and Potomac Edison to change the way it credits home solar power customers who contract for net metering:
• Under the current system the companies provide a full 1-to-1 credit, meaning that the energy given to the utility is worth the same as energy bought from the utility. The companies plan to halve that rate from 13 cents per KWh to 6.6 cents, taking effect on new customers after March 27, 2024. See the Dominion Post for more information.
Issue: The state has routed the 4-lane highway Corridor H close to Blackwater Canyon and Park, as well as the towns of Thomas and Davis: This plan is on hold while the WV Division of Highways (WVDOH) focuses on the 6.8 mile Wardensville section. This plan is for a five-lane highway to bypass the town of Wardensville, diverting traffic away from the town’s growing main street.
• The Thomas/Davis section would bisect the towns of Davis and Thomas, destroying the thriving local and small town businesses in both town, turning them into “flyover” country rather than the art, food, and music destinations they are now. It would also result in noise and other pollution adjacent to the park destroying the beautiful area in that location and adversely affecting tourism, hiking trails, water quality, and the economy of the local towns of Thomas and Davis. Endangered animal species, such as salamanders and bats, would also be adversely affected by this project.
• The Wardensville section will cut through the Wellhead Protection Area in a town plagued by water issues and take over 133 acres of the George Washington National Forest, abruptly ending at the Virginia state line. The WVDOH is attempting to push it through, despite relying on old impact studies from the mid-1990s, and despite the fact that Virginia has repeatedly stated they have no intention of finishing the corridor from the West Virginia state line to I-81. See here for more on protests about the Wardensville section.
• For more information see the Friends of Blackwater Corridor H webpage, the Go North webpage, and the Save Wardensville webpage.
Action: The Mon group of the Sierra Club and the Friends of Blackwater desire that members of the public share information on this effort among as many people as you can.
• The Friends of Blackwater ask that people supply comments on the current US Federal Highway Administration's proposal to issue a notice of intent to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact state for the Parsons to Davis Project. Go here to do so.
• The Save Wardensville group asks that people supply comments on the West Virginia Division of Highways Supplemental Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the Wardensville-to-Virginia section of Corridor H. Go here to do so.
• Donate to help the Friends of Blackwater achieve success in preventing this disaster. You can also use GoFundMe.
Issue: West Virginia has over 6,500 abandoned oil and gas wells. They leak methane and other toxic chemicals which make them a climate menace. It costs at least $100,000 to properly plug a well but the bond money posted to do so is only $5,000. Who wouldn’t forfeit the bond money rather than pay the full cost to plug the well?
Action: This past legislative session, Delegate Evan Hansen introduced House Bill 3415 - The New and Existing Orphan Well Prevention Act.
Result: He had tried this last year but it didn’t go anywhere. He reintroduced it this year. And again, the bill did not make it out of House Energy and Public Works Committee. At the WV Environmental Council held September, 2024, environmental issues of local concern were discussed and priorities established. OpEds and letters to the editor of the Dominion Post have been sent to raise the awareness level. Again, tell your legislators you support making drillers pay up front to plug their wells.
Issue: Adjacent to the tip of our northern panhandle, the plant started operations in November of 2022. The plant, which turns natural gas into plastic, received a $1.65 billion tax credit, the largest in state history, to build the plant. The plant promised thousands of new jobs but after construction was completed, only 600 jobs have been permanent.
• But much worse, pollution from the plant has been far more disruptive than most people expected. After only six months of operation, the plant had already exceeded its 12-month emission limits for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hazardous air pollutants.
• Shell agreed to pay $10 million to Pennsylvania for violating state air quality regulations. But this is a drop in the bucket compared to the $28 billion in profits that Shell reported in 2023. The cost of non-compliance is rarely high enough to persuade big companies to significantly reduce their emissions.
Issue: Community Solar is a program in which electricity customers can receive solar energy without having to install their own solar panels.
• It would open up affordable renewable electricity to low- and moderate-income customers and extend the benefits of solar to people who are unable to have solar arrays installed where they live.
• Electricity prices have been increasing in WV to pay the costs of keeping aging coal-fired power plants alive.
• Community solar would provide customers with some ability to hedge against further rate increases, saving residential consumers about 10% in electricity costs.
• West Virginia state law currently doesn’t allow for community solar.
Action: Evan Hansen again introduced HB2419. The purpose of this bill is to create a community solar program where subscribers can purchase an interest in a solar facility and use credits against their electric utility costs; establishing parameters and conditions for the program; and provide for administration and rule making by the Public Service Commission.
Result: Sadly, the bill did not make it past the House Energy and Public Works Committee. Let your legislators know you support Community Solar.
Issue: If you live in West Virginia and want to power your home with clean, sustainable energy—maybe even during a power outage—there are a couple of big incentives for going solar that can help lower the upfront costs and speed up your payback period. See here for more infomation.
Issue: Last December 30, 2024, the EPA held an in-person public hearing in Charleston to seek public comment on allowing the WV DEP the authority to permit Class VI wells, as sought by our state leaders.
• Currently, it takes at least two years to get a CCS well permit from EPA, and the state of WV wants to do it in less than 6 months. One industry commenter said the transfer of primacy would give industry a "friendly regulatory environment.”
Result: On January 17, 2025, the EPA granted West Virginia this authority.
• At least 4-5 proposals in WV discuss CCS, and three well permit applications have been filed at EPA; those will be transferred to WV-DEP.
Issue: On December 20, 2023, the Forest Service published a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for consistent land management plan direction for old-growth forest conditions across the National Forest System.
• The NOGA proposal was intended to conserve old growth forests around the country but did not eliminate their logging and sale.
Result: The National Old Growth Amendment (NOGA) was withdrawn on January 10, 2025 because the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) ran out of time to fully develop and approve it before the end of the Biden administration.
Acid Mine Drainage: The iron and aluminum that washes out of ground disturbed by strip mining, seen in the bright orange streams so common in West Virginia. Needed: to increase bond fees forcing mining companies to properly reclaim the sites they disturb. People who make the profit should pay for the clean-up, not the taxpayers. Alas, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed last year with support from both our senators, specifically provides funding for AMD clean-up, a good thing but at tax-payers expense.
Slurry ponds, used for the settlement and draining of the solids resulting from the coal washing process, leak selenium and other heavy metals. If their walls fail, these huge volumes of toxic water can break and wash away entire communities, like the Buffalo Creek disaster that occurred in Logan County, West Virginia on February 26, 1972 when a coal slurry impoundment dam burst, causing significant loss of life and property damage. The impoundment dam, managed by Pittston Coal, had been declared "satisfactory" by a federal mine inspector four days earlier. A major problem in West Virginia is the lack of inspectors. The state has a budget surplus now but prefers tax breaks to keeping residents safe.
Fracking: Natural gas is said to burn cleanly, compared to burning coal, but the process of drilling for the gas is anything but clean. Natural gas is made up mostly of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that traps more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. The oil and gas sector is the largest domestic industrial source of methane pollution. When gas is flared, vented, or accidentally leaked, it accelerates the costly health impacts of climate change. Oil and gas operations, such as hydraulic fracturing, also release numerous toxic air contaminants: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene; fine particulate matter (PM2.5); hydrogen sulfide; silica dust; and nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, which produce smog when combined. We are opposed to fracking wells and the use of natural gas for energy or plastics.
Pipelines carrying natural gas to coastal ports for export to other countries. The Mountain Valley Pipeline slices through the steep terrain of WV and VA. Activists have witnessed whole sections of pipeline sliding down our steep hillsides, where pipelines will never be stable, making explosions and leaks inevitable. The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a controversial natural gas pipeline, has been cleared to proceed with the construction of the Southgate Extension in North Carolina after a federal appeals court denied a challenge. This extension, a 31-mile project, was approved in 2023, but faced legal challenges. The main Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile gas pipeline, has been operational since June 2024.
Cracker Plants: Not all fracked gas is used for energy. In what are called cracker plants, the gas is transformed into ‘nurdles’, the term for pre-production plastic pellets, the little-known building blocks for all our plastic products. Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardous. They have been found everywhere on earth from the bottom of the oceans to the top of Mount Everest. Shell just opened a cracker plant on the Ohio River in Beaver County, PA. See above.
Plastics Pyrolysis: Several proposals to develop “Advanced Recycling” facilities using pyrolysis (another name for waste incinerators) are being discussed and getting state Economic Development funding. A group of allies (People over Plastics, MOMs Clean Air Force, WV-CAG, and others) is meeting regularly to develop plans to oppose these. Potential projects include Empire Energy, Follansbee. Two facilities, plastics pyrolysis (originally for medical waste, now just waste plastics) and an ARCH2 biomass hydrogen facility (The biomass hydrogen facility appears to propose CCS and may supply the Tenaska wells in Hancock County). Another medical waste facility (Thunder Mountain) appears dormant.
Sierra Club Links
Mon Group Facebook page
Eastern Panhandle Group Facebook page
West Virginia Chapter web pages and Facebook page
Main organization web pages and Facebook page
Contact us at SCWVMG@gmail.com