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Hydrogen energy or more natural gas?

The Legislature just passed SB 162, which authorizes “the director of the Division of Natural Resources to lease state-owned pore spaces underlying state forests, natural and scenic areas, and management areas, and other lands under the jurisdiction and control of the director for carbon sequestration,” though it “prohibit[s] the leasing of pore spaces underlying state parks.” The bill is lauded as paving the way for hydrogen energy production in West Virginia, and hopefully helping the state land a federal “clean” hydrogen hub. On paper, it looks like a win for both ...

Will he, though?

Would The Dominion Post like to see a Morgantown native in the governor’s mansion? Sure, but we think there are more important qualifications for the person who wants to be West Virginia’s leader. For example: Caring more about what’s happening in the Mountain State than in Washington, D.C. Mac Warner, in his essay, points to the four governors he wants to emulate: Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota. If Warner’s intent was to reassure us of his priorities, he’s failed. The first ...

The Good, the Bad and the Stupid Pt. 1

The Legislature is back in session, which means it’s time for the return of “The Good, the Bad and the Stupid” — a weekly roundup of bills moving through the state’s capitol, categorized by whether we believe the legislation to be something good for the state, bad for the state or just plain stupid. All three of the bills below have already passed the Senate and await consideration in the House of Delegates. Without further ado, here’s the first “The Good, the Bad and the Stupid” of 2023. Good: SB 127, to increase Public Employee Insurance Agency reimbursement rates. ...

Tax cuts would line richest’s pockets, drain state coffers

Yesterday, Gov. Jim Justice’s personal income tax cut, introduced as HB 2526, passed the House of Delegates and moved on to the Senate, where we’re sure it will undergo some changes — if it doesn’t get scrapped entirely. But for our purposes, we’re going to discuss the proposal in its current form. HB 2526 initiates a gradual income tax cut that starts with 30% the first year, then 10% each of the next two years. Which means that by the end of year three, the income tax rates will be half of what they are now: from 3% to 1.5% for the lowest tax bracket and from 6.5% to ...

Rhetoric 101: How they get you to buy what they’re selling

In a world where the line between fact reporting and opinion spouting is increasingly blurry and politicians put spin on everything, we want to help our readers better understand some of the rhetorical devices employed to get them to think one way or another. This will be the first in what we hope to be a recurring segment on media literacy and logical fallacies. We can thank the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle for defining the three building blocks of all arguments: Logos is an appeal to logic; ethos, an appeal to authority; and pathos, an appeal to emotion. None of the above ...

Bad budget now means funding failure later

During his State of the State address, Gov. Jim Justice presented the Legislature with an essentially flat budget — again. There is a slight increase of about 5.53%, from $4.636 billion to $4.884 billion, that accommodates a 5% raise for most state employees as well as a one-time cash infusion for the Public Employees Insurance Agency and a small boost to school funding. Justice’s persistent flat budgets have contributed to astronomical surpluses the last few years — on track to be over $1 billion this fiscal year — but they have also contributed to the abysmal failure of ...