Dear Editor,
With the Republican supermajority in the W.Va. State Senate (31 Republicans/3 Democrats) we the People are seeing how extremely unbalanced our supposedly bipartisan W.Va. State Government has become. When the W.V. Senate realized that they needed a majority of only 80% to fast-track bills, “in case of urgency” they took complete advantage by suspending State Constitutional rules and passed over 23 bills before they had any 2023 State Senate committee review and allowed no time for Public Comment, nor did they post the content of the bills until hours after passing them into law. Personally, I am most outraged by one bill in particular, SB 161 (that) would authorize the director of the Division of Natural Resources (DNR) to sell, lease or dispose of property under division control. Under SB 161, the director could convey property for money, security or other property.” (Charleston Gazette-Mail 1/13/23). What will this mean to our Public Lands in these days of the corporate urgency to harvest our energy resources that are deep in the ground under the naturally regenerating life-supporting habitat of our forested mountain state? What about our water resources that are being threatened with undisclosed toxic fracking chemicals used in the process of hydraulic fracking for natural gas? The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s EQT/Next Era Energy has expressed great urgency in regard to obtaining permits to push through to completion this destructive, over-budget, unpopular debacle of a project, especially since in the very last minutes of the 2021 WV Legislative Session the “Forced Pooling” bill was passed, allowing the frackers to take gas under private property with or without the permission of the owner. The corporate, economic and political justification for the extraction of our natural resources is ultimately thousands, millions, billions, and trillions of dollars and aimed at supporting the lifestyle of the city empires of the world. These are breathtaking, democracy-shaking measures that seriously undermine the power of the people.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court passed “Citizens United” in 2010, granting corporations the same rights as people to have a voice in our USA Elections by donating as much money to political campaigns as they care to, the voice of the people has been diminished by our candidates allegiance to big money and by putting a price on our public land our government can sell what is priceless to the highest bidder. I see the deforestation caused by hydraulic fracking for natural gas and strip mining for coal and it just takes my breath away.
