WV Gov SOS Speech: More Fracking! More Coal! Not A Single Word On Water 1 Yr After Freedom Spill
The Freedom Industries chemical spill and the resulting water crisis a year ago didn’t make Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s State of the State address Wednesday night, but the governor did highlight his continued opposition to federal greenhouse gas rules and urged more natural gas drilling on West Virginia’s public lands.
Tomblin touted the continued growth of natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale region, rattled off a list of businesses the gas boom has spawned, and repeated his longstanding hope that a huge “cracker” chemical plant would eventually be built in West Virginia.
But citizen groups said Wednesday night that the governor missed a major opportunity celebrate a major success that followed the water crisis -- passage of a tough chemical tank safety law -- and also to strike a somewhat different political tone by highlighting the importance to the state’s future of protecting the environment. “We heard a lot about jobs, but not about the importance of clean, reliable water to economic development in the state,” said Angie Rosser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “He talked about having craft beer, but guess what? We need clean water for craft beer.”
Chris Stadelman, Tomblin’s communications director, said that the governor “understands that protecting our state’s water resources is an important issue” in the Kanawha Valley and beyond and that “water protection continues to be the focus of a number of efforts.”
EDIT
http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150114/GZ01/150119538/1419
= new reply since forum marked as read
