West Virginia regulators’ plans to reduce cancer-causing chemicals in the state’s drinking water has stalled because the Trump administration canceled funding for the project. 

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection officials were using a $1 million federal grant to work with communities to address the source of PFAS, known as forever chemicals, in public water supplies. The project was focused in communities with the highest levels of forever chemicals in their water.

Exposure to these chemicals has been linked to several serious health conditions, including cancer, liver and kidney damage, developmental problems and immune system disorders. 

And in West Virginia, such chemical contamination has been a prevalent issue. The former DuPont, now Chemours, Washington Works plant near Parkersburg saw a decades-long legal battle over its use of Teflon and the surrounding community’s exposure to forever chemicals. 

But, earlier this year, the state’s grant to fund the effort was canceled by the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency.

“It’s been a kind of multiyear process to even get the resources to be able to fund these plans. And right now, without it, we’re back at square one,” said Maria Russo, a policy specialist at West Virginia Rivers Coalition, which is working with the DEP.  

The grant was part of the DEP’s effort to fulfill its obligations under a state law that requires the agency to identify sources of the chemicals in drinking water and develop plans to address the contamination. When lawmakers passed the measure in 2023, they didn’t give the agency any additional funding to do the work.

In March, the EPA sent the DEP a memo informing the state agency that it was terminating the grant, stating that its objectives were “no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.” 

The EPA also said that their priority to eliminate discrimination in all programs includes ensuring its grants don’t support programs or organizations that promote or take part in environmental justice as well as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“As with any change in Administration, the agency is reviewing each grant program to ensure it is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with Administration priorities,” an EPA spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement, adding that the agency found that the grant application didn’t support the current administration’s priorities.

The DEP’s grant was one of more than 400 grants totaling more than $1.5 billion canceled by Trump’s EPA. 

The state agency disputed the EPA’s decision to cancel their grant. The federal agency responded, saying it will issue a decision within about six months, said DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher.

This also comes as the future of two historic EPA rules regulating forever chemicals in drinking water and holding polluters responsible for cleanup face uncertainty. The federal agency asked for additional time in the two lawsuits challenging the rules to decide its next steps. 

The EPA could weaken forever chemicals regulations

Although regulations of forever chemicals in drinking water avoided the initial rounds of slashes and rollbacks by the EPA under the Trump administration, there’s anticipation it’s only a matter of time. 

Last year, the EPA finalized two rules that would help address the emergence of forever chemicals contamination.

In one rule, EPA set limits for six types of the chemicals in drinking water and gave water systems five years to comply. A collection of water utilities and chemical industry groups challenged the limits, arguing that the federal agency didn’t consider “critical data” in establishing the regulations. 

In February, the EPA asked the court to pause the case to allow the agency’s new leadership to review the rule. The agency is due to tell the court its next steps by May 12. 

In the other rule, the EPA also listed two types of forever chemicals as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, which could make a wide range of industries liable for cleanups. That change was also challenged by the chemical industry and other business and industry stakeholders.   

The federal agency, again, asked for a brief hold in this case, which was granted, giving the EPA until May 30. 

In an April 28 press release, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin outlined upcoming moves by the agency to address forever chemicals, including contamination in drinking water and requiring polluters to pay for such clean up. 

“I have long been concerned about PFAS and the efforts to help states and communities dealing with legacy contamination in their backyards,” he said in a statement. “This is just a start of the work we will do on PFAS to ensure Americans have the cleanest air, land, and water.” 

However, public health experts and environmental groups are skeptical, raising concerns that those moves won’t adequately address forever chemicals. 

“If you peeled back the veneer, what you saw is that they failed to directly address the two super important decisions on PFAS that are right in front of them, staring them in the face,” said Erik D. Olson, Natural Resources Defense Council’s senior strategic director for health.  

“They refuse to basically address the most important decisions that are facing them right now,” he added. “And that may not be a great sign, but we don’t know for sure what they’re thinking.” 

Forever chemicals in West Virginia

A 2022 state study found that the levels of four types of forever chemicals exceeded safe limits in the water supply of 136 public water systems.

The discovery meant that more than “700,000 West Virginians are at risk for serious health conditions” because of their exposure to forever chemicals, “with low-income and marginalized communities disproportionately affected,” according to the DEP’s grant application.

While these chemicals were found in drinking water supplies throughout West Virginia, it was most prevalent in the Eastern and Northern Panhandles and the Ohio River Valley.

The study’s findings alarmed Jefferson County resident Greg Welter, a retired environmental engineer, and prompted him to try and find potential sources for the contamination in his community.

“I’m worried about PFAS in anybody’s water, but I’m particularly worried about it in kids’ water,” he said, as children are especially vulnerable to the harmful health impacts.  

The contamination of forever chemicals in drinking water is not a new phenomenon in West Virginia.

After decades of using C8 — a type of forever chemical that resists heat, water, oil and grease — to produce common everyday items, including nonstick pots and pans, DuPont had discovered that the chemical had seeped into the drinking water sources for surrounding communities, including Parkersburg, Vienna and Lubeck. 

The chemical’s contamination of groundwater in the community eventually led to a lawsuit that marked the beginning of what became a series of legal battles against the company that spanned more than two decades. 

In 2017, DuPont and Chemours — a spinoff of DuPont which now owns and operates the Washington Works site — agreed to pay a total of $670.7 million to settle the more than 3,500 cases in the class-action lawsuits against DuPont over health problems, including kidney and testicular cancer, caused from exposure to C8. 

DuPont has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to C8.

In December, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition sued Chemours, accusing the company’s Washington Works site of violating federal law since 2023 by failing to comply with its permit limits and discharging forever chemicals into the Ohio River at levels exceeding the amount allowed.

The lawsuit also alleges that the company has reported “numerous violations” of its permit limits for several chemicals, including PFOA, which is a type of forever chemical that the EPA has determined there is no safe level of exposure to. 

In 2023, the EPA issued an administrative order to force Chemours to take corrective action, but the company failed to do so, and the federal agency has not taken any further action, according to the WV Rivers’ lawsuit. 

In an emailed statement, Chemours spokesperson said that the company “is disappointed at the action given that the coalition’s concerns are already being addressed through an April 2023 Consent Order between U.S. EPA and Chemours.”

The company has submitted a plan to reduce discharges at the site and are waiting for final approval from the EPA. In the meantime, they continue to maintain, operate and monitor the treatment systems the company has installed at 10 public water systems surrounding the Washington Works facility, according to the statement. 

Later this month, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin is slated to hear the coalition’s request that the court require Chemours to stop discharging forever chemicals into the Ohio River while the case is ongoing.  

Trump’s EPA blocks effort to reduce toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in West Virginia drinking water appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

More than one-quarter of all West Virginians rely on Social Security to get by. Older West Virginians receive checks. Orphans receive payments. So do West Virginians with disabilities.

President Donald Trump is slashing Social Security Administration staff in ways that put the program at risk. 

Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley has cautioned that staffing cuts mean recipients could soon start missing payments. 

Ultimately, O’Malley warned of “system collapse.” 

And West Virginians have a lot to lose.

What is Social Security? 

In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act, creating one of the key programs of his New Deal to combat the Great Depression. 

Most working Americans pay into the program through paycheck deductions. When they retire, they receive money back.

Recipients of Social Security include retired people and disabled people who’ve worked but can no longer work or who can’t make enough money to meet their needs. It helps people whose family members have died, retired or become disabled.

Supplemental Security Income, also known as SSI, covers low-income aged, blind and disabled people, even if their disabilities prevented them from working in the past.

The average retired worker in West Virginia receives about $1,800 a month.

Social Security has been a tremendously successful program. Prior to its creation, as many as three-quarters of Americans age 65 or older lived in poverty. Today, that number is about 10%.

A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of Census data found that 22 million more Americans would have been below the poverty line in 2023 if not for Social Security.

Who are the West Virginians who rely on Social Security?

West Virginians benefit from Social Security more than any other state.

More than a quarter of West Virginians – nearly 480,000 – were receiving Social Security benefits as of December 2023.

That included more than 300,000 retirees, more than 70,000 people with disabilities and more than 33,000 children.

About 40,000 more get payments based on being low-income, elderly, blind or disabled.

Social Security kept 156,000 West Virginians aged 65 or older above the poverty line from 2021 to 2023, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis.

Social Security staff workers are especially in demand in West Virginia. Staff decreased nationwide by 15% from 2010 to 2021, as Congress kept cutting funds for the agency. In West Virginia, the workforce shrank by 33% during that time period.

What is the Trump administration doing to Social Security?

In late February, the Trump administration announced it planned to cut 7,000 of 57,000 Social Security employees. 

About 2,500 agency staff took buyout offers, NPR reported last week, resulting in overwhelmed offices and longer wait times. 

While the Trump administration says part of its focus is ensuring only eligible Americans receive benefits, the agency actually needs more and not fewer workers to do that job, according to a 2024 audit of the Social Security Administration. Meanwhile, multiple lawsuits have been filed over DOGE having unfettered access to personal data housed by Social Security. 

Some people were already waiting over 200 days to get an eligibility decision.

The audit noted staffing numbers in 2024 reached one of the lowest levels over 50 years due to years of underfunding.

A Social Security press release stated that Trump is “helping all Americans access their benefits in office, over the phone, and online,” and the president has said benefits “won’t be touched.”

But Jessica LaPointe, a spokesperson for the American Federation of Government Employees, said that overburdened offices amount to cuts.

“That is the backdoor cut to the program because benefits delayed are benefits denied,” she told NPR.

The administration walked back initial plans to do away with telephone customer service and require in-person visits, moves that would have disproportionately hurt West Virginians. Initially, the agency’s Logan field office was on a list of cuts, but a spokesperson said that no West Virginia field offices would be permanently closed.

Troy Miller, the West Virginia organizer for the national advocacy nonprofit Social Security Works, noted that many West Virginians lack Internet and lack vehicles.

“You couldn’t have done a better job of trying to hurt seniors in West Virginia than to say we’re going to close down field offices, we’re going to reduce staff and we’re going to reduce what you can do calling in, and then we’re going to make you do everything online,” Miller said.

What is at stake for West Virginia?

While Trump has said he doesn’t want to “cut one penny from Social Security,” he’s also said he wants to end Social Security income taxes, which help to fund the system. 

The longevity of the program has been a concern for years. As Baby Boomers retire, the program is predicted to be unable to meet its obligations to younger generations by 2035. 

Privatization has been a goal of many Republicans, such as the powerful, right-wing Heritage Foundation for decades. 

Trump is dismantling Social Security. Here’s what’s at risk for West Virginians. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Last week, lawmakers debated whether to eliminate a small office that protects West Virginia government employees from discrimination. 

But it was already done. The employees had been reassigned. The website was no longer active.

“Who made that decision?” Del. Jonathan Kyle, R-Randolph, asked the state’s personnel director. 

The director stood in silence.

“You don’t want to throw anyone under the bus,” he said. “I understand.”

Since taking office, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s administration has quietly gutted an office that protects West Virginians from workplace discrimination.

The Office of Equal Opportunity investigated discrimination and harassment claims from public employees. It also enforced federal and state employment law and trained state employees. 

In January, legislative auditors said it “serves an important function.” 

“Without the [office’s] training and efforts to prevent employment discrimination and unfair workplace practices, discrimination and possible litigation may increase, which would be costly to the State and impact agencies’ effectiveness,” legislative auditors wrote. 

Lawmakers created the office and would have to approve closing it by changing state law. 

Labor and disability rights advocates warned that dismantling the office could expose workers to civil rights violations. 

“I think it’s a slap in the face for working West Virginians, minorities and disabled individuals,” said Josh Sword, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO.

Abolishing the office would remove centralized oversight for civil rights protections, said Sarah Harris, a spokesperson for DISrupt West Virginia, a disability rights organization.

Repeatedly, Morrisey has condemned “woke” practices and directed his administration to find “efficiencies” in state agencies. In his inaugural address, Morrisey vowed to “eliminate the woke mind virus from the schools.” 

“And that means starting now: no more DEI,” he said.

DEI programs promote fair treatment and full participation of all people, particularly those who have been underrepresented and faced discrimination.

He immediately directed state agencies to get rid of any diversity programs and asked the Legislature to pass a similar law extending to public schools, following a larger trend this session targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts statewide. 

Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said the office was “another victim” of the broader effort by Republicans. 

“They’re so afraid of diversity, equity and inclusion that they’re trying to take it out of the code in every way that they can,” he said. 

Sen. Patrica Rucker, R-Jefferson, proposed disbanding the workplace discrimination office. Last month, she told fellow senators the change would streamline state government by merging the office with the Division of Personnel. 

“I understand what it looks like,” she said. “But we are still providing all the benefits and protections as before.” 

During a House Government Organization committee meeting on Thursday, Sheryl Webb, director of the Division of Personnel, said the change was made because the division already handled similar complaints, and this would be more efficient. 

She disclosed that the state’s designated equal opportunity coordinator, a position required by law, had already transitioned into a new job under the office of technology before any changes to state law. 

“What we would like to do is finalize what was already started,” Webb said.  

After delegates learned on Thursday that the office was already gone, the bill has not been put back on the committee’s agenda. 

In a press conference Monday, Morrisey said he had been assured everything was done by the book but is looking into the situation.

“We’re going to make sure we do it right,” he said.

The Office of Equal Opportunity worked directly with employees legally protected from discrimination on the basis of age, race, religion, sex and disability.  

It also hosted training sessions centered around diversity, harassment and management for state employees. 

In 2023, nearly half of the complaints filed with the office were based on sex discrimination, and its trainings had over 2,000 attendees, according to the legislative audit. 

Between 2022 and 2024, expenses from 23 discrimination cases cost the state approximately a million dollars in legal fees and compensation. 

In last week’s committee meeting, lawmakers peppered the state’s personnel director with questions about the office. 

Where are the employees now? Who ordered the office’s closure? Was the legislative audit considered?

After a line of questioning, Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, deduced that the office exists in law but not in practicality. 

“It’s all basically gone.”

In DEI purge, Morrisey administration quietly guts office preventing workplace discrimination appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

While the Trump administration is rewriting a federal program to bring high-speed internet to millions of households nationwide, West Virginia’s broadband expansion has been delayed for three more months. 

West Virginians will have to wait even longer to get connected, falling further behind other states that have made significant strides in broadband. 

“This 90-day delay is understandable,” said Bill Bissett, chair of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council. “But it’s still 90 days that we won’t have funding to reach unserved and underserved West Virginians who are still waiting for broadband.”

Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that the state received a three-month extension to change an application originally due later this month for more than a billion dollars in broadband money. 

He said the new extension would help the state focus on using the money to “attract investment from AI hubs, microgrids and data centers.”

In a press conference Thursday, Morrisey said he met with federal officials in the Trump administration to learn more about the proposed changes to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. 

“I want to make sure we do it right,” he said. “It would have been foolish to just submit something that was going to get rejected.”

The BEAD program is a federal investment that funds broadband projects across the country. West Virginia is slated to receive $1.2 billion of the funds later this year to connect thousands of homes and businesses. 

After nearly two years of planning, West Virginia was due to submit an application for how the state would use the money later this month. 

Other states like Delaware, Nevada and Louisiana have already submitted their applications and have been approved since early January.

In February, West Virginia broadband officials told lawmakers they were moving ahead with the final application and presented no uncertainty about potential federal changes to the program or threats to the funding. 

Just a week later, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said the BEAD program would be under “rigorous review” as the new administration worked to streamline the program requirements. 

Charlie Dennie, former director of the state’s broadband office, said federal officials are changing the program’s rules to open the door for Elon Musk’s Starlink to have a larger share of the funding following his large campaign donations to the new administration. 

“They’re most likely working to roll back the rules from the Biden administration,” he said. “But the money has already been allocated by Congress.” 

Morrisey said Thursday that the state was changing its application to meet the new rules for the program but declined to elaborate on what those changes would be.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, said in a statement that she thinks the federal changes will speed up deployment and hopes the state will be moving forward in the process by the end of July.

“I’m disappointed that after nearly four years, many West Virginians have to keep waiting for broadband.”

Editors note: This story has been updated with a statement from Sen. Capito.

The Trump administration just delayed West Virginia’s broadband expansion. Here’s what that means. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Less than a two-hour drive from the nation’s capital, Berkeley County has become the epicenter of West Virginia’s housing crisis as its population booms.

Rising home values and increasing rent prices have made it harder for families to keep a roof over their heads. 

English teacher Jennifer Unger lives in Martinsburg but recently started teaching across the state line in Maryland. She said she needed higher pay to keep up with the rising cost of living in the area as she’s looking to downsize her home after her divorce.

“The rent for a decent apartment is higher than the mortgage I’m paying now for a three-bedroom house,” she said. “An average two-bedroom apartment is at least $1,500 a month here.” 

And Unger isn’t the only one concerned about housing costs. Across the state, many West Virginians are grappling with rising rents and a housing market that has priced out lower-income residents.

While counties like Berkeley and Jefferson are experiencing rapid growth, driving up housing costs, others like Tucker and Pocahontas counties are dealing with a surge in short-term rentals, limiting options for West Virginians struggling to find affordable housing. 

Despite those challenges, lawmakers have put the state’s housing crisis on the back burner this session and have not prioritized legislation to address affordability and supply issues. 

In fact, the only housing-related bills that have moved between the chambers target the state’s homeless population by banning public camping and preventing squatting, the act of living in a home without an owner’s permission. 

And the deadline to introduce new bills has already passed the House and the Senate. 

Heather Schneider, founder of the Appalachian Mutual Aid Collective in Upshur County, said lawmakers are to blame for the state’s housing problems and should be working to solve them by raising the minimum wage and supporting social services.

“Part of the issue here is that the systems that we have in place oftentimes are creating the problems, and it’s self-perpetuating,” Schneider said.

Lawmakers are still waiting for policy recommendations 

On March 19, lawmakers heard from state housing experts for the first time this session during a House Economic Development Committee meeting. 

Nate Testman, interim director of the state’s Housing Development Fund, told lawmakers he’s working with WVU researchers on a housing survey that will be completed this month.  

Preliminary data shows that nearly 150,000 West Virginia households are considered “housing overburdened,” meaning they spend more than a third of their income on housing. 

That includes 49% of renters and 20% of homeowners — an increase from 2015, when those numbers were 37% and 14%. 

Families who pay more for housing have less money to spend on essential needs like healthcare, food and other bills. The financial strain can impact mental health and well-being. 

Testman said the state’s housing crisis stems from high rent and home costs, a lack of supply of affordable housing and a growing inventory of dilapidated homes. 

“In the Eastern Panhandle, housing prices have surged,” he said. “Working families are struggling to keep up as they compete with high-end buyers from D.C.”

Committee chairman, Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral, asked whether the organization looked at housing data from nearby states like Maryland. He said many West Virginians lived along bordering states. 

“Our tax structure is much better than Maryland, so the people that are moving are wanting to live on our side of the river,” he said. “That’s good for us but bad for the housing shortage.”

He declined an interview request about the meeting and the committee’s priorities. His Senate counterpart, Glenn Jeffries, R-Putnam, said he hopes more housing bills come through next year. 

“My focus has been on microgrids,” he said. “Building microgrids will be a capital investment and spur economic growth.” 

Jeffries also pointed to a bill he’s sponsoring this session that would help subsidize worker housing development projects for businesses by issuing loans covering up to 50% of project costs.

The bill advanced to the Senate Finance Committee but has not appeared on the agenda. It’s unlikely to pass before crossover day, a key legislative deadline where all bills must be moved out of each chamber tomorrow. 

Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, asked what the WVHDF did with the information as the organization completes statewide housing surveys every five years. 

“It feels like there’s just a lot of people doing this kind of work, and we’re just kind of spinning our wheels,” she said. 

Supply, demand and the post-pandemic market

Since at least 2013, median home values and rent prices have increased annually, according to housing data from the U.S. Census. 

In 2020, the pandemic exacerbated the housing crisis nationwide. A combination of supply chain disruptions made building materials more expensive, while low interest rates and remote work increased housing demand. 

“We didn’t know what the future of the real estate industry was going to look like,” said Del. Patrick Lucas, R-Cabell, a real estate broker in Huntington.

He also said the state’s housing supply has dwindled as developers struggle to afford materials like lumber. 

To help offset the cost of materials and to encourage more construction, lawmakers passed the Build WV Act, which created a housing development tax credit in 2022. Development projects that qualify receive a sales tax exemption for building materials. 

Developers like Terrell McSweeney Burns, who has tried to build properties in Pocahontas County, told Mountain State Spotlight that she needed more state support outside of tax credits last year. 

Home values and rent prices were already rising before the pandemic but grew rapidly as the housing market changed overnight.

Shari Stephens, director of the Hardy County Family Support Center, said home values in the Moorefield area have risen significantly over the past five years, while fewer houses are on the market. 

“Prices for houses that are move-in ready are too expensive for young families in our area,” she said. “We definitely need areas of improvement for affordable housing.”

As housing costs rise and rents become more expensive, homeless populations grow, especially in urban areas, according to Pew Research. 

Last year, the Department of Human Services reported that 1,400 people were homeless in West Virginia, an uptick of 24% since 2021. 

Stephens said that as home values increased in Hardy County, so has the county’s homeless population. 

“There’s no shelters in the county, so we’ve had to send folks to the panhandle,” she said. “Homeless people around here have been trying to find places to live for years.”

‘Spinning our wheels’: As West Virginia’s housing crisis worsens, lawmakers put solutions on the back burner appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

Libby Lindsay spent 21 years working underground as a miner for Bethlehem Steel in West Virginia. She saw many safety improvements over the years, and always felt grateful that she could call the local Mine Safety and Health Administration office whenever she wondered whether a rule was being followed. She joined the safety committees launched by the local chapter of the United Mine Workers, which collaborated with the agency to watchdog coal companies. She understood the price that had been paid for the regulations it enforced. “Every law was written in blood,” she said. “It’s there because somebody was injured or killed.”

Still, she and others who work the nation’s mines worry President Trump is about to limit the agency’s local reach. As his administration targets federal buildings for closure and sale, 35 of its offices are on the list. Fifteen are in Appalachian coalfields, with seven in eastern Kentucky alone and the others concentrated in southern West Virginia and southeastern Pennsylvania. Of the remaining 20 offices, many are in the West, in remote corners of Wyoming, Nevada, and Colorado. Miners’ advocates worry these closures could reduce the capacity of an agency that’s vastly improved mining safety over the past 50 years or so and could play a vital role as the Trump administration promotes fossil fuels like coal, and as decarbonization efforts increase the need for lithium and other metals.

Since its inception in 1977, the agency has operated under the auspices of the Department of Labor to reduce the risks of what has always been one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Before Congress created the agency, known as MSHA, hundreds of miners died each year, in explosions, tunnel collapses, and equipment malfunctions. (The number was far higher through the 1940s, often reaching into the thousands.) Last year, 31 people died in mining accidents, according to the agency’s data. Even after accounting for coal’s steady decline, that tally, while still tragic, reflects major strides in safety.

“Coal mining is a tough business. It’s a very competitive business. There’s always a temptation to compete on safety, to cut corners on safety, to make that your competitive advantage as a mine operator,” Christopher Mark, a government mine safety specialist who has spent decades making the job safer, told Grist. “And it’s our job to make sure that nobody can do that.”

Trump’s pick to lead MSHA, Wayne Palmer, who is awaiting confirmation, previously was vice president of the Essential Minerals Association, a trade association representing extraction companies. The Department of Labor declined to comment on the proposed lease terminations. A representative of the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal offices, told Grist that any locations being considered for closure have been made aware of that, and some lease terminations may be rescinded or not issued at all. 

Many of the country’s remaining underground coal mines – the most dangerous kind – are located in Appalachia. MSHA has historically placed its field offices in mining communities. Although the number of coal mines has declined by more than half since 2008, tens of thousands of miners still work the coalfields. Many of them still venture underground.

The dwindling number of fatalities comes even as the MSHA has been plagued by continued staffing and funding shortfalls, with the federal Office of the Inspector General repeatedly admonishing the agency for falling below its own annual inspection targets. It also has recommended more frequent sampling to ensure mine operators protect workers from toxic coal and silica dust. After decades of work, federal regulators finally tightened silica exposure rules, but miners and their advocates worry too little staffing and too few inspections could hamper enforcement. 

“There are going to be fewer inspections, which means that operators that are not following the rules are going to get away with not following the rules for longer than they would have,” said Chelsea Barnes, the director of government affairs and strategy at environmental justice nonprofit Appalachian Voices. The organization has worked with union members and advocates for those with black lung disease to lobby for stricter silica dust exposure limits.

Last month, the United Mine Workers’ Association denounced the proposed office closures. As demand for coal continues to decline, it worries that companies could pinch pennies to maximize profits — or avoid bankruptcy. ​​”Companies are completely dependent upon the price of coal,” said Phil Smith, executive assistant to union president Cecil Roberts. ”[If] it’s bad enough, they think, ‘Well, we can cut a corner here. We can pick a penny there.’”

The Biden administration made an effort to staff the agency. In the waning days of Biden’s term, Chris Williamson, who led the agency at the time, told Grist he was “very proud of rebuilding our team” because “you can’t go out and enforce the silica standard or enforce other things if you don’t have the people in place to do it.” The union worries that the Trump administration, which has pursued sweeping layoffs throughout the government, will target MSHA, where many of the Biden hires remain probationary employees. Despite the previous administration’s attempts to bolster the agency, it still missed inspections due to understaffing.

Anyone who isn’t terminated will have to relocate to larger offices if Trump shutters local outposts, placing them further from the mines they keep tabs on. In addition to inspecting underground mines at least quarterly and surface mines biannually, inspectors make more frequent checks of operations where toxic gases are present. They also respond to complaints. Work now done by people in the offices throughout eastern Kentucky likely would be consolidated in Lexington, Kentucky, or Wise County, Virginia, which are 200 miles apart. 

Field offices have been consolidated before, and mining experts acknowledged there may be a time and a place for such things, but it’s highly unusual to close so many without due process. In early March, the House Committee on Education and Workforce submitted a letter to Vince Micone, the acting secretary of labor, requesting documents and information on the closures and expressing concern that as many as 90 mine inspection job offers may have been rescinded. Their letter specifically referred to the agency’s history of understaffing that led to catastrophes like the Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 people in 2010, the nation’s worst mining accident in four decades.

“One of the lessons of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, according to MSHA’s own internal investigation, is that staffing disruptions at the managerial level resulted in MSHA’s inspectors failing to adequately address smaller-scale methane explosions in the months leading up the massive explosion that killed 29 miners fifteen years ago this April,” read the letter, which was signed by Democratic representatives Bobby Scott of Virginia and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

The impact of potential cuts stretches far beyond coal, into the mines that will extract the lithium and other metals needed for clean energy and other industries. As of last year, the nation employed almost 256,000 metal and nonmetal miners who pull copper, zinc, and other things from the earth. “It’s an agency that matters, regardless of how we’re producing our energy,” said Chelsea Barnes of Appalachian Voices.

After spending so much time in the mines, Lindsay is concerned by the direction the Trump administration is heading, even as lawmakers in states like West Virginia and Kentucky have in recent years attempted to roll back regulations. “That’s going to be the future of MSHA,” she said. “They’re going to be in name only. Miners are going to die. And nobody but their families are going to care.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump administration moves to shutter mine safety offices in coal country on Mar 25, 2025.

Workers at senior centers across the state take calls from senior West Virginians requesting enrollment in the Meals on Wheels program, but many end up on waitlists and even more go without the help.  

State officials ensure about 25,000 seniors around the state receive home-delivered meals. 

But more than 1,000, including those who can’t prepare meals due to mobility problems and those who live in isolated areas without transportation, were on waitlists as of October, even though they met stringent eligibility requirements.

Even more seniors have asked for assistance but didn’t meet requirements to be on the waitlist. Some live too far away from providers’ service areas, but service areas are dependent on funding.

The Bureau of Senior Services has said it would take $2 million in additional funding to eliminate the waitlists, and previous Bureau officials requested that money. 

But new Bureau officials aren’t asking lawmakers to pass a budget with more funding reserved for the program.

In fact, about a month into the job, the new Commissioner of the Bureau of Senior Services Dianna Graves said she plans to audit the agency to make sure the funds it is expending are truly needed. But she said she’d like to serve more people.

Graves noted that in Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s State of the State address, he said his budget would include a 2% cut. He directed other state officials to figure out how to cut costs, as he says he wants to do more with less.

Graves gave a budget proposal to state revenue officials without that cut but also without the $2 million increase needed to eliminate waitlists. That proposal was incorporated into Morrisey’s budget proposal presented to lawmakers.

“I’m grateful. I’m very grateful that seniors did not see a budget decrease,” she said.

She also said some counties don’t have waitlists due to county funding and fundraising, and she hopes to see more of that.

When asked about the waitlists, since they wouldn’t be eliminated in Morrisey’s proposal, Morrisey sent a statement through a spokesperson, saying that the “hallmark of Governor Morrisey’s administration is fiscal responsibility.” 

West Virginia lawmakers are under no obligation to pass the governor’s budget proposal as written. 

But senior centers have said they need more funding for Meals on Wheels in previous years as well and lawmakers didn’t allocate it.

And during Graves’ budget presentation to lawmakers, several asked questions indicating they’d like to see the Bureau’s funding be reduced. 

The need for the Meals on Wheels program has increased for years, according to Jennifer Brown, president of the West Virginia Directors of Senior and Community Services.

But she said some seniors who could use the assistance likely don’t even know the program exists.

Brown, who is also the director of the Council on Aging, which provides services in a multi-county region in the southern part of the state, said centers do their best to help seniors who call, but she can’t promote the program in good faith.

“We don’t normally advertise our nutrition programs, as far as Meals on Wheels goes, because we know there’s always a waitlist,” she said.

Brown said she’s hopeful the Legislature will increase funding for senior services, at least next fiscal year, if the state’s more financially stable.  In the meantime, she said sometimes neighbors report concerns for seniors. 

Following those calls, senior center workers have responded to find people with empty refrigerators.

More than 100,000 West Virginians 60 and over, about 20 percent, have limited or uncertain access to enough food, according to a 2024 Meals on Wheels fact sheet based on 2021 data. 

In McDowell County, 70 people are on the waitlist.

Donald Reed, executive director of the McDowell County Commission on Aging, said isolation is a main contributor to people ending up on the program or waitlist. 

“They don’t have a large family or support network, because those family members have moved away,” he said.

Lucreatia Ford, a regular visitor to the senior center in McDowell County, noted that in the county, poverty is widespread and grocery stories are few and far between. She knows other seniors who struggle to get to them. 

“The majority of the people here are seniors,” she said.

Brown said one reason the meal delivery program is so important is it means someone is also checking on the welfare of seniors living alone.

“We’ve found people lying on the floor where they’ve fallen, and we’ve had to go in and help them or call 911.”

Senior services programs, like those at senior centers with opportunities for socialization and community connection and home-delivered meals, increase the chances seniors can live at home independently, instead of in nursing homes where they’re more likely to develop additional physical and mental health problems.

Ford socializes with other seniors during meals offered at the McDowell County center and while playing card games.

Now 79, she used to work at a nursing home.

“They were beautiful people,” she said.

But there was little she could do about how much they despised living there, becoming hopeless and trying to escape.

“They can’t get used to their new environment and they want to go home,” she said. “I hope I don’t ever have to go to a nursing home.”

More than 1,000 seniors are waiting for meals as Morrisey charges agencies to cut costs appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

West Virginia could lose out on millions of dollars earmarked to help state regulators clean up abandoned natural gas wells as a result of an executive order halting federal funding that President Donald Trump signed on the day of his inauguration.

Regulators previously estimated they’d receive more than $200 million in federal funding to help clean up the thousands of orphaned wells scattered throughout the state. However, West Virginia could lose out on nearly $90 million of those funds.

The cleanup of abandoned wells has been a growing liability for the state as operators have walked away from their nonproducing wells, leaving them unplugged. If the operator of an abandoned well is unknown or files for bankruptcy, it becomes “orphaned,” and the cleanup falls to state regulators. West Virginia regulators previously estimated it costs about $124,000 to clean up an orphaned well. 

Currently, regulators are responsible for cleaning up more than 6,000 orphaned wells in West Virginia. However, that number is considered to be greatly underestimated as there are tens of thousands more that aren’t documented. 

Unplugged, nonproducing wells can pose significant health and environmental threats, including contaminating groundwater and emitting methane and other air pollutants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the unplugged, non-producing oil and gas wells emitted 275,000 metric tons of methane in 2020; equivalent to emissions of more than 1.7 million gasoline-powered vehicles driven for one year. 

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $4.7 billion to states, tribes, and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to help clean up orphaned wells as an effort to address some of the damage left by the oil and gas industry. The money that was awarded was set to be distributed in installments, but Trump’s executive order halted those.

So far, West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection has received $56.1 million, according to DEP spokesperson Terry Fletcher. The agency expects to receive at least another $88.8 million, but that could change given the “fluidity of this situation,” added Fletcher. The state could get additional money if they spend the initial funding well.   

Hours after he was sworn into office, Trump signed an executive order that immediately halted federal spending appropriated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Under the signed order, no funds from the legislation can be disbursed until White House officials determine whether the funding aligns with the executive order and administration’s policy.

The executive order also halted spending from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which included billions of dollars for investments in clean energy and climate change mitigation. 

The federal funding has played a key role in helping West Virginia officials clean up orphaned wells faster than in previous years. The initial $25 million grant awarded to the state by the federal government in 2023 helped plug 202 orphaned wells — about 10 times the number of wells state regulators cleaned up with state funds in fiscal year 2023.  

The White House budget office issued a memo the week after Trump’s inauguration halting federal grants and loans. The action was temporarily blocked by federal judges. Though the memo was later rescinded by the White House, courts later determined that the Trump administration had kept funds frozen in violation of those federal orders. 

Many DEP programs rely on federal grants for funding, including one that cleans up abandoned coal mines and another that provides money for water and sewer programs.

While these programs can continue as normal during short funding pauses, Fletcher said, “Longer interruptions could be more problematic.” 

Trump’s halt on federal spending could cost West Virginia millions to clean up hazardous orphaned gas wells appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

From coal to education to deregulation to drugs, Gov. Patrick Morrisey covered a lot of ground as he laid out his legislative agenda to a packed House chamber during his State of the State address on Wednesday night. 

Here are five things you need to know about what Morrisey hopes to see this year: 

1. Use West Virginia’s coal to fuel a “Mountain State comeback”

Selling a vision where children will grow up to live and work in West Virginia, Morrisey described a future economy powered by supercomputers, data centers and cryptocurrency. 

And like the heyday of steel in the 50s, Morrisey said this new economy will rely on electricity, and that electricity will come from West Virginia coal and natural gas.

In many ways, a large component of all his plans — whether it was education, cutting business regulations, speeding up permit processing and cutting taxes — is to continue the tradition of the same extractive industries that have left streams polluted, men dying in their 50s and towns with soot in their attics. 

“West Virginia has power, and by God, we are going to use it,” Morrisey said, “We’ll use every last ounce to fuel our Mountain State Comeback.” 

He vowed not only to continue with coal, but with natural gas, hydropower and nuclear energy – an idea that has, at times, been derided by pro-coal lawmakers. 

To get there, he wants to cut taxes, regulations and make it easy for industries to set up shop. 

2. Work closely with President Donald Trump 

When Morrisey first mentioned President Donald J. Trump, the 123 Republican lawmakers in the room erupted in applause, rising from their seats in a standing ovation. 

He positioned West Virginia energy as a major power supplier for Trump’s charge to take on China. Echoing a line from the president’s inauguration last month, he said: 

“I know our state and our nation are on our way to a resurgence and a golden era unlike anything we’ve seen before.”

Throughout the night, Morrisey vowed to work closely with the Trump administration on a range of issues from energy to education to drug abuse. 

West Virginia depends on federal dollars for nearly 50% of the state’s overall budget. Morrisey didn’t mention how potential moves to close the US Department of Education or cuts in federal programs could affect basic services people rely on, like school lunches or seeing a doctor. 

At a hearing held earlier on Wednesday on federal block grants, government employees gave five minute speeches about the programs they administer with federal funds. 

Anti-smoking and vaping campaigns, assistance for heating and utilities, help for sickly children and subsidies for childcare and many other programs are all funded by federal dollars. 

But like Morrisey, not one Republican in the room stopped to ask how any freezes to grant funding could affect those services. Only one Democratic delegate piped up to ask the question. 

3. Cut taxes while closing a $400 million state budget gap

Like Gov. Jim Justice before him, Morrisey said he’s inherited an economic mess. 

He said the state’s got a $400 million budget hole coming up that could get bigger over time. His answer is to cut. 

He touted audits and reviews of spending decisions across state government. He said the state would not fund new programs without new revenue. And he said he would propose consolidating departments in state government and eliminating numerous boards and commissions. 

“We are going to uncover all of the waste and abuse that hides in the dark corners of state government, and we will root it out,” Morrisey said. “If you like what President Trump is doing in DC, you’re going to love what we’re doing right here in West Virginia.”

Now where those cuts will be made will be seen in the budget. Morrisey didn’t mention it, except to say he wanted a “permanent fix” for the state government health insurance. 

While lawmakers have talked about a permanent fix for almost a decade, what they’ve done from time to time is just throw money from the surplus at the insurance program when it came up short. 

Even with all those money problems, he still called for more tax cuts. 

“I’m renewing my call to ensure we have the lowest income tax of all the states that we touch.”

4. Target trans rights and the “woke virus”

And while Morrisey wants to loosen up mandatory vaccination laws for actual viruses, he vowed to continue to eradicate West Virginia of the “woke virus.” 

“We stand for God, for life, for the second amendment, for religious liberty, our Constitution and our freedoms,” Morrisey said. “And we will always fight for those values.”

Morrisey took a victory lap on the closure of DEI offices on the biggest universities in the state, following his executive order banning it from state government. 

“That’s a win for West Virginia, and we’re not done yet,” he said.

He bragged about attending a signing for Trump’s ban on transgender children in sports. Morrisey asked the Legislature to pass a bill that would ban transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms for the gender they identify with. 

5. Get rid of cell phones in schools and government permission slips for hospitals 

But in a speech replete with platitudes, catch phrases, personal stories and broad visions of policy, Morrisey did not give a laundry list of bills for lawmakers to pass. 

He asked for a ban on cellphones in classrooms – garnering one of the few bipartisan applauses of the night. He said he’ll be introducing legislation to start a “one-stop shop” to streamline permitting for industry. 

But the biggest legislative request was to repeal “certificate of need.” The governor characterized it as a “government permission slip” to allow new hospitals and healthcare facilities to open. 

The niche piece of policy is divisive in policy circles – some say it kills competition that could lower healthcare costs. Others say it ensures healthcare systems can keep profitable services and use those to subsidize needed care that operates at a loss. 

He said will be introducing a bill to eliminate it, calling it “a big step forward to improve care for our most vulnerable citizens.”

A tech future powered by coal: Five takeaways from Gov. Morrisey’s State of the State address appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.

A case against major drug distributors over the flood of painkiller pills that devastated West Virginia is back in court. This time, the case is before the state Supreme Court, which is considering whether the overdose crisis qualifies under West Virginia law as a “public nuisance.” 

Public nuisance is a legal term for something that endangers public health and safety. A person or company responsible can be sued and forced to remedy a public nuisance.

Typically in West Virginia, courts have applied public nuisance law to cases putting citizens at risk of exposure to environmental pollution, such as coal truck ash and arsenic in a river. 

In drug distributors’ arguments, they say that it is not applicable to shipments of a lawful product.

How did we get here?

Counties and cities across West Virginia filed lawsuits against drug distributors, manufacturers and pharmacies, saying they fueled the opioid epidemic resulting in thousands of lost lives, grieving families and overwhelmed law enforcement and treatment providers.

But Cabell County and Huntington have been fighting one case on their own.

Opioid litigation cases across the county were consolidated in a court overseeing multi-district cases in the Northern District of Ohio.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster selected the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and Huntington to serve as a “bellwether” case, meaning it could indicate how similar cases might fare. He sent the case back to federal court in West Virginia. 

Those municipalities alleged drug distributors AmeriSource Bergen Drug Corp., Cardinal Health, Inc. and McKesson Corp. caused a public nuisance by knowingly shipping an excessive amount of pills to the area, resulting in more than 700 deaths from opioid overdoses in Cabell County between 2015 and 2020.

They said to abate the crisis — abatement means remedying a public nuisance — companies should pay them $2.5 billion dollars, which a Johns Hopkins researcher estimated it would take to support their recovery. 

Cabell County and Huntington lost their case when in 2022, U.S. District Judge David Faber ruled in favor of the companies, agreeing with their argument that public nuisances don’t include lawful product distribution.

Soon after, more than 100 cities and counties settled with the same companies for $400 million, to be dispersed throughout the state.

This meant while they received money, companies didn’t have to admit liability.

Cabell County and Huntington appealed, and they presented their case to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., last year.

A three-judge panel there decided that the West Virginia Supreme Court should determine if state law considered drug distribution as something that would be found to be a public nuisance.

Why is the Supreme Court’s decision important?

Huntington and Cabell County say prescription drug distributions are different from other product distributions as federal law requires companies to monitor and report large prescription requests, because these drugs have potential for misuse.

Companies say applying the law would result in a flood of new nuisance cases. In oral arguments last week, an attorney for the companies, Steve Ruby, argued it could result in cases over everything from foods associated with obesity to gun deaths.

Ruby said companies and Faber agreed that distributors were only responding to prescription orders written by licensed doctors and sent to pharmacies. 

David Frederick, a lawyer for the communities, said Faber was “led into error by the distributors who wanted to shunt the blame to everybody else.”

If the city and county prevail, the case would be sent back to the 4th Circuit. A ruling there in favor of defendants would end the case. Judges there could also rule in favor of the communities, which could mean defendants could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or they could send the case back to Faber.

Even if Huntington and Cabell County lose, they would still be eligible for funds from the West Virginia First Foundation. That’s because that organization is distributing $1 billion from settlements with multiple entities, including pharmacies and manufacturers, and Cabell County and Huntington are only excluded from the $400 million other municipalities received in settlements with distributors.

Companies also say the communities can’t prove they caused the opioid crisis, so they shouldn’t have to pay to remedy its impacts.

A case against drug distributors over the flood of pills that ravaged West Virginia is back in court. Here’s what to know. appeared first on Mountain State Spotlight, West Virginia’s civic newsroom.