In The News

WASHINGTON (WV News) — North Central West Virginia is getting $2.054 million to help construct a new, 52,600-square-foot terminal building, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito announced Thursday.Manchin and Capito also announced funding for Charleston’s West Virginia International Yeager Airport. Manchin also announced funding for the Jackson County Airport.The $964,648 in funding for Yeager will be used to purchase critical equipment, including a snow broom to keep the airport... Read More

Law360 (March 9, 2023, 5:32 PM EST) -- A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has reintroduced a bill requiring the Federal Communications Commission to report to Congress on how supply chain disruptions are affecting broadband infrastructure projects. Bill sponsor Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., said The Network Equipment Transparency Act, or NET Act, is intended to ensure the projects funded by 2021's massive infrastructure spending package have an efficient rollout, according to a Tuesday press... Read More

President Joe Biden has unveiled his budget proposal for the upcoming year, and it's no surprise Republicans are mad about it.Among Biden's priorities: Reinstating monthly checks to parents, 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, universal preschool, and increased taxes on the wealthy and investors to help pay for all of it.It's not a shocker, then, that the proposed budget did not sit well with anti-tax, anti-spending Republicans.Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, for example, was... Read More

House Republicans passed a measure Thursday to cancel a key Biden administration rule that defines what water bodies are subject to federal regulation under the Clean Water Act.The resolution of disapproval would nullify the Biden administration's definition of "waters of the United States," which was finalized at the end of December. Republicans have argued the Biden rule is too onerous and exposes landowners, farmers, and builders to litigation for routine activities on their properties, such... Read More

WASHINGTON (WV News) — Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., led a congressional hearing Thursday on the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.The hearing featured remarks from Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, who said he was “deeply sorry” for the impact the incident has had on East Palestine and surrounding communities.In her opening statement, Capito said, “Before Congress considers any changes to existing laws, we must better understand what has gone wrong with this response... Read More

WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito had plenty of criticism to offer to those tied to the derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio during the first Capitol Hill hearing on the disaster.Capito is ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The committee heard from representatives of the U.S. EPA as well as the Norfolk Southern C-E-O Alan Shaw.Capito said the EPA’s initial communications with a frightened public was a failure and only got... Read More

GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said Thursday in a high-profile Senate hearing on the Ohio train derailment that the Environmental Protection Agency "failed" in its communications with the public in the aftermath. "Personally, I think the EPA failed on the risk communication," she said in the opening of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing. "We are going to ask why did it take the EPA administrator three weeks before he actually drank the water. He was telling everybody that... Read More

Norfolk Southern Railway President Alan Shaw when testifying to a Senate panel on Thursday refused to commit to backing bipartisan legislation by Ohio’s two senators that would impose new regulations on the rail industry, including new procedures for carrying hazardous materials.The bill by Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, was in response to the horrific train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that spilled toxic chemicals into the town and left residents scared... Read More

Senators grew visibly frustrated during a tense congressional hearing on the Feb. 3 train derailment that spilled hazardous chemicals in an Ohio town as the CEO of Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train, met their push for concrete policy commitments with noncommittal answers.“I just really thought, when you said ‘turn over a new leaf,’ you meant you were saying you were going to now support safety regulations,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw. “I’m... Read More

The head of Norfolk Southern Corp. pledged at a Senate hearing Thursday to fully restore environmental and economic conditions in the Ohio community where one of the company’s trains derailed last month, triggering a fire and public health concerns.“I am determined to make this right,” Alan Shaw, the rail company’s president and CEO, told the Environment and Public Works Committee during the first congressional hearing on the incident. “Norfolk Southern will clean the site safely, thoroughly and... Read More

At Thursday's Senate hearing on the toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, Sen. Shelley Capito pointed to various instances of communication gaps that led to lack of trust between Norfolk Southern, government and the public."When I asked the question, where is this [hazardous] material going? Both Ms. Shore [of the EPA] and Mr. Shaw [Norfolk Southern CEO] said, it's going somewhere but we don't know where. What does that do to trust? I mean, I don't know. Are the trucks moving or not?... Read More

Norfolk Southern’s communication failures left emergency responders scrambling to prepare for a massive plume of toxic chemicals after a train operated by the company derailed and threatened to cause an explosion in East Palestine, Ohio, some witnesses and lawmakers told Congress on Thursday.Pressed by senators at a three-hour hearing on the Feb. 3 derailment, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan H. Shaw apologized for the disaster but stopped short of guaranteeing certain specific cleanup and safety... Read More

"I am deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities, and I am determined to make it right," Shaw will say before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released beforehand. "We will clean the site safely, thoroughly, and with urgency. We are making progress every day. Working now under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent Unilateral Administrative Order,... Read More

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw faces a Senate grilling Thursday as Washington lawmakers hold their first hearing on railroad safety about a month after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio."I am deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities and I am determined to make it right," Shaw was expected to tell the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee while promising, "I pledge that we won’t be... Read More

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is set to hold its first hearing Thursday on the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern-operated train in East Palestine, Ohio, that led to the release of toxic chemicals.  Here are five things to watch for in the hearing.   Expect both Republican and Democratic members to grill Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw   Despite policy differences on energy and climate issues, members of Congress have been largely united in calling for Norfolk Southern,... Read More

Facing mounting scrutiny, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw will face lawmakers Thursday in his first appearance on Capitol Hill Thursday since the Feb. 3 train derailment that led to a toxic chemical spill and evacuation in East Palestine, Ohio.The Norfolk Southern Railway CEO will be in the hot seat in a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, as senators grill him about clean-up efforts and a spate of recent accidents involving the rail company.Shaw plans to tell... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Norfolk Southern’s CEO is apologizing to Congress on Thursday and pledging millions of dollars to help East Palestine, Ohio, recover from the fiery hazardous materials train derailment as senators investigate rail safety and the Biden administration’s response to the disaster.“I am deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities, and I am determined to make it right,” CEO Alan Shaw said in prepared remarks released... Read More

WEST VIRGINIA (LOOTPRESS) – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $681,618 in federal funding to Triple E Farms in Hampshire County and Frostmore Farm in Pocahontas County. This funding, which is through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Investment Program, will be used to expand the customer bases for the farms with better online logistics and marketing to reach more potential customers.“I’m glad... Read More

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — A Michigan company envisions a new plant in West Virginia as the future model for how its products are built. ONE, Our Next Energy, announced in recent days they would locate a factory to produce their industrial power storage batteries in Ravenswood, West Virginia. The facility would be built in conjunction with the Berkshire-Hathaway alternative power plant within the industrial park in Jackson County.“They needed a battery technology that could absorb energy during the... Read More

The CEO of Norfolk Southern will appear before Congress on Thursday to apologize and promise accountability for the derailment that has devastated East Palestine, Ohio — and will seek to distance his railroad from the profit-chasing approach that has defined much of the industry in recent years.Alan Shaw will “pledge that we won’t be finished until we make it right,” according to testimony he plans to deliver before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where he will tick off the... Read More