The West Virginia Supreme Court is weighing whether lawmakers can review state Board of Education rules, renewing a long-running dispute over the board’s independence.
Washington wants states to shoulder more disaster recovery costs, but flood-prone West Virginia has invested little in resilience. As FEMA reforms advance, small communities could bear the consequences despite the state’s $1 billion reserve.
West Virginia created a Future Fund in 2014 to preserve coal and gas wealth, but restrictive conditions kept it empty. Had the state deposited just 3% of severance taxes annually, the fund could hold about $219 million today.
West Virginia’s Fire Commission has failed for 50 years to produce a legally required fire prevention plan, despite the state’s high residential fire death rate. Officials now aim to complete the first comprehensive plan by fall 2026.
Summers County’s failed school levy highlights deep flaws in West Virginia’s funding system. Rural districts with shrinking enrollment and limited tax bases are struggling to preserve staff, transportation and aging schools as federal aid expires.
West Virginians once fought landfill proposals that would have turned old mines into dumping grounds, winning laws that gave counties power to decide. Now opponents of massive out-of-state data centers say the state is stripping local control and they deserve the same say.
Chemours will pay a $22.5 million fine and fund major upgrades to cut PFAS “forever chemical” pollution from its Washington Works plant into the Ohio River under a new Trump-era settlement.
After a 2017 Parkersburg warehouse fire, lawmakers promised to require chemical disclosures so firefighters wouldn’t be left guessing. Nearly a decade later, another blaze on the same street brought the same uncertainty, as inventory lists still lacked detailed safety data.
Finding childcare in West Virginia is often frustrating and expensive, with long waitlists, high costs, and few nearby options — one of the state’s biggest barriers to employment.
West Virginians are facing electric bills that have risen more than 50% in a decade, driven in part by reliance on aging coal plants. Lawmakers may not abandon coal soon, but they could still ease costs by subsidizing low-income bills and ramping up energy-efficiency investments.
