Mike Tony [email protected]

Union Carbide Corp. environmental contamination is under review following a $200,000 penalty a federal judge ruled the company owes for Clean Water Act violations at a South Charleston site. The site, known as the Filmont dump, is an inactive landfill.

A labor dispute has resulted in nearly 80 machinists at Union Carbide in South Charleston, West Virginia voted to go on strike, on Oct. 21, 2024, after their contract expired on Oct. 20, 2024. The workers' union said they are striking for fair wages and protection of their benefits. Union Carbide Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company. The company said it is continuing negotiations and hope the labor dispute is settled soon. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development West Virginia State Director Ryan Thorn announced last week that Rural Development is extending a pilot program for people in West Virginia seeking homeownership. The pilot program allows families and individuals to access affordable financing to build manufactured homes in rural communities. Officials said no West Virginians have taken advantage of the program thus far.

Editor's note: This is the eighth in a series of reports about a water crisis in Southern West Virginia.

By a single percentage point, West Virginians approved a constitutional amendment to ban physician-assisted suicide, responding to a ballot question that critics said was confusingly presented.

President Donald Trump's election won't change the market-driven energy transition challenge that West Virginia faces. Renewable energy deployment in the U.S. and nationwide is poised to continue at high speeds amid a Trump presidency.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals rejected a state Public Service Commission order that disallowed Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power from recovering $231.8 million in fuel costs from ratepayers. The Supreme Court of Appeals, on Nov. 13, 2024, filed an opinion reversing the PSC’s Jan. 2024 order because it found the PSC order was based on “extra-record evidence” of which the American Electric Power-controlled utilities weren’t given notice.

West Virginia's U.S. Senate delegation is noncommittal on President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick of environmental lawyer and vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, an 80,000-plus-employee agency with a $1.7 trillion budget that oversees food and drug safety, Medicare and Medicaid, and health care research. Kennedy's history of pushing debunked claims on public health topics has fueled concerns over his potential leadership of the agency.

Recent West Virginia federal court outcomes show why citizen lawsuits are viewed as a key environmental protection tool. The importance of such lawsuits has been heightened by Donald Trump's general election win, which promises another presidential administration looking to roll back a wide array of environmental protections.

Trustees of United Mine Workers of America health and retirement benefit plans have sued one of Gov. and U.S. Sen.-elect Jim Justice, R-W.Va.’s companies over what they say is its failure to make payments required under a collective bargaining agreement to support the funds. The lawsuit is the latest in a long history of grievances alleging Justice’s business empire has neglected to honor agreements to take care of retired miners.

The Greenbrier Sporting Club home in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia that was sold by Jerry West, who died in June 2024 at 86, and his wife Karen to Justice’s adult son James C. “Jay” Justice III for $2.75 million in 2021 is slated for a public auction next month due to debt reported by a Louisiana bank. The bank, First Guaranty Bank, reported the default in a notice of trustee’s sale published Tuesday.