MORGANTOWN — The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday approved a school board public access bill that, if it becomes law, would require more of county boards than the Legislature requires of itself.
At the other end of the Capitol, the House Energy Committee OK’d a bill to improve recycling of plastic waste and perhaps draw new industry into the state.
Senate Education dealt with SB 493. It requires all board meetings to be open to the public in person and via audio and video broadcast live via a link on the board website. It also requires the boards to archive the audio and video for later public access via a website link.
In addition, it requires a board to make reasonable rules for attendance and presentations when there is insufficient room for all who wish to attend. All speakers and delegations must be treated equally and every person who wishes to speak must be granted time in keeping with the procedures adopted under this requirement.
Sen. Hannah Geffert, D-Berkeley, asked if all counties have the technology to do this. Committee counsel said that every student and teacher has access to Microsoft Office, which features the interactive Microsoft Teams, and they could use that, at the least.
In answer to another question, counsel said that the provisions of the bill exceed the requirements of state open meetings law.
The bill passed in a voice vote and goes to the full Senate.
The full Legislature doesn’t offer the level of access this bill requires. The Senate offers audio and video livestream of all of its floor sessions and meetings, and it archives the video for later playback.
But the House has video capability only for floor sessions or meetings held on the House floor. Other meeting rooms are audio-only and nothing from the floor or the meeting rooms is archived.
Recycling bill
HB 4084 is the recycling bill. It adds a series of new definitions to the solid waste act to enable advanced recycling and to specify that the products involved are not solid waste, and that advanced recycling is not solid waste management.
Committee counsel said the bill spells out that advanced recycling is a manufacturing process to convert post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks into basic hydrocarbon raw materials, feedstocks, chemicals, and other products like waxes and lubricants through advanced processes.
An advanced recycling facility means a facility that receives, stores and converts post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks using advanced recycling. An advanced recycling facility is a manufacturing facility, not a solid waste facility.
Counsel said this bill could help increase recycling and decrease waste. There is no advanced recycling facility in the state and this bill removes a barrier for one to locate here.
The bill was previously in the Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Committee, counsel said, and this committee was taking up and adopting revisions the prior committee made.
Dave Yaussy, speaking for the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, said an advanced recycling facility could remove waste from both the industrial streams and the municipal streams. It can convert plastic wrap back into plastic wrap and yogurt cups back into yogurt cups, among many other things.
Existing facilities, he said, do a good job of recycling plastics numbers 1 and 2, but plastics 3-7 are more difficult to work with, and advanced recycling can deal with those.
The amended bill passed in a voice vote and goes to the full House.
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