Curtis Tate

1 day ago | wvpublic.org | Curtis Tate

A federal judge in Charleston has blocked President Donald Trump’s attempts to cut a coal worker health monitoring program focused on an black lung disease. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday against the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS had issued termination notices to the staff of the Coal Worker Health Surveillance Program based in Morgantown and placed them on administrative leave.

6 days ago | wvpublic.org | Curtis Tate

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito says the Trump administration’s defense of staff cuts affecting coal miner health is insufficient. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defended its staff cuts to a coal miner health monitoring program in federal court on Wednesday. The government’s lawyer said agency functions would be reorganized and programs continued. Attorneys for a Kanawha County coal miner said there was no evidence to support that.

1 week ago | wvpublic.org | Curtis Tate

Harry Wiley sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. On Wednesday, his attorneys sought a preliminary injunction from Judge Irene Berger. If she grants it, HHS would have to bring back a team that monitors coal miners for black lung disease. HHS put those workers on administrative leave last month and gave them termination notices.

1 week ago | wvpublic.org | Curtis Tate

Twenty state attorneys general have sued to stop cuts to a federal low-income heating assistance program. West Virginia is not among them. Many West Virginia households struggle with the cost of heating and cooling, and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps 56,000 of them with it. Last month, though, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services laid off the staff that administers the program, including the $35 million that goes to West Virginia.

1 week ago | wesa.fm | Curtis Tate

The growth of solar has pushed renewables past coal in the regional grid that includes West Virginia. In the PJM market — which encompasses West Virginia, Pennsylvania and part or all of 11 other states and the District of Columbia — renewables now generate more electricity than coal, according to April data. Last week, newly released PJM data showed renewables generated nearly 11,800 megawatts of the region’s load. Coal generated less than 11,700 megawatts.