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Article

14 Feb 2018

Author:
Nick Visser, HuffPost

USA: Woman ‘dragged’ from West Virginia hearing after listing lawmakers’ oil and gas donors

A woman was removed from the West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday after she used her testimony about a fossil fuel-sponsored piece of legislation to list industry donations to state lawmakers. Lissa Lucas... voice[d] her objections to the proposed bill, HB 4268, which would give oil and gas companies the right to drill on private land with the consent of just 75 percent of the landowners. Current law mandates energy companies obtain 100 percent approval before they can develop land, allowing a single person to hold up drilling. Lucas, also a Democratic candidate for West Virginia’s seventh district, used her testimony to read a list of donations that lawmakers had received from oil and gas companies, information that was publicly available... “The people who are going to be speaking in favor of this bill are all going to be paid by the industry,” Lucas said, noting that “the people who are going to be voting on this bill are often also paid by the industry.”... As Lucas read the list of donations, her microphone was cut off. She asked the committee to allow her to finish, and when lawmakers refused, she told them to “drag me off."... The bill was later passed by the committee and will go to the lower House and state Senate for a full vote, where it is expected to pass.