Rotunda Roundup
As West Virginia heads into the last two days of March, the weekend was driven primarily by executive, agency, public-safety, and federal-with-WV-angle developments. The clearest same-day items are the continuing federal shutdown’s effect on TSA operations at Yeager, Huntington’s launch of a new public-safety dashboard, the PSC timeline on the MARL transmission case, and the first fully funded year of the state’s higher-education performance formula.
West Virginia Governor
Only item on the official governor news page remains the March 27, 2026 announcement on the Google data center project in Putnam County.
West Virginia Legislature
A Fayette County lawmaker is asking regulators to revisit West Virginia American Water’s latest rate increase.Lootpress reports Delegate Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette, sent a March 26, 2026 letter to the Public Service Commission urging commissioners to reconsider the recently approved increase, which raised average monthly bills for customers using 3,000 gallons by about $6 for water and $7 for wastewater.
The approved increase was smaller than the utility originally sought, but still substantial. West Virginia American Water had asked in May 2025 for a 27.9% increase that would have generated about $60.5 million in additional annual revenue; the PSC instead approved $28.176 million for water service and $4.537 million for wastewater service.
Source: Lootpress
Why it Matters: Utility rates are becoming a sharper pocketbook and political issue, especially in lower-income communities already strained by rising basic-service costs.
A new WV Wasp editorial argues the real Hanshaw issue is not simply optics, but the rules that make these conflicts legal and hard to police. The March 28 piece says criticism of House Speaker Roger Hanshaw for representing data-center interests after helping move data-center legislation misses the larger structural problem: West Virginia’s citizen-legislature model, House conflict rules, financial-disclosure law, and election-season ethics blackout are all written in ways that permit these arrangements.
The editorial zeroes in on three specific pressure points. It argues current law lets attorney-legislators disclose their law firm without naming industry-specific client ties, that House Rule 49’s “class of five or more” standard would likely still have allowed Hanshaw to vote even with an active client relationship, and that the 60-day pre-election blackout on Ethics Commission complaints can delay accountability until after voters cast ballots.
Source: WV Wasp
Why it Matters: The piece reframes the Hanshaw controversy from a one-man ethics story into a broader argument for changing West Virginia’s disclosure, abstention, and election-timing rules.
A new WV News column says West Virginia’s two top legislative leaders are facing very different transparency problems. Steven Allen Adams writes that scrutiny around Senate President Randy Smith’s allied PAC centers on a lack of disclosure about who is behind it and who is funding ads targeting Sen. Tom Takubo in a contested Republican primary, while criticism of House Speaker Roger Hanshaw stems from his disclosed legal work on data center and microgrid permitting matters.
The column argues Hanshaw’s situation is easier to monitor because it is out in the open. Adams notes Hanshaw’s law practice areas include environmental and regulatory work as well as data center and AI infrastructure, and he says House conflict rules give lawmakers a process to raise possible conflicts on the record if future data-center legislation comes back before the chamber.
Source: WV News
Why it Matters: The piece frames two live Capitol pressure points at once: intra-GOP power warfare in the Senate and the broader ethics debate around lawmakers’ outside work on major economic-development files.
West Virginia Government & Agencies
The PSC has now put a decision target on the MARL transmission case. MetroNews reports the Public Service Commission expects to decide the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link transmission-line siting matter by March 2027, with public comment activity continuing and intervener applications open until June 1.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: The transmission docket is moving from abstract controversy to a defined litigation-style calendar with real deadlines for landowners, utilities, and policymakers.
Federal Watch
The federal shutdown is still hitting West Virginia’s air-travel system, even if operations at Yeager remain stable.MetroNews reports TSA employees at West Virginia International Yeager Airport have continued reporting to work without pay during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, with about 52 TSA employees at the airport and local relief efforts collecting gift cards and supplies.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: West Virginia is feeling the shutdown in real operations, workforce stability, and public-confidence terms even without visible airport disruption yet.
Lootpress reports the Treasury Department plans to place President Donald Trump’s signature on newly issued paper currency, a break from longstanding practice. The March 27 story says the signature would appear alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s and is being framed by the administration as part of the nation’s 250th anniversaryobservance later this year, though Treasury did not specify when the bills would enter circulation or which denominations would be affected.
Source: Lootpress
Why it Matters: If implemented as described, it would mark a significant departure from historical currency practice and inject another symbolic federal action into the 2026 political environment.
West Virginia Courts
West Virginia’s state school board is taking the school-vaccine fight to the state Supreme Court. West Virginia Watch reports the board filed an appeal on March 27, 2026, seeking review of a Kanawha County circuit judge’s ruling that blocked enforcement of Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order allowing religious exemptions from school vaccination requirements. The appeal keeps alive a major separation-of-powers and public-health dispute over whether the governor can alter school immunization policy without legislative change.
Source: West Virginia Watch
Why it Matters: The case could decide whether vaccine-exemption policy in West Virginia is set by statute and rulemaking or can be changed unilaterally through executive action.
Public Safety
Huntington has put its own operating data out in public view. Mayor Patrick Farrell says the city’s new Public Safety Dashboard gives residents access to the same data leadership uses to track police activity, crisis response, and trends tied to homelessness, healthcare, and social services.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: Huntington is pushing a transparency-and-data model that other West Virginia local governments could study or copy.
Business & Industry
Advantage Valley and Marshall University are launching a new entrepreneurship microcredential series aimed at startup formation and small-business growth. Lootpress reports the program is being offered through Marshall’s Skills Exchange and was designed by Bryan Shaw, Advantage Valley’s director of entrepreneurial development, to cover practical topics including accounting, finance, legal registrations, market research, social media, marketing, pricing, capital access, and business planning.
The course series is structured as a short-form workforce and business-development tool rather than a traditional academic program. The story says learners can take courses individually or stack them, current Advantage Valley clients can access them free through FASTER WV, non-clients can enroll for $49.99 per course, and grant funding from The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation supports the partnership.
Source: Lootpress
Why it Matters: This is a regional economic-development play to build more startup capacity, faster, with lower-cost entry points for entrepreneurs and small-business operators.
Education
The state’s higher-education performance formula is now fully funded for the first time. MetroNews reports the 2023 formula has entered its first fully funded year, with Chancellor Sarah Armstrong Tucker saying the model is intended to reward outcomes such as graduation, workforce relevance, and graduates staying in West Virginia.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: Full funding gives the performance model real teeth and should sharpen institutional behavior around completion and workforce alignment.
Public Safety
Doddridge County is joining West Virginia’s remote protection-order program for domestic violence victims. West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports the county will begin participating on Monday, March 30, 2026, allowing victims of domestic violence and sexual assault to file petitions and take part in court hearings remotely rather than having direct contact with the other party in court.
The Remote Victim Outreach Program is backed by the West Virginia Supreme Court and federal grant funding.In Doddridge County, petitioners will be able to use HOPE, Inc. as the access point for petitions and remote hearings, and the county becomes the 15th in West Virginia to participate in the program.
Source: West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Why it Matters: This expands safer court access for abuse victims in a rural county and signals continued statewide growth of a Supreme Court-backed access-to-justice program.
Huntington has put frontline police-and-crisis-response data directly in public view. Mayor Patrick Farrell says the city’s new Public Safety Dashboard lets residents see the same data city leadership uses to track policing decisions, crime trends, and crisis response, including calls involving homelessness and people in distress.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: Huntington is building a transparency model other West Virginia local governments may study or replicate.
The Grid (Energy/Utilities/Regulatory)
A Putnam County transmission asset helped put Google on the map for West Virginia. In this March 27 MetroNews commentary, TJ Meadows argues the real attraction was not just local enthusiasm or land availability, but proximity to AEP’s 765-kilovolt transmission line, which provides the kind of high-voltage capacity data centers need. He frames the proposed Google project as a broader argument for West Virginia to view transmission infrastructure as an economic-development tool, especially as projects like MARL and Valley Link remain under debate.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: The piece ties the Google project directly to grid infrastructure, reinforcing the case that transmission policy is now central to West Virginia’s site-selection and development strategy.
West Virginia is bringing in former Virginia energy chief Glenn Davis to sharpen its power strategy and compete for large-scale investment. Lootpress reports the West Virginia Office of Energy has engaged Davis Energy & Infrastructure Strategy Group, led by former Virginia Department of Energy Director Glenn Davis, to help the state expand energy infrastructure and position itself for growth tied to data centers, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and other large-load users.
The Morrisey administration is framing reliable generation as an economic-development weapon. According to the announcement, West Virginia wants to expand dispatchable generation, support advanced nuclear and other next-generation technologies, back co-located and microgrid solutions, and align regulation with large-load industrial recruitment. The Office of Energy explicitly contrasted that posture with policy shifts in Virginia and argued that “energy policy is now economic policy.”
Source: Lootpress
Why it Matters: West Virginia is signaling that power availability, regulatory posture, and dispatchable generation are central to its pitch for data centers and other major industrial investment.
The MARL transmission case is now on a long but defined regulatory track. The PSC’s schedule points toward a March 2027 decision on the proposed 107.5-mile, 500-kV MidAtlantic Resiliency Link line, while public opposition groups are organizing workshops and urging potentially affected landowners to seek intervener status by June 1.
Source: WV MetroNews
Why it Matters: This is no longer just a messaging fight; it is a structured PSC proceeding with meaningful procedural deadlines and eventual appeal stakes.
The PSC’s latest visible March orders also show utilities and infrastructure dockets still moving underneath the headlines. On March 26, the Commission issued a final order in 25-0773-E-P directing Monongahela Power and Potomac Edison to prepare an updated vegetation-management surcharge tariff within 10 days.
Source: PSC Orders by Month
Why it Matters: Even when marquee fights dominate attention, base-rate, reliability, and vegetation-management regulation keeps advancing through the PSC pipeline. |
