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Committee adopts substitute creating state forest carbon registry with amended penalties and filing deadlines
Summary
A substitute for Senate Bill 730 to establish a West Virginia forest carbon registry was agreed to by the committee after testimony and a series of amendments that lowered penalties, adjusted enforcement timing, and narrowed who must file existing agreements; the substitute was reported to the full Senate and referred to finance.
The committee adopted a substitute for Senate Bill 730, which would create a state forest carbon registry administered by the Division of Forestry, and voted to report the substitute to the full Senate with the recommendation that it pass; under the committee’s motion the bill will next go to the Committee on Finance.
Counsel explained that the proposed registry would collect a legal description and GIS shapefile for properties encumbered by carbon-offset agreements, the names/contact information of landowners and purchasers, the date of execution or project initiation, and the duration and terms of offset obligations. Counsel said failure to record an agreement or project would be subject to a civil penalty for the first offense and additional sanctions in the bill’s original language.
Jeremy McGill, assistant state forester with the Division of Forestry, told the committee the registry would improve the division’s currently “self-reported” data and that some landowners may not know they are in carbon agreements. McGill said the division preferred a penalty tied to acreage rather than a flat sum, saying a flat $5,000 penalty could be “prohibitive to smaller landowners.”
Dwayne O’Dell of the West Virginia Farm Bureau told the committee he was concerned about the bill’s use of the word “terms,” which could require disclosure of financial terms of agreements; he urged clearer definitions and said the bill could impose burdens on smaller private landowners. He also told the committee that about half of the state’s roughly 12 million forested acres are privately owned and that timber supply has not shown the shortages some have predicted.
Committee members debated the penalty and timing provisions. Senator Marion offered an amendment to reduce the civil penalty and to remove the provision that would suspend a business license for subsequent violations; the committee adopted an amendment that made the first-offense penalty $1,000 (and removed the business-license suspension language) and established that subsequent penalties could accrue after defined time windows so penalties would not be immediate repetition for every day. The vice chair later offered a reformed amendment changing the deadline for recording agreements that are in effect on the bill’s effective date: by the reformed amendment the purchaser — not the landowner — would be responsible for filing existing agreements with the registry by July 1, 2027 (the original draft had 2035 and included landowners). The committee adopted that amendment.
After the amendments were adopted, the vice chair moved that the committee substitute for Senate Bill 7 30 as amended be reported to the full Senate with the recommendation that it do pass, “but under the original double committee reference that it first be referred to the committee on finance.” The motion carried by voice vote.
Transcript records voice votes and adopted amendments; the transcript does not record roll-call tallies.
