The 2022 Regular Session of the State Legislature closed at midnight on March 12.

A few good things happened in the session, many of which were the defeat of bills I thought quite bad. One good bill restored the film tax credit.

The worst of those defeated was the so-called “antiracism” bill, which would have set rules by which teachers in public schools could discuss race. Those rules were so nebulous that their effect, in my view, would have been to completely stifle discussion of race.

Every anti-LBGTQ bill was defeated. One of those bills would have overridden 15 local municipal ordinances (some in Jefferson County) banning anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment, housing and public places. Another bill would have overturned local bans on conversion therapy (attempts to transform gay children into straight ones). And the Human Rights Commission was saved for another year.

An attempt to gut the Aboveground Storage Tank Act was defeated for the second year in a row. This law came from the Great Elk River Chemical Spill of 2014, when 300,000 people in and near Charleston were denied clean drinking water for weeks, due to negligence on the part of a now-defunct chemical company. A very strong anti-chemical spill law was passed by the Legislature that year, but has been weakened twice since. This year’s bill (like last year’s) would have removed most of the remaining rules protecting citizens.

An attempt to exempt huge solar arrays from local zoning was defeated. The bill was sponsored by Jefferson County Delegates Wayne Clark (the lead sponsor) and Paul Espinosa, Berkeley County Delegate Jason Barrett and others. It would have guaranteed that large solar arrays (like the 800-acre one proposed for a farm in the Kabletown district) could be legally located anywhere in our county, even adjacent to a residential subdivision, as a matter of right. The Jefferson County Planning Commission would have been prohibited from requiring even setback distances or screening. I was unable to stop the bill in the House, but our two senators, Hannah Geffert and Patricia Rucker, worked hard to kill this bill in the Senate.

On the “bad” side, a bill that would have made critically needed improvements to our foster care system was killed by Senate Finance Chair Eric Tarr. A bill limiting prices for insulin also died.

A bill permitting micro-schools and learning pods was passed. “Learning pods” are a collective version of homeschooling. A “micro-school” is an actual school, run by parents with no supervision by state or county school boards. In a move rich with irony, the House amended the original Senate version (which called for a limit of 100 students per school) by removing the size limit completely. Such a “micro” school could now theoretically become the largest high school in our state!

And we passed a bill eliminating the West Virginia Library Commission. This bill emerged from the brain of West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Curator Randall Reid-Smith, at the last moment, and may mean the eventual death-knell of state support for public libraries.

We’re having two town hall meetings this month, to discuss the major decisions made in this year’s legislative session and answer audience questions. One is at 7 p.m. on April 12, in the Shepherdstown Community Club’s War Memorial Building (corner of German and King Streets in Shepherdstown). The other is at 1 p.m. on April 16, in the Bolivar-Harpers Ferry Public Library (Clay Street in Bolivar). The public is invited to attend both.

John Doyle is a delegate for the West Virginia District 67. He can be reached at johndoyle@wvhouse.gov.