West Virginia advances bill barring use of citizen air data in suits

The West Virginia House has advanced legislation that would ban use of citizen-collected air monitoring data in lawsuits, sending the bill to the Senate amid warnings from community groups that the restriction would make it more difficult to hold polluting industries accountable for excess emissions. According to a summary of H.B. 5018 , it requires the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to provide regulatory oversight and authority governing community air monitoring programs “to ensure proper standards for data...