Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition is a left-of-center organization advocating for environmentalist policy in West Virginia. The organization sponsored the Green New Deal, a package of environmentalist policies characterized by critics as a “radical top-down socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.” ¹

The West Virginia-based organization is in the heart of the coal industry and advocates for wind and solar power. Dianne Bady started the organization in 1987 to oppose mountain removal coal mining. Bady died in 2017 of lung cancer at the age of 67. ²

Leadership

Vivian Stockman is the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition executive director. She started working for the organization as a volunteer in 1995. She has made media outreach for the organization a priority and conducts media training to bring journalists out into the fields for tours to sway public opinion. She also edits the organization’s newsletter, “Winds of Change.” ³

Tonya Adkins is the development director. She writes most of the grant proposals, researches new grant opportunities and prepares grant reports. She was previously an adjunct professor of sociology at Marshall University. She was also a former state coordinator for the West Virginia Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign. ⁴

Robin Blakeman is the project coordinator for the organization and oversees the oil and gas issues. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Blakeman is also involved in faith-based outreach. ⁵

Alex Cole is a community organizer with the group. Cole previously worked as an extension agent for West Virginia State University. ⁶

Dustin White is the project coordinator and devotes much of his time to anti-natural-gas-extration activism. In 2010, he helped lobby the West Virginia State Legislature for successful passage of stronger cemetery protection legislation. ⁷

Projects and Advocacy

In one pilot project, OVEC established a sliding-scale-fee health clinic for the rural poor that runs on solar power. ⁸

OVEC partners with local nonprofits to promote environmentalist energy. It joined with WV SUN and OH SUN, which advocate solar power in the states of West Virginia and Ohio. The three formed a solar co-op to promote the solar energy in the region and to help bid out and build solar installations. ⁹

The organization strongly opposed West Virginia’s plans for an Appalachian Storage and Trading Hub, which would involve spending as much as $10 billion to build a massive underground storage facility to hold 10 million barrels of liquid petroleum used for plastic manufacturing. The U.S. Department of Energy considered a $1.9 billion loan guarantee for the project. ¹⁰

OVEC joined several environmentalist groups such as Sierra Club, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Appalachian Voices and West Virginia Rivers Coalition in a lawsuit against more than a dozen coal companies alleging violations of the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. ¹¹

OVEC also joined a coalition of environmental groups in suing the Environmental Protection Agency in 2019 after the EPA announced it was doing away with “unnecessary and ineffective regulatory burdens.” ¹²

1. McConnell, Mitch. Twitter Post. March 25, 2019, 5:18 P.M. Accessed March 29, 2019. https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1110289975386492929
2. Hodousek, Carrie. “Founder of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition Dies.” West Virginia Metro News. October 24, 2017. Accessed March 21, 2020. http://wvmetronews.com/2017/10/24/founder-of-ohio-valley-environmental-coalition-dies/.
3. Vivian Stockman. OVEC. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://ohvec.org/contact/vivian-stockman/.
4. Tonya Adkins. OVEC. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://ohvec.org/contact/tonya-adkins/.
5. Robin Blakeman. OVEC. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://ohvec.org/contact/robin-blakeman/.
6. Alex Cole. OVEC. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://ohvec.org/contact/alex-cole/.
7. Dustin White. OVEC. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://ohvec.org/contact/dustin-white/.
8. Bhatia, Juhie. “A Sustainable Solution: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.” Ms. Magazine. March 31, 2017. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://msmagazine.com/2017/03/31/sustainable-solution-ohio-valley-environmental-coalition/.
9. Bhatia, Juhie. “A Sustainable Solution: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.” Ms. Magazine. March 31, 2017. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://msmagazine.com/2017/03/31/sustainable-solution-ohio-valley-environmental-coalition/.
10. Schneider, Keith. “West Virginia Bets Big on Plastics, and on Backing of Trump Administration.” Pro Publica. July 31, 2019. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://www.propublica.org/article/appalachian-storage-and-trading-hub-ethane-west-virginia-plastics-backing-of-trump-administration.
11. Metro News Staff. “Environmental Groups Accuse Multiple Mining Sites of Violating Federal Regulations.” West Virginia Metro News. June 9, 2019. Accessed March 21, 2020. http://wvmetronews.com/2019/06/09/environmental-groups-accuse-multiple-mining-sites-of-violating-federal-regulations/.
12. Frazin, Rachel. “Environmental Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Chemic Disaster Prevention Rollback.” The Hill. December 19, 2019. Accessed March 21, 2020. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/475319-environmental-groups-sue-trump-administration-over-chemical.