It's the air we breathe. Clean,

safe water...

responsible management of our natural resources

to protect and restore

for a sustainable future...

environment matters.

>>RANDY HUFFMAN: Our surface mining activities need to be, and our oil and gas extraction

activities need to be considerate of

of uh...

how it impacts the people that that live in those communities

but at the same time

the people that live in those communities need to have those jobs for

or those impacts are not important to them.

>>KATHY COSCO: A conversation with the DEP cabinet secretary Randy Huffman

Plus...

>>GEN> HOYER: This is a great example of how pushing things back down to

to the lower state level, to the National Guard

level --

you can save money and create jobs for men and women who serve

the nation or their family members. >>COSCO: A recycling program here in WV

is saving taxpayers millions of dollars

and helping the environment, too.

Hello everyone and welcome to Environment Matters. I'm Kathy Cosco

with the west virginia department of environmental protection.

Promoting a healthy environment...

it's the mission statement here at the DEP.

Putting those words into action is the job of cabinet secretary Randy Huffman.

He sat down recently with the DEP's Tom Aluise for an extended conversation

about the environmental challenges facing the state now

and in the coming years.

>>NARRATION: Appointed cabinet secretary by governor Joe Manchin in

May of 2008,

Randy Huffman overseas the eight hundred plus employees of the west

virginia department of environmental protection.

He says he's seen a lot of changes... >>RANDY HUFFMAN: I came to work in

this, the

predecessor agency to the DEP

in 1988,

I believe it was,

and the surface mining act was young. The clean water act

had been around for a while but still it was in the

pretty early stages,

but but what I've seen

evolve over the past twenty five years is

us go from from,

as a state,

from a rough, crude

interpretation and application of the law

to a much more refined and sophisticated

application of the law and

I think the citizenry has really been

one of the main drivers behind that, if not the main driver

behind it. People are

smarter.

They're more educated.

As our ability to analyze things changes and as technology changes

and as the flow of information and access to information is

is much easier than it was in those days the expectations greater.

>>NARRATION: These days, a lot of those expectations revolve

around the state's energy policy.

West Virginia has an energy producer since the eighteen hundreds

but changes in the resource extraction industry

have raised concerns about the environment impacts some of these

practices.

>>HUFFMAN: A lot of people...

a lot of folks on both sides of the energy debate

will use, or abuse the agency

in order to promote their beliefs or their agendaor their

ideology.

It is

absolutely true to say that the

the DEP

shapes public policy on energy --

maybe not as much as people

might think

because we're really more of a reactive type organization them we are

proactive.

How we regulate is really driven by technology

and as the technology changes for

water treatment, for

coal mining or natural gas extraction or chemical processes --

manufacturing processes --

as is that technology changes

we have to change the way we regulate

and often change the rules because the tail doesn't wag the

dog on these issues so

a lot of times we're playing catch up and sometimes that

catch up...

that lag time is years

>>NARRATION: Huffman says one notable exception is the state's recent regulations

concerning horizontal drilling for natural gas

in the Marcellus shale formation

and the extraction practice known as fracking.

>>HUFFMAN: Within just...

within about three or

four years of that industry taking off,

we had a very solid regulatory framework in place and you can't say that about

coal mining. That took decades. You can't say it about

manufacturing or any other water quality issues. Those all took...

that took decades

to get regulatory controls in place for those processes.

>>NARRATION: Huffman says that shows the agency is responsive to the changing

economic landscape and finding a balance that encourages development

while at the same time protecting the state's land, water and air.

>>HUFFMAN: It's very difficult for me to separate

what's good for west virginia from what's good for west virginia's

environment but because

there is overlap there and...

you know a lot of people --

and I've been told this by some of my critics is that

economic development and public policy on energy and things like that are not

my concerns -- should not be the concern of the DEP

and I just disagree with that. I work for a boss who has to balance a

budget.

He has to shape energy policy. He has to do these things and

I cannot separate myself from something

that is so important to the individual that I work for so

there is a balance there...

>>NARRATION: Defining that balance point is not always easy...

>>HUFFMAN: Things are rarely black and white

uh... most of what we deal with there is some shade of grey

and so we have to make good, logical common sense decisions about where the

line is between

environment and is environmental protection...

You know, there are issues in coal mining that concern me...

there are issues in the oil and gas extraction

industry that concern me and i think rather then...

unfortunately, the debate is always about

for it or support for it

or an attitude that's against it and

I'm not in that place. I'm in a place in the middle and

I really wish that people could come to the center on those

on those issues and let's do what's right

for the economy, for jobs... When you think about what's important to

people...

clean water and clean air,

as important as they are,

are only going to be important to people if they're working.

If they don't have a job and have no hope

then they are not going to be concerned about protecting those things.

So that that's really important. That's why that debate needs to take place in

the middle somewhere, you know. Our surface mining activities need to be and

our oil and gas extraction activities need to be considerate of

how it impacts the people that live in those communities,

but at the same time

the people that live in those communities need to have those jobs for

or those impacts are not important to them.

>>KATHY COSCO: In the second half of our conversation,

secretary Huffman talks about balancing the environment and the economy that's

coming up a little later in the program.

But first, did you know that warming your car up by letting it idle in the driveway is just a

waste of gas?

Most cars on the road today have electronic fuel injection

and a computer that adjusts the engine to run cold.

Letting your car idle is actually the slowest way to bring it up to operating

temperature and repeated cold idling, over time, can actually harm your

catalytic converter. >>GREG ADOLFSON: I'm Greg Adolfson in Kanawha City...

A recycling program is saving more than two million pounds of material from

going into landfills,

and that's just this year...

Why organizers say the project is a big win for taxpayers and the environment.

Those stories and more when Environment Matters continues...