Legislators Reading from the Same Page. Literally.

As the House of Delegates and Senate usually hold simultaneous floor sessions each day, it's not easy to know what's going on in both at the same time. The exception is for those lucky few individuals with audio squawk boxes connected to the sound system of each chamber.

So it was not obvious Wednesday when a member of each body stood to praise the oil and natural gas industry, by delivering identical floor speeches.

But Public Broadcasting caught the peculiarity, which coincided with the start of the industry's two-day annual conference in Charleston.

The lawmakers who appeared to have relied on the same speechwriter were Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, and the new House Majority Leader Brent Boggs, D-Braxton.

Public Broadcasting has audio as well as video.