WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Roberts said there have been two common themes during the Chamber’s listening tour this week in the state’s eastern panhandle. The comments have focused on new EPA rules and the “drug epidemic.”
Roberts said dozens of business owners are concerned about those EPA rules announced earlier this month for existing coal-fired power plants.
“Virtually everybody we have talked to have been doing some head shaking saying, ‘Ya know these regulations are not going to help they’re going to hurt,'” Roberts said.
The other common comment this week was on the drug issue impacting the state’s workforce.
“There’s more and more of a recognition that some of what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working and we need to try some new things, some different things when it comes to the drug epidemic,” Roberts said.
Employers in the eastern panhandle and across West Virginia are having trouble finding enough people to pass a drug test according to Roberts.
“We hear it every place we go,” Roberts said.
Roberts and other Chamber members traveled from the eastern panhandle to Washington, D.C. Thursday for two-days of meetings with the state’s congressional delegation and other leaders.