CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration will put more than $35 million into economic diversification programs in areas, like southern West Virginia, where changes in the coal industry have hurt the local economy.
The funding is available through the newly-created POWER Initiative, the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization. Announced in March, it’s focused on coordinated investments in communities and workers.
In general, EDA officials said the goals of POWER are to diversify economies, create jobs in new or existing industries like healthcare or information technology, attract new sources of job-creating investments and provide a range of workforce services and skills training.
“EDA has woefully neglected West Virginia over the last four or five years. I’ve really been putting the pressure on,” said U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) of the potential federal funding. “We’re getting the attention that we deserve and we need to have.”
On Wednesday, Jay Williams, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, visited Kanawha County to meet with state and local officials and talk about POWER.
At that stop, Williams admitted coal country was in a “difficult transition” and needed help enabling economic growth.
Capito, who had invited him to West Virginia, said her concern, moving forward, is that any federal investments will have no lasting effects on West Virginia and the people who work in the state.
“I don’t want a pat on the head and the creation of a committee and millions of dollars put in to make everybody else feel better. I just don’t have a very optimistic view of the way the (Obama) Administration is looking at the economic devastation that’s occurred,” Capito said.
She was a guest on Thursday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“I’m reading it as, ‘Let me give you some money. You can have a committee. You can find out how to transition and then we’re going to head out the door. We’re going to feel better about ourselves and good luck to you,'” she said.
As proposed, the POWER Initiative will award grants beginning this July to help communities organize themselves to respond on behalf of affected workers and businesses, according to the White House.
Federal officials said this year’s EDA grant awards could be the start of a possible multi-year effort.
Overall, the EDA is charged with making investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.