WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Governor Patrick Morrisey used an opportunity before leaders in the state’s natural gas industry to further tout his 50 by 50 Imitative. Morrisey focused his remarks to the Gas and Oil Association’s Summer Meeting at the Greenbrier on recent energy announcements.
“Keep in mind where we were 18 months ago. We didn’t even have a commitment to one combined cycle natural gas plant. We’re starting to see that change and you’re starting to see the commitments come in and I think they’re going to land very positively for West Virginia,” said Morrisey during the association’s meeting at the Greenbrier.
Morrisey talked about several recent commitments for new power generation in West Virginia. His remarks included mentions of both the Mon Power Fort Martin project and Dominion Energy’s plan to build a 2.6 gigawatt plant at Mount Storm. Both would use natural gas as fuel.
The Governor reinforced projects like those, which are starting to grow more plentiful, put West Virginia in a desirable place for the future with expanded energy capacity.
“We need to compete where we’re strong. Cutting red tape faster and being a leader from an energy perspective so that we are dominant with PJM. We should be and we’re going to be,” he explained.
Morrisey also mentioned the Monarch Computer campus in Mason County and work to build an on site microgrid to run a data center. As those grow, Morrisey wants West Virginia to remain more nimble and competitive to give large consumers of the new power generation more desire to locate in West Virginia. He said the payoff will be huge in the form of good paying jobs and rising tax base revenues.
“To be able to look people in the eye and say, ‘You can make $80 to $100,000 a year and you can stay there for 20 years.’ Those are the kinds of things you want to be able to tell your kids. Those are the things you talk to the vo-tech schools about what a difference this could make,” explained the Governor. “We’re going to position our counties very effectively to not be harmed by any of that so the school aid is benefitted by that along with the teachers and kids. After that, 50 cents of every dollar is going to income tax reduction.”
Morrisey joked with the progress made in just the initial year of his proposed 50 gigawatts by the year 2050 program, it might need to be adjusted to “60 gigawatts by 2040.”
“I think gas and coal have a great future. I think we’re well positioned to generate so much electricity out of West Virginia to be a big part of that American energy dominance strategy,” said Morrisey.