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West Virginia behind the curve in developing gas-fired power plants

By RUSTY MARKS

The State Journal

CHARLESTON, W.Va.  — If natural gas is the wave of the near future for generating electricity, West Virginia is missing the surge, state Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher said.

Thrasher told members of the state Senate and House of Delegates joint committees on government organization and government operations during legislative interim meetings in Charleston Tuesday that neighboring Ohio has built 19 gas-fired power stations in recent years, and Pennsylvania has built 22. He said West Virginia has built none, and the only gas-fired power plant on the drawing board for the state is tied up in a court battle.

Thrasher said the disparity between West Virginia and neighboring states in relation to new electricity technology was “alarming,” and said the rising cost of energy in West Virginia is making it even harder to attract new business and industry to the state.

Sen. Glenn Jeffries, D-Putnam, asked why West Virginia was lagging behind in developing gas-fired power plants, given the vast amounts of natural gas present in the state.

“I think it’s just perceived (by the power companies) that Ohio and Pennsylvania are the paths of least resistance for getting those facilities built,” said Thrasher, adding that both states have less regulation and lower property taxes than West Virginia.

Thrasher suggested rising energy costs are not helping the difficult time he is already having attracting industry to the Mountain State.

“If you don’t have competitive power rates, nobody that uses substantial power is going to come here,” Thrasher said.

Sen.Ed Gaunch, R-Kanawha and chairman of the Senate Government Organization Committee, said West Virginia used to rank as the third or fourth cheapest state in the nation in regards to costs for electricity. It’s now 29th or 30th, and more expensive than its neighbors.

Cheap utilities used to be one of the few advantages West Virginia had in attracting industry, but lawmakers are worried that advantage is slipping away.

But Thrasher said there was hope in at least one energy sector for growth in the Mountain State. West Virginia officials have been working with officials in neighboring states to develop the entire region as an ethane storage and distribution hub.

Thrasher said the devastation of Texas’ oil fields and the distribution centers in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of recent hurricanes proves that it’s a bad idea to concentrate energy production and distribution in just one part of the country. Officials in West Virginia and neighboring states are working to attract ethane cracker facilities, underground storage facilities and gas distribution systems all over a several-state region.

Such a system would both decentralize energy storage options for the country as a whole, and allow West Virginia and neighboring states to take advantage of the vast Marcellus and Utica Shale gas reserves in the region, rather than having those resources exploited by out-of-state interests as happened with the coal industry.

Even if an ethane cracker isn’t built within West Virginia’s borders, Thrasher said the state and surrounding region will benefit from the spin-off industries necessary for ethane production and storage. “We feel it’s a real game-changer,” he said.

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