Opinion

Elevating energy to major committee logical

An editorial from the Parkersburg News and Sentinel 

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — West Virginians will likely look twice at news Republican leaders in Charleston are planning to elevate the Legislature’s energy committees to major committee status. After all, it may be a surprise to many that energy – in the Mountain State, of all places – was not already one of the major committees.

But, in a Legislature dominated by Liberals for most of a century, energy fell under the domain of a minor committee that focused on job safety and growth. The coal, oil, natural gas – and even wind and hydro power – West Virginia produces in quantities that light up the nation was simply a labor matter.

“I think it defies description that we haven’t already elevated energy,” said Sen. Bill Cole, R-Mercer, the presumptive incoming Senate President. “I can’t understand why we wouldn’t already have a focus on energy issues in a state that was built by coal.”

Cole and House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, who is expected to become Speaker of the House, have agreed to add energy to the existing major committees: education, judiciary, government organization, finance and health. At the very least, such a change would give the folks on the energy committee more time to meet and more resources, such as full-time staffs to help legislators research issues and prepare bills.

Armstead explained the agreement recognizes “energy as critically important, and we take seriously the roles we play in promoting the safety of those involved in the industry as well as protecting the environment, but doing so while protecting and promoting the industry.”

Adjustments to the priorities and thinking of the past several decades will be critical in January and beyond, though with even such a puzzling oversight having become so entrenched, it may take more digging and work than the most cynical among us anticipated.

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