By Charles Boothe, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
WASHINGTON, D.C. — By all accounts, a lot is riding for West Virginia on the proposed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which is still being negotiated in Washington.
Besides the $3.5 billion of that money earmarked for state roads and bridges and other infrastructure needs, passage should also lead to more jobs in the area in an industry that needs a shot in the arm.
“If the big infrastructure bill is passed, the metallurgical coal industry is largely going to be the catalyst behind that,” Steve Sarver, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of the Bluestone Corporation, said last week of the need for the coal.
Bluestone and other coal mining operations are owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and his family.
“We mine metallurgical coal to sell to people like U.S. Steel…to make steel to build bridges, to build roads,” he said. “Without the metallurgical coal industry, you could not have an infrastructure bill.”
Sarver said the Justice companies have coke ovens in Birmingham, Ala., and “we’ve owned them for about two years now … and we send the coke to blast furnaces all over America.” …
