With a fresh round of winter hitting West Virginians squarely in the face, we thank the Good Lord for his bountiful blessings of coal and gas which he placed in our state to keep our homes at comfortable and healthy temperatures while the extremes of nature rage just outside our doors. Undoubtedly, access to affordable energy sources within homes has prevented innumerable cases of pneumonia and flu since electrification first reached the recesses of our beloved mountain state, especially among infants and the elderly.
Likewise, access to clean, potable water has drastically decreased the prevalence of diseases such as polio, typhoid, and cholera which once ravaged communities. A combination of public water systems serving population centers, better education about sanitation, and improvements in water well designs and technology have all contributed to these positive effects on public health.
For the men who work in all conditions mining the coal, running the power and water plants, climbing down in excavated holes to ensure that our gas and water continue to flow as they should, we deeply appreciate your hard work and sacrifice on a regular basis. Your contributions make modern life possible in the Mountain State.Â
Yet, for many across our state, maintaining a modern quality of life is becoming increasingly burdensome. Billing evidence from constituents and citizens across the state aligns with independent reports stating that the combined cost of water and electricity in West Virginia is at the top of the national rankings. Friends, in a state blessed such as ours, this should not be the case. These increasing utility bills are not the result of scarcity of resources, but the lack of direction and coherent policy for the challenges we face today. The result is a state which is less livable for families, and less competitive for businesses. As prerequesites for economic growth, affordable, reliable, and clean energy and water must be addressed by a coordinated, whole-of-government policy approach at the state level or we will continue to shrink in population and flounder in our efforts to grow our economy. Under the current state of affairs with the laizze-fair legislature and piecemeal policy, the only real winners are mega-utilities such as American Electric Power and American Water. To move forward, this has to change.
Many public water systems were created when West Virginia’s economic reality was significantly different. Assumptions were made about populations which justified major investments in water infrastructure, but as populations and revenues have diminished, many public water systems have struggled to maintain their infrastructure. By the same vein, deferrence to the Public Service Commission to set West Virginia’s energy and utility policies worked much better in the pre-Green New Deal and War on Coal era when utilities were more committed to using our state’s rich energy resources and power generation assets.
In short, the old formulas of the 20th century no longer serve the best interests of our West Virginia families and businesses in 2026. We can no longer assume that utlities and government commissions will set the proper course for energy and utility policy in our state. This is the time for our state to identify and set specific policy targets for affordability and competitiveness which are clearly understood by our citizens. This is the time to coordinate agencies and branches of government toward serving the best interests of our citizens, not lobbyists and lawyers. There is no fundamental reason that West Virgina should have the highest cost of water utilities in the nation. There is also no reason that we should have anything but the lowest cost of electricity among our surrounding states. These failures result from a lack of coordinated vision and policy in recent history, but for every past failure, there is a future opportunity. With sound leadership in energy and utilities, we can obliterate the status quo and pave a new road to prosperity for our West Virginia citizens.
Each year I have served on the Standing Committee for Energy and Public Works, I have gained in understanding of our utility landscape, and the need for a new and clear direction for our state with regard to utilities and energy. This legislative session, along with Delegates Ridenour, Bridges, Holstein, Coop-Gonzalez, and White, I am proud to introduce HB4894, the West Virginia Utility Affordability and Economic Competitiveness Act, which charts a new course for energy and utility policy in West Virginia. HB4894 includes specific policy goals for achieving utility affordability and competitiveness with modernized definitions, a framework for whole-of-government coordination, and a timeline for implementation. Through the provisions in this legislation, we will identify the major contributing factors to our high utility costs and take pro-active measures to address each of them, resulting in reaching or exceeding the following primary policy goals.
The three primary policy goals of HB4894 are:Â
- Reaching the lowest all-in, comprehensive cost of electricity in the contiguous surrounding states by 2030.Â
- Lowering our cost of water ranking from highest in nation to under 75th percentile by 2030.
- Total total combined cost of water and electricity utilities by 25% in inflation-adjusted dollars by 2030.
These specific and achievable goals instill confidence in our citizens that we in the legislature are rightly placing affordable, reliable, and clean energy and water at the top of the list of our state’s priorities, and taking adequate steps to coordinate legislative, regulatory, and budgetary considerations to achieve this vision. Prioritizing these areas makes our state more attractive both from a standard of living perspective as well as for its prospects for economic growth. The included three-year moratorium on all non-emergency rate increases while the plan is undergoing initial development and implementation demonstrates to all parties the sincerity of the legislature toward achieving this vision, while also starting the clock of accountability toward reaching the stated goals within the legislation.
The level of coordination outlined in HB4894 between agencies and branches of government will fundamentally realign the way West Virginia addresses utility policy. We will move from passively enabling corporate interests to actively prioritizing the interests of our people and their families and businesses. By embracing the approach outlined within this legislation, we will give West Virginians what they have been seeking for years–a better deal.
