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I have spent much of my public-career dedicated to bettering West Virginia's economy, by working to create an atmosphere that is environmentally and business friendly to encourage the industrial diversification and job growth our state, and our great nation, so desperately needs.
The former White House administration instituted a unique Intergovernmental Affairs, bi-partisan, open-door policy related to needs of all elected local and state officials to have direct access to White House cabinet officials about special needs in mid-2017. I was then a county commissioner and via this business-like approach to working for solutions, I requested their support to build the I-68 Energy Corridor from I-79 near Morgantown westward to I-77 near Caldwell, Ohio, and eventually to I-71 south of Columbus. This support included four White House meetings, plus meetings with the US DOT, US DOE, and US DOC, also in Washington. This supportive partnership spanned from October of 2017, until all communications were severed on January 20, 2021, following the inauguration.
President Biden stated during his inaugural address, "I pledge to be a President who seeks not to divide, but to unify, who doesn't see Red and Blue states, but a United States," which I hope includes continuing building on the strong foundation achieved over three years of my team's White House partnership.
Right now, West Virginians and all other Americans should take action and express their opposition to the Biden administration's early extreme, radical policy changes that severely damage our great nations economic future. The attacks on energy have created an unpredictable and hostile federal regulatory environment that will impede our ability to continue to maintain and build the needed infrastructure like the ethane storage hub.
US DOT Bureau of Transportation "2019 (USA) Oil and Gas Pipeline Mileage" study claims Oil pipeline total of 224,903 miles, plus Gas pipeline total of 1,638,710 miles. Biden's "anti-onshore energy independence" executive order to suspend oil and gas leasing on federal lands and to scuttle the Keystone XL energy pipeline, set a new policy tone that threaten our state's, our region's, and our nation's longstanding leadership in generating abundant and affordable energy. Illogically and ironically these new restrictions harm the global environment more, not less, than producing energy in the USA and Canada. This harmful action forces the USA to go back to being more dependent on undependable hostile nations. Additionally, going offshore creates a much bigger worldwide carbon footprint, at a much higher consumer energy cost burden, caused by transporting energy from the far corners of the globe. USA energy/manufacturing is the cleaner option.
Current known alternate power sources like wind, solar, hydro, etc. being implemented and researched are not yet reliable, nor cost competitive enough, to cover our needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These alternate power sources are also natural resource intensive, require rare earth elements available only in needed quantities, need traditional fossil fuels and petrochemicals to make the seemingly earth friendly end products, and lack affordable storage battery technology.
US Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Joe Manchin and Rep. David McKinley, all leading major Senate and House related committees, know this to be true, and we applaud their leadership in asking Biden to reconsider his early executive orders targeting energy, infrastructure, and jobs. If we see more extremely anti-American energy actions like these from the Biden Administration, West Virginia's ambitious plans to become an energy powerhouse may well be thwarted.
Further, the actions could play havoc with efforts to encourage business growth along the Ohio River Valley by enticing investments in new ethylene or polyethylene projects in the region.
For all West Virginians, anti-energy actions will lead to higher energy prices that will jeopardize our lasting economic rebound from COVID-19. They also will trigger lost local and state tax revenues.
The White House contends the actions will help protect and improve our environment. The administration does not acknowledge nor seem to care that we have the best environmental laws, regulations, and environmental results of any nation on earth. How we do it matters. Good policies are born by consensus, and good environmental policies are no exception. We must take a common-sense approach for day-to-day needs of ordinary folks. Partisan policies almost always leave regular people behind.
Choking one of West Virginia's great economic strengths is a roundabout way of choking our people's chances to enjoy a stable economy. Political promises of good-paying jobs from the future are no match for real jobs that put food on the table today. I hope the Biden Administration returns to his inaugural promise to unify by working with all Americans, re-evaluate, and retract destructive new policies.
Bob Miller, former Marshall County commissioner, is executive director of the West Virginia Route 2/I-68 Authority.