WV environmentalists condemn Gov. Justice for fossil fuel-favoring energy appointments following sobering climate change report

The second message came from Gov. Jim Justice.

“In the country today, again, whether it be coal, oil or gas, our energy industry is under attack,” Justice said, reading at a news briefing on the state’s COVID-19 response from a press release his office released Saturday announcing his reactivation of a potentially powerful state board that had been dormant for the past decade in an effort to foster fossil fuel development.

Justice, a coal magnate whose companies have been assessed millions of dollars for environmental violations, added that he also wanted to embrace renewable energy sources.

That would help fend off what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report warned will be “unprecedented” weather events with additional global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions driven chiefly in the United States by fossil fuel combustion.

But environmentalists view Justice’s latest moves as signals that he is kowtowing to the coal industry rather than taking climate change seriously.

Justice’s reactivation of the Public Energy Authority board included his appointment of a former West Virginia Coal Association director, Jeffery W. Allen, as the board’s statutorily required environmental advocate in a move that may have violated state code. That selection followed his appointment of longtime former West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney to the state Public Service Commission last week.

West Virginia Environmental Council President Linda Frame called those moves along with his appointments of West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton and Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia Executive Director Charlie Burd to the Public Energy Authority as “incredibly disappointing and a missed opportunity.”

“Sadly, West Virginia will once again sit back and watch the rest of the world go by instead of embracing the economic and environmental benefits of a transition away from these polluting industries which are major contributors to climate change,” Frame said.

State code gives the Public Energy Authority broad powers that include buying, leasing and issuing bonds to build electric power or natural gas transmission projects, and representing the state regarding “national initiatives” and “international marketing activities” that concern the mineral development industry.

The authority has the power to enter into management contracts with second parties to operate any electric power, gas transmission or other related energy project, either during construction or permanent operation. It can finance electric power or natural gas transmission projects by making secured loans to provide funds to buy or build those projects. It can also take property through eminent domain.

Justice’s reactivation of the Public Energy Authority came three days after the Public Service Commission drew the ire of environmentalists by approving a request by Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power to implement and recover costs through a surcharge for environmental upgrades at the John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell coal-fired generating plants in Putnam, Mason and Marshall counties federally required to keep the facilities operating through 2040 instead of retiring them early.

Vernon Haltom, executive director of Coal River Mountain Watch, a Raleigh County-based nonprofit that opposes mountaintop removal and other mining practices, condemned the Public Service Commission decision and Justice’s appointments.

“[T]here’s no doubt that the foxes are in charge of the henhouse,” Haltom said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released Monday shows that for 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming, there will be increasing heat waves, longer warm seasons and shorter cold seasons, with climate change further intensifying rainfall in the eastern United States.

But the report finds that limiting warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius or even 2 degrees Celsius will be out of reach unless there are immediate and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

“This report is a reality check,” Valérie Masson-Delmotte, co-chair of the working group responsible for the report, said in a press release accompanying the report, which was approved by 195 member governments of the panel Friday. “We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare.”

Burning fossil fuel for energy accounted for 74% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and 92% of total U.S. human-caused carbon dioxide emissions in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

West Virginia’s per capita energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were third-highest in the country in 2018 and decreased less than 14% from 1990 to 2018, according to a Charleston Gazette-Mail analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration data. That’s a greater decline than only 14 other states.

Coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 91% of West Virginia’s electricity net generation in 2019. But coal accounted for just 23% of the nation’s net electricity generation overall that year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The fates of the Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell plants remain unclear given that they also rest partly on other states’ utility regulators.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission last month rejected a request by Kentucky Power, another American Electric Power subsidiary and 50% owner of the Mitchell plant, to implement and recover costs for the environmental upgrades federally required to keep the Mitchell plant operational past 2028.

Appalachian Power has also sought approval from the Virginia State Corporation Commission for approval of environmental upgrades at the Amos and Mountaineer plants. A decision from Virginia regulators on Appalachian Power’s request is due on Aug. 23.

In a report filed with Virginia state utility regulators last month, senior hearing examiner A. Ann Berkebile recommended that regulators deny Appalachian Power’s request for approval to incur and recover costs of complying with federal wastewater guidelines at the Mountaineer and Amos plants.

The State Corporation Commission’s jurisdiction applies when Virginia ratepayers are asked to pay their portion of operation, maintenance and electric output costs of facilities to serve Virginia customers.

Karan Ireland, Central Appalachia senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club, fears that the newly reformed Public Energy Authority may buy uneconomic plants to keep them from going out of business, saddling ratepayers with the costs.

“Our neighboring states are rejecting bad deals for their residents, and that’s what we should be doing,” Ireland said.

The average monthly residential bill (as measured by the residential rate for 1,000 kilowatt-hours) for American Electric Power’s West Virginia utilities escalated from $55.28 in 2006 to $138.57 in 2021 — an increase of 150% over 15 years.

“West Virginia can’t force other states or countries to buy our coal and gas, or turn a blind eye toward cheaper and growing demand renewable energy, but it can drive up our electricity bills by rigging the rules in favor of fossil fuels so we pay more for electricity,” Ted Boettner, senior researcher with the nonprofit think tank Ohio River Valley Institute, argued. “This will lead to a weaker economy and do nothing to address the climate crisis.”