Yes, we can have good jobs and a healthy environment.
Our young people deserve both.
Our New Economy, Our Youth
Young West Virginians continue to leave our state for jobs elsewhere. Conventional wisdom is that we don’t have enough jobs for college educated young people. While that might be true, it’s not the main cause of the youth exodus. It’s the state’s failure to train workers of all kinds for today’s modern workforce.
Companies already in West Virginia can’t find electricians, HVAC technicians, solar installers, and other positions to grow their businesses because Charleston won’t invest in training programs for jobs supporting the new energy economy. Good jobs that pay living wages.
And there are companies who say they would move to West Virginia in a heartbeat if the state could supply the workers and clear political roadblocks to clean energy jobs. West Virginia has the second lowest workforce participation in the U.S. Let’s put people to work and keep our kids here where they want to be.
Orphaned Gas Wells
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. In West Virginia, it leaks from unplugged natural gas wells that no longer operate. These “orphaned wells” are left to spew unspent fuel into our air because we allow companies to walk away from their responsibility to plug the wells.
How do they get away with this? Companies put up a $5,000 bond to operate a well; it’s a kind of promise to plug it when they’re done. The problem is it costs about $125,000 to seal a natural gas well. So companies just walk away.
Each year in the WV legislature, bills are introduced to fix this problem. In 2024, bills were offered to solve this by making gas operators either:
- (1) contribute to a plugging escrow fund from out of the cash flow produced by the well, or
- (2) posting a bond in an amount set by the DEP sufficient to cover the real cost of plugging.
Once again, nothing happened. It’s not fair, and everyone knows this. We need leaders who will Fix It.
