Justice

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice said that he put the brakes on an effort that nearly led to a special session Saturday to pass a bill for a proposed economic development project involving renewable energy in southern West Virginia over timing concerns as new lawmakers prepare to take office.

“We got into a situation where we were trying to pound a round peg in a square hole, to tell you the truth,” Justice said Tuesday afternoon on his weekly administration briefing from the State Capitol Building. “We … rushed too much and everything.”

Lawmakers were nearly called into a special session tentatively scheduled for last Saturday to consider one bill making changes to the Certified Industrial Business Expansion Development program in connection with an unnamed project for southern West Virginia.

Senate Bill 4001 created the program in 2022 to encourage new construction or expansion of industrial plants and facilities that also desired to incorporate renewable energy generation into their facilities. Renewable energy projects in these districts would not be subject to approval by the Public Service Commission as far as rates, obtaining a certificate of convenience and necessity, conditions of service or complaints.

The program was created for Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables, which partnered with Precision Castparts Corp. (TIMET) for a new titanium melt facility/solar microgrid project on the site of the former Century Aluminum in Jackson County.

State officials have not named the company involved with the proposed southern West Virginia project, and BHE Renewables has provided no comment to date. But state officials have said the project, which could involve a data center in Logan County powered in part by both renewable and fossil fuel energy, has the potential to be a $30 billion investment.

“When it really boils right down to it, to bring projects to southern West Virginia is tough,” Justice said. “We’ve worked super hard to try to bring as many projects to southern West Virginia as we could. …This one, in my opinion, we were standing there with a tennis racket and somebody was going to toss us a watermelon, and it was pretty easy to hit.”

The draft bill would have increased the number of allowed certified high-impact industrial business development districts from two to as many as six with approval of the Department of Economic Development, though only three districts could be within the same service territory of an investor-owned electric utility in the state.

The proposal would have removed the requirement that certified high-impact industrial business development districts be established on land sold or leased by the state. It would have increased the acreage from 2,250 acres to no greater than 5,000 acres as long as it was large enough to support between 500 megawatts and 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy generation. It would also allow electric-generating units in these districts to be taxed at salvage value for property tax purposes, lower than the fair market value.

According to a statement released Friday night by Brian Abraham, the governor’s chief of staff, the unnamed company approached the Governor’s Office and legislative leadership a few weeks ago about the project and the need for a bill. But lawmakers first became aware of the potential for a special session last Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon, the Governor’s Office confirmed there would be no special session due to the timing of calling a special session after the November elections but before the 2025 regular legislative session. The state Constitution sets the start date for new legislative terms following an election at Dec. 1.

State Code also requires the Secretary of State’s Office to present certified election results to the Legislature at the first immediate session. But the 30-day deadline for county clerks to send certified results to the Secretary of State’s Office was Friday, meaning some would not have gotten to Charleston in time for the proposed special session.

“I think what we got into was a situation to where … people had just been elected, and weren’t seated and all that kind of stuff,” Justice said. “I think the Legislature basically was saying back to us that they weren’t quite ready.”

Justice also said waiting for a bill to be introduced during the regular session of the Legislature beginning Wednesday, Feb. 12, would give state officials time to alleviate concerns from some southern West Virginia lawmakers that the renewable energy facility part of the proposed project could hurt coal mining jobs.

“I wanted to be absolutely, positively certain that we weren’t going to do anything that was going to endanger future coal jobs,” Justice said.

While Abraham’s Friday statement alluded to the possibility that not holding the special session could endanger the project, Justice said Friday he expects the unnamed company can wait for lawmakers to meet in February.

“This company’s not going to leave I don’t think,” Justice said. “I just felt like that it was smart money to just give the powers that be a longer period where the Legislature was more ready, and we could absolutely make sure that there was real participation from the (West Virginia) Coal Association in regard to the project and to make sure that everybody won.”