CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gov. Jim Justice announced this week that he is officially reactivating the West Virginia Public Energy Authority (WVPEA). The WVPEA was created by the Legislature with a mission to foster, encourage, and promote the mineral development industry in West Virginia.
The governor made the announcement at the West Virginia Coal Association’s 2021 annual conference.
“One thing we want to try to ensure is that West Virginia will continue to be an energy powerhouse for the entire world,” Justice said. “By reactivating the WVPEA, the State will maintain real time, firsthand knowledge of the status of each power plant, their life cycle, and whether there are concerns of household power supplies being disrupted.”
The WVPEA will also help coordinate the output of merchant plants with capacity needs of regulated plants. Additionally, the authority will assist in developing the next generation of coal plants and long-term energy policies that use all of West Virginia’s resources.
As part of the reactivation, the Governor has appointed all-new membership to the WVPEA:
- Jeff Allen
- Charlie Burd
- Chris Hamilton
- Jeff Herholdt
“In this country today, whether it be coal or gas, our energy industry has been under attack like you can’t imagine. But at the same time, there is more and more demand for electricity globally,” Justice said. “So we surely need to do everything in our power to protect our baseload generation capacity.”
