Published: July 2, 2018 |

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner participated in a discussion with Mingo County business and education leaders.
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West Virginia Secretary of State Marc Warner said he doesn’t want to “over-promise” a return of coal jobs, but said there are “rudimentary” efforts being made to prop up the industry right now.

Meanwhile, Michelle Christian, mid-Atlantic regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, stressed a need to diversify West Virginia’s economy in the face of coal’s loss.

Christian was visiting different parts of West Virginia this week, meeting with people to establish relationships and to inform business owners of opportunities at the Small Business Administration, including loans and grants.

She held a roundtable discussion Wednesday at Starters in Williamson, which included discussions with Warner and some of Mingo County’s business leaders, elected officials and educators.

Christian touted recently passed tax cuts, which included significant corporate tax breaks, as a sign the economy is bouncing back.

“We are seeing individual’s paychecks are higher. We had a couple yesterday handing out $1,500 bonuses based solely on the tax cuts,” she said.

Warner said he’s also been working with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on a plan to subsidize the coal industry in the name of national security. Bailing out coal plants will provide an energy source to fall back on if terrorists were ever to attack the nation’s power grid, he said.

Warner met with Justice this week, who laid out step-by-step the current situation of the coal economy in West Virginia and the challenges it faces, he said.

Justice provided U.S. President Donald Trump with a one-page piece of paper, outlining those challenges and proposing a new policy, Warner said. The policy would subsidize coal companies, but Warner did not say which companies would benefit from the proposed policy.

Justice outlined several different phases of a plan going forward, he said. Warner said it’s too early in the proposed plan to determine what phase we are currently in.

“It’s still very rudimentary,” he said.

Christian said barriers to operate coal plants are also decreasing as the Trump administration is seeking to remove regulations, particularly ones set forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency setting limits regarding carbon pollution.

“Our goal is for every new rule, we eliminate two,” she said.

Those in attendance stressed the need for new types of jobs to come to Mingo County. The federal leaders agreed tourism is a good place to start.

Christian said the state is full of untapped potential with its natural scenic beauty. She pointed to efforts in Gilbert, which has embraced tourism from the Hatfield and McCoy Trails, as a model for other communities.

Gilbert Mayor Vivian Livingood said her small community successfully bounced back from the decline of coal jobs, thanks to the trails and community’s annual Trail Fest. Dozens of rental businesses have sprung up in recent years.

“Every time a house goes on the market, you got two or three people trying to buy it to convert it into rental cabins,” Livingood said.

Source: Williamson Daily News

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