Mike Tony

On Nov. 13, 2025, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office put out a news release claiming billions of dollars in private-sector energy investments, listing as a “Key Announcement” $1.44 billion in coal plant life extensions. The $1.44 billion figure was listed alongside other funding commitments, by far the largest a FirstEnergy-proposed $2.5 billion natural gas plant project that has drawn the ire of ratepayer advocates due to the rate hike request and assumption of area data center development behind the plan. But in a speech in Parkersburg the same day as his office put out the news release, Morrisey clarified that the $1.44 billion wasn’t secured by his administration. It was merely sought instead – from the Trump administration via the Department of Energy. Morrisey said West Virginia had “just recently” applied to the DOE to request up to $1.4 billion to extend the “reasonable, useful life” of coal-fired plants to 2045 or 2050 – beyond the 2040 date given as the latest plant end-of-life estimate among West Virginia’s utility-owned coal-fired plant fleet. “That’s incredible,” Morrisey said. “Gas, coal and nuclear. We’re working on nuclear as well. This is West Virginia’s comeback.” But the Governor’s Office denied a May 29, 2026 Gazette-Mail Freedom of Information Act request for any records in which state personnel identify any of the coal plant refurbishment projects cited in its Nov. 13, 2025 news release.

There’s Data Center World, and then there’s the data center world that West Virginians live in. The chasm between the two was underscored by recent West Virginia legislative panel meetings at which state lawmakers painted a much rosier data center landscape than the one that local residents have voiced fears about at community meetings throughout the state in recent weeks. Legislators from the state House of Delegates at House committee meetings in May 2026 reported on what they learned as visitors to the annual Data Center World industry gathering in April 2026 in Washington, D.C., where the four-day conference, boasting what its website called “the premier gathering of the world’s leading operators, technologists, utilities, and innovators,” focused on the industry, in the exhibition’s own words, “scaling at speeds once unimaginable.”

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has proposed disposal deadlines and stipulated penalties to crack down on a Huntington steel mill operator that has failed to properly label and struggled to get rid of radioactive dust. The DEP has made public a proposed consent order issued by its Division of Water and Waste Management to Steel of West Virginia, Inc., which generates “baghouse dust,” emission control dust and sludge from making steel in electric furnaces. The order issued on May 14, 2026 would require Steel of West Virginia to dispose of baghouse dust showing radioactivity at out-of-state hazardous waste management sites by Oct. 31, 2026, report on its disposal progress and pay daily penalties of up to $1,500 per day for any order noncompliance.

The toxic legacy left behind decades ago by the coal mining industry in one of the nation’s most environmentally aggrieved communities is deepening as federal regulators pursue another multimillion-dollar contamination cleanup plan. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has released a plan to lower risks linked to contaminated soil and sediment at the EPA’s Superfund site in the Fayette County community of Minden. The EPA aims to prevent exposure via inhalation, skin contact or ingestion to polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, in soil through a proposed $4.44 million plan to excavate contaminated soils and sediment above planned preliminary cleanup levels of 1 part per million, dispose of contaminated soil and sediment at an approved offsite disposal facility and backfill with clean fill as needed.

West Virginia lawmakers had many questions about how or whether they could keep regional data center growth from sending electric bills soaring. Members of the Joint Standing Judiciary Committee complained throughout their interim legislative session meeting at Canaan Valley Resort State Park on June 15, 2026 about the potential for higher utility rates to result from proposed interstate transmission lines planned to cross West Virginia and meet an expected rise in data center electric power demand inside and outside the state. And they questioned their meeting’s witnesses – representatives of the state Public Service Commission, American Electric Power and FirstEnergy about how they could offer ratepayer relief amid proliferating data center development.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey may have gotten his wires crossed with thousands of West Virginians when it comes to making power moves on their behalf. Morrisey in 2025 announced a fossil fuel-led 25-year energy policy that aims to more than triple the state’s power generation capacity. The plan calls for a fossil fuel-led effort in West Virginia to help the United States compete with more prolifically power-producing China and meet an expected sharp rise in national energy demand. Morrisey set a goal for West Virginia to increase its current, roughly 15-gigawatt capacity to 50 gigawatts by 2050. But whether coal-fired-power-dependent West Virginia veers further off the path of most of the rest of the globe is taking to transition to cleaner, cheaper energy sources or eventually prioritizes renewable resources, it’ll have to reckon with the same problem as states with more sustainable energy portfolios. That problem is a shortage of high-voltage transmission lines, which has declined for much of this century amid steep costs of permitting and allocating among consumers, disjointed state regulations, interconnection backlogs and supply-chain constraints.

West Virginia officials have told the developer of a controversial planned data center complex project spanning Tucker and Grant counties it appears to be violating a key state statute for large-scale data center projects. But the developer has responded by denying that it’s violating the statute, setting up a showdown poised to test West Virginia’s ability to enforce regulations for data center projects that have become lightning rods in communities throughout the state. The West Virginia Department of Commerce in a letter dated Thursday told Purcellville, Virginia-based Fundamental Data LLC “it appears that” the company is violating a state rule finalized in April 2026 requiring developers to seek certification from the state as a “High Impact” data center by petitioning the agency via an application containing key, basic details about the project within 30 days after they become aware that they will satisfy the definition of such a project.

Updated West Virginia officials have told the developer of a controversial planned data center complex project spanning Tucker and Grant

Updated West Virginia officials have told the developer of a controversial planned data center complex project spanning Tucker and Grant

Robert Portz has been named vice president of operations and engineering to oversee facility operations and development of a new coal conversion plant along the Ohio River north of Point Pleasant being built by Frontieras.