West Virginia lawmakers tilt at windmills in the face of a clean energy future
The Blue Creek wind farm in Ohio, consists of 152 wind turbines with a total capacity of 304 megawatts. (Robert Zullo | States Newsroom)
The West Virginia Legislature is in session again, and with that comes the to-be-expected rhetoric that puts coal on a pedestal while saying renewable energy is nothing but pixie dust and a fairy tale. A bill to change the tax structure for windmills kicked off this rhetoric for the 2025 session when it was debated in committee last month.
Senate Bill 439 is sponsored by Sen. Chris Rose, R-Monongalia, who secured the Energy, Industry and Mining committee chairmanship in his freshman year in the chamber. It would change a deal made years ago to tax wind turbines at a lower rate. Coal-friendly lawmakers often cry foul that clean energy couldn't survive without tax breaks, saying it's not an even playing field.
When has there ever been a fair field?
Our lawmakers have created an environment where coal is entrenched and supported with government policies that encourage burning the dirty fuel and tax breaks to help. Take for example, the 2019 bailout of Pleasants Power Station. The Legislature has also passed laws to create barriers to close coal-fired power plants, even if utilities want to do that for economic reasons.
I would take their arguments against tax breaks more seriously if they also weren't trying to stop clean energy projects in the first place. Another introduced bill is titled 'Prohibit future wind power projects.' Others would make solar projects harder to build and finance. West Virginians still aren't able to subscribe to community solar programs, which would lower our power bills.
Opponents of solar and wind energy construction often fall back to arguments that the projects will be an eye sore or ruin the natural beauty of the land. More than once, I've heard West Virginia lawmakers specifically say this about the wind turbines that dot the mountains near the Eastern Panhandle.
I wonder if these detractors feel the same way about the coal plants that sit along our state's rivers. When you take into account the damage fossil fuel extraction and burning causes, coal and gas also are getting a much better deal than clean energy.
These coal plants emit tons of toxic pollution into the air every year, not to mention the wastewater they discharge directly into our ponds, rivers and lakes. Coal plants also fill acre after acre with toxic coal ash, much of which is unlined in our state, posing an extreme health risk to our groundwater and public health.
If someone offered to place a new coal-fired power plant in their jurisdiction, I doubt the anti-clean energy lawmakers would put up the same fight, despite coal plants posing more risk and their smog being more of an eye sore.
Everything has risks, and pros and cons. But they're not equal. Windmills and solar panels have to be decommissioned once they reach their useful end of life. But so do coal plants, ultimately. The difference between them is how much risk harm they cause while they operate, and I'll pick the clean energy every time.
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