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Sunday, December 22, 2024

Capito Discusses Coal Communities, Revitalization, Economic Development With Wv’s Mike Graney

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Senator Shelley Moore Capito | Official U.S. Senate Headshot

Senator Shelley Moore Capito | Official U.S. Senate Headshot

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On June 21, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in a full committee hearing on the Economic Development Administration (EDA).

During the hearing, Ranking Member Capito discussed the EDA’s work in West Virginia with Mike Graney, Executive Director of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development.

HIGHLIGHTS:

ON ASSISTANCE FOR COAL COMMUNITIES IN WEST VIRGINIA:

RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:

“Mr. Graney, you mentioned in your remarks about the assistance to coal communities program. Certainly we have suffered in West Virginia with the downturn in the coal industry. And that's one of the reasons that I've been particularly supportive, obviously, of this issue. Can you talk a little bit more about that program and how it's been helpful, and maybe what you see for the future of that assistance for coal communities?”

MIKE GRANEY, WV DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

“So, you know, 44 of the 55 counties of West Virginia are coalfield-affected communities, and so it's broad based throughout the state. While there has been a big downturn in the coal economy and a lot of loss of jobs, indeed, the secondary induced and indirect jobs as well have been reduced. So, when we have the opportunity to attract a new business or an expansion of an existing business, and we get assistance from the U.S. EDA, it really helps those communities recover. And while we have a number of communities that are still suffering and will continue until we identify that great opportunity for them…Unique about West Virginians: they'll travel a long way for a job, for a good job. And so what we're finding is that we had the Nucor Steel facility announced in Mason County, West Virginia. We'll have people travel for an hour and a half to a good job like that from southern West Virginia where…coalfield-affected communities are suffering. So having the U.S. EDA support the sewer there is just critically important to make that happen.”

ON BETTER PREPARING SITES IN WEST VIRGINIA TO BE REVITALIZED:

RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:

“The other thing is the site ready portion of this, which I'm exceedingly interested in from West Virginia as we're trying to grow our economy and the developers have done a great job. But we also have areas that have either never been touched or have been touched maybe, you know, outside of a brownfield – Brownfield program really works well in our state for that site development – but for those sites, I could imagine maybe we could use EDA funds, maybe not to build a physical infrastructure, or that would be good, but to at least do some of the prep work that would go in pre-building. Mr. Graney, how do you feel about that?”

MIKE GRANEY, WV DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

“I feel your point exactly. I agree completely. So, flexibility along those lines. You know, West Virginia has recently passed…site legislation to enable the development office to do some preliminary work, but not you know, a lot of earthmoving. But doing the you know, phase one, doing all the NEPA studies, doing archaeological studies, doing some preliminary engineering report work to understand and then understanding what infrastructure might cost water, sewer broadband, roads you have it. At least you'd have that information and you wouldn't have a two-year study period to have to go through that process. You could have referred to it as the ‘lip of the cup’ strategy. All you have to do is tap it in to get it done. And so I think if we can have flexibility using EDA funds to do that work it can be very, very helpful.”

Click HERE to watch Round 1 of Ranking Member Capito’s questions.

Click HERE to watch Round 2 of Ranking Member Capito’s questions.

Click HERE to watch Ranking Member Capito’s opening statement.

Original source can be found here.

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