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CHARLESTON, WV - Gov. Jim Justice has developed a new
revolutionary plan to put tens of thousands of coal miners back to work in
West Virginia and across Appalachia while providing a critical addition to
national security and the stabilization of the Eastern Seaboard's power grid.
Gov. Justice has met with President Donald Trump and has presented his plan,
that calls for $4.5 billion annually in federal funding to power companies
that burn steam coal mined in Northern and Central Appalachia. The incentive
would guarantee that Eastern coal would be available to keep the power grid
up and operational in the event of any type of emergency shutdown that would
impact power plants utilizing natural gas or coal produced in other areas of
the country.
"Keeping our Eastern coalfields and our miners working is critical to
national security," Gov. Justice. "All it is going to take to shut
the power grid down to the entire Eastern half of the country is a bomb being
placed at a key natural gas pipeline or on a major highway artery to the
West. Chaos would ensue, just look at the mayhem that took place in New York
a few years back when the grid shutdown for a night. Think about what would
happen if the power grid was shutdown for 60 to 90 days in the dead of
winter. We could lose hundreds of thousands of people."
"I'm working as hard as I can for West Virginia and its people to
continue to provide the coal that keeps the lights on in our country,"
Gov. Justice added. "When the power grid gets compromised the coal from
Appalachia can be trucked to our power plants so they can be put back on line
as quickly as possible. If we don't do this and protect our Eastern
coalfields we will be putting the country at great risk. We should not be
willing to gamble and roll that dice, I'm not."
"In the world we live in today, unfortunately, what I'm talking about here
isn't far-fetched, people need to awaken to what could happen. It's a matter
of being prepared," said Gov. Justice.
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