West Virginia's Energy Future
At the end of this tumultuous and historic year, West Virginia’s electric utilities will publish plans showing the resources that they intend to use to generate electricity for West Virginians over at least the next decade.
In anticipation of those plans, this report regarding West Virginia’s Energy Future shares the following findings based on almost a year of research, economic modeling, debate, and expert feedback:
- For at least five reasons, our electric utilities urgently need to consider a major ramping up of renewable energy and energy efficiency that begins today.
- A major ramping up of renewable energy and energy efficiency in West Virginia over the next fifteen years would be cost-competitive versus our current trajectory of continued dependence on coal — while also delivering important additional benefits.
- West Virginia’s ramping up of renewable energy and energy efficiency should be complemented with a federal reinvestment in miners, coal communities, and our new energy economy.
- We can make the ramping up of renewable energy and energy efficiency in West Virginia work for everyone, including customers, current power plant workers and their communities, and our electric utilities.