West Virginia Gov. Morrisey on coal investment

In that range. Natural gas provides about 43% of US electricity, with the rest rounded out by nuclear and renewables. So coal is down. Is this about saving coal or what's left of it? Look, I think there's going to be a real role for all of the above for coal to still have extension of its useful life because the power demand is insatiable. We're talking about the amount--

You mean data centers and things for AI. Yeah, for technology, for AI. You're going to need coal to be extended significantly. You need a lot of gas. You're going to need a lot of nuclear, other forms of energy. So I think that we have to be thinking this way. So I think today is just necessary to make sure that we're doing everything we can with a variety of energy forms. And, by the way, helps out West Virginia because as we're growing-- and we're very ambitious in terms of our energy goals to get to 50 gigawatts of energy by 2050. Coal is still going to play a big role. 12.9 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants now. That can go up a lot because it's part of the portfolio we need. Americans, I think, when they imagine coal, they imagine a time in America when that was a very large job-generating industry. I've got some numbers here. I focused on January 1990 because that's when I came to Washington. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 136,100 Americans were coal miners or in the coal industry. Let's go to January 2, 2017, when Trump was inaugurated, first term. The number was 50,800. Now, March of 2026, that number is 38,200. What does that tell you about these trajectories and the jobs available with this new investment?

Well, a couple of things. First, I served as attorney general in West Virginia for 12 years, and for eight of those years, I had to lead a lot of the fights battling against the Obama administration and the Biden administration.

Because they were hostile to fossil fuels, specifically coal. They were incredibly hostile, and they played a major role in that diminution, the numbers you're talking about. But, look, the reality is we are in a new world right now, that the demand for energy is so vast that if we don't take advantage of coal, gas, nuclear, and all these forms, we're going to be in a very difficult position vis-a-vis China. And that's what worries me. They're building one coal-fired power plant after another in China, and so we'd be foolish to not be maintaining or growing not only in coal but these other forms of energy as well because that's who's going to win the next international fight. It's going to be who has the energy resources that are needed to fuel up those fights.

And these funds are coming from an allocation through the Defense Production Act, which, historically, has been used for dire emergencies. What's the dire emergency, Governor? Look, I think that if America doesn't sustain its growth in terms of not only American energy independence but energy dominance, we're going to be in a very dire position against China. This is what worries me. When I say what keeps me up at night, I worry about the hardworking West Virginians, making sure that they have good jobs, that there's clean water. But I also look out into the future, and I see what China is doing, and China is producing far more energy than the United States every single year. We can't let them get ahead. This is America's strength, and that's why coal has to be an important part of that mix. Very quickly, I want to give you a chance to respond to what Public Citizen said about this. They're hostile to this and said, "Abusing emergency authorities"-- that's a reference to the Defense Production Act-- "to justify subsidies for coal is a waste of taxpayer dollars and a clear giveaway to an absurdly outdated, expensive, and dirty fossil fuel." Look, I mean, these are the same people that were promoting the Green New Deal and all the efforts that had actually really harmed--

In renewables. --the country. Not just in renewables but they were hell bent on eliminating all use of coal and natural gas. They were trying to call everything they were doing dirty. Yet if you look at what fueled up the fight in World War I and World War II and what's going to fuel up the ability to fight into the future with AI technology, coal is going to be necessary. So this is wrongheaded on their part. It's a national security concern, and people better start paying attention to it.

West Virginia Republican Governor Patrick Morrisey, I appreciate the time. Governor, thank you.