Charleston Gazette-Mail – Visions of a more prosperous West Virginia abounded during a virtual news conference Thursday that focused on new findings from an economic and job impact study that made the case for sweeping investments in Appalachian infrastructure. Read the full article.
It’ll take a lot of money and political willpower to make those visions a reality.
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, state House Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, and West Virginia Rivers Coalition Executive Director Angie Rosser were among the speakers to join an author of the study, Robert Pollin of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in advocating for clean energy infrastructure investments.
The analysis released Thursday by the ReImagine Appalachia Coalition and the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy suggests that investing an average $3.6 billion per year in clean energy projects in West Virginia from 2021 to 2030 will generate an average of about 25,000 jobs per year in the state, with total employment creation amounting to about 41,000, including new jobs in construction, sales, engineering and office support.
