MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Natural gas looks to be a significant contributor in the coming years as the power grid expands to meet Governor Morrisey’s goal of growing electricity production to 50 gigawatts by 2050.
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Charlie Burd, the executive director of the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia said the largely untapped capacity is ready to be leveraged to increase production and reduce utility rates. In recent months, construction plans for at least three natural gas-fired power plants have been announced, and another remains in the development stage.
“We produce lots of natural gas to fuel these plants, and we’re really ready and waiting to help the governor achieve his goal of 50 X 50,” Burd said.
On a broader scale, West Virginia is the 5th largest natural gas producer in the country, and currently 90 percent of the product is transported beyond our borders. The state sits on the 3rd largest natural gas reserves and maintains one of the largest underground storage capacities in the country, all within about a day’s drive of half of the United States population.
“We store about six percent of all the nations’ natural gas right here in the state,” Burd said. “There is capacity for 533 billion cubic feet of natural gas we can store and have in reserve—this is why we are so ready to be the fuel choice for future power production in the state.”
The industry currently supports more than 80,000 jobs, and that number will increase as progress toward the governor’s goal of expanding the power grid continues. First Energy has plans to add 1.2 gigawatts in capacity at a site to be named in Harrison County, 625 megawatts at the Wolf Summit facility in Clarksburg, and the CPV Shea Doddridge County facility expected to produce 2 gigawatts are all under construction or starting soon. Another 1,200-megawatt natural gas-fired plant is being proposed by Longview Power in Monongalia County.
“Thousands of jobs that come with these construction projects,” Burd said. “FirstEnergy alone is 3,200 jobs at peak, and the Wolf Summit project will create several hundred.”
Burd said as more plants come online and more is consumed, he believes the commodity price and utility bills for consumers will each fall.
“We believe, and I believe, statistics will point out that the more you use and the more you produce, the cheaper the commodity price becomes,” Burd said. “And that has been proven in other areas of the state and country.”
The future growth of natural gas consumption will be driven by these natural gas-fired power generation facilities in years to come. Burd expects the state to benefit from the expansion of power demand created by AI and data centers.
“Every MCF of natural gas we produce and sell equates to severance taxes for the state to the general revenue fund,” Burd said. “Those general revenue funds are used to fund all the programs that all citizens of the state benefit from.”