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WV: We Make Megawatts · Commentary - TJ Meadows

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Metro News text line three oh four Talk three
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: oh four can be raw, unfiltered and brutally honest. That's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: part of the fun. But every now and then somebody
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: fires off a take that's just flat out wrong. Case
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  Speaker 1: in point, a text came in on Friday while we
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  Speaker 1: were talking with State Energy Office Director Nick Preservati. It said, quote,
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  Speaker 1: We're spending millions in West Virginia and the cheap gas
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  Speaker 1: power goes to other states while we get nothing. Fantastic
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  Speaker 1: end quote good radio sure accurate, not even close. Here's
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  Speaker 1: the reality. The new six hundred megawatt natural gas planned
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  Speaker 1: for Harrison County is not a taxpayer funded project. Blackstone
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  Speaker 1: Energy is spending one point two billion with a be
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of its own money. That's construction jobs, permanent jobs, and
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  Speaker 1: long term investment flowing into a county that needs it.
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  Speaker 1: Second claim, cheap gas and cheap power go to other states.
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  Speaker 1: West Virgia already exports raw natural gas with almost no
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  Speaker 1: in state value. Add a power plant helps fix that.
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  Speaker 1: Turning our gas into electricity here at home means more
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  Speaker 1: demand for West Virginia gas, more severance taxes, and a
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  Speaker 1: larger economic base. Now, yes, the electricity will be sold
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  Speaker 1: out of state. It's already contracted to serve data centers
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  Speaker 1: for Old Dominion Electric Cooperative in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not a downside. That's the business model. It's
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  Speaker 1: called a merchant plant. It's privately owned, so rapepayers aren't
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  Speaker 1: on the hook. We get the jobs, the taxes, and
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  Speaker 1: the upstream benefits without the financial risk. And here's why
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  Speaker 1: Blackstone is doing it. Electricity demand is taking off after
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  Speaker 1: years of decline. Federal energy forecasters project US usage will
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: grow more than thirty percent by twenty forty five. Data centers,
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  Speaker 1: manufacturing electrification, it's all driving massive new life. We don't
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  Speaker 1: make many consumer products here in West Virginia. We don't
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  Speaker 1: build cars or microchips, but we do make energy and
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: merchant plants. Let us sell a finished product electricity instead
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  Speaker 1: of shipping raw fuel out for someone else to profit from.
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  Speaker 1: This is one of the most realistic, scalable economic paths
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  Speaker 1: our state has. So before you fire off that next text,
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  Speaker 1: understand the opportunity in front of us. We need more
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  Speaker 1: merchant plants, not fewer, and we need them here West Virginia.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: We make megawatts. Put that on a bumper. Sticker,