Morrisey is one of two governors not participating in a coalition of governors working to make a 13-state power grid more affordable and reliable. Morrisey said he’s working “strategically” to put West Virginia first.
by Sarah Elbeshbishi for Mountain State Spotlight
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In September, a bipartisan group of governors in states sharing a regional power grid with West Virginia launched an initiative to address the rapidly increasing power costs facing their states.
PJM Interconnection operates the electric grid and plans the movement of electricity to meet demand across 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Of the 13 governors representing states served by PJM, only West Virginia’s Patrick Morrissey and Andy Beshear of Kentucky did not join the initiative, dubbed the PJM Governors Collaborative.
But West Virginians have one of the fastest-rising customer electricity rates in the country.
“People are choosing between food, medicine and utilities. When did utilities become a luxury in this state?” Raleigh County resident Lea Ann Mullins asked the West Virginia Public Service Commission earlier this year.
Mullins’ comment was one of the more than 5,000 letters of protest submitted by residents to the PSC in response to a rate hike request in the past year by one of the state’s power providers.
The state’s continued reliance on coal, even as cheaper alternative energy sources have emerged, has contributed to the soaring electricity prices facing West Virginians. And the state’s declining population has exacerbated those increased costs.
West Virginians aren’t the only ones struggling to keep up with the rising cost of electricity. Ratepayers in surrounding states — Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia are also seeing sharp increases in power costs. This is largely driven by the recent explosion of artificial intelligence and data centers.
Through the PJM Governors Collaborative, the 11 participating state leaders plan to advocate and push reforms that ensure PJM can reliably meet the region’s growing energy demand in addition to addressing the rapidly rising cost of electricity.
When asked about the PJM Governors Collaborative during a press conference Tuesday, Morrisey didn’t answer why he didn’t sign on, but said that “sometimes you approach things strategically in order to put your citizens and your state first, and that’s certainly what we’re doing in our relationship with the other states and with PJM.”
He also pointed to his energy plan to increase West Virginia’s power generation capacity from 15 gigawatts to 50 by 2050, which heavily relies on increasing nonrenewable energy sources. To meet this goal, the state would need to triple the 11.7 gigawatts of generation capacity it added from the 1960s to late 1970s when seven coal-fired power plants were built in West Virginia.
“We know that West Virginia is going to play a very strong, if not dominant role, within PJM because we have the ability to provide the energy resources and turn that into the electricity we need to become an even greater exporter of electricity,” Morrisey added.
In a joint letter of intent, the participating governors said that one of their main purposes is to increase state and consumer representation in PJM’s decision-making process.
In a July letter to PJM administrators, eight governors who are part of the Collaborative and Beshear called on the operator to make fundamental and leadership changes to “restore confidence in PJM’s ability to meet the many challenges of this moment,” which include “reliability and affordability crises.”
In the meantime, the rising power costs continue to be a growing burden for residents across the region.
Linda Billings of Mercer County told West Virginia commissioners in a May email that the “extra comes out of my grocery money” each time they approve a power rate increase.
She added, “So far I am down to $200 per month. Another increase would mean we have to start taking money away from prescriptions.”
