Kanawha County commissioners continue to deliberate on whether they are going to pass a resolution supporting a federal plan to fund economic development opportunities in West Virginia and other Appalachian states.
The commission first took up the issue of the POWER Plus Plan - a $5 billion plan that would fund numerous local, state and federal agencies to help economic development in Appalachian communities - during last month's meeting, but the commissioners declined to vote on a resolution after a tense discussion.
After hearing from speakers from the West Virginia Coal Association, the United Mine Workers of America and citizens in support of the plan, the commission again tabled any type of vote on the subject Thursday. The commissioners asked the different parties to get together over the next two weeks and draft a compromising resolution that they might be able to vote on.
The lack of a vote in support of the plan comes at a time when commissioners in Wyoming, Lincoln and Fayette counties have passed statements supporting the federal spending plan proposed by President Obama's administration.
The discussion over the resolution also comes two days after Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin announced $7.6 million for workforce retraining programs directed at miners and their families. That funding came from programs that would be boosted by the POWER Plus Plan.
The commission meeting consisted of a confusing back and forth between Bill Raney of the Coal Association, Sam Petsonk, a citizen in support of the federal plan, and commissioners Dave Hardy and Kent Carper.
Raney suggested that the coal industry wouldn't support it for a number of reasons, and Carper and Hardy kept pushing all of the parties to answer how the plan affects Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program funding and UMW pension plans.
Facts and positions on the subject weren't clear during the meeting, but what is known is that the plan would spend $1 billion over the next five years to clean up abandoned strip mines and another $2 billion in tax credits focused on fostering carbon-capture technology for power plants. Another $56 million would go to economic development programs for the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency to help coalfield communities. And it would put $20 million toward the dislocated worker program that Tomblin and U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins celebrated at a news conference Tuesday.
Most of West Virginia's congressional delegation had been weighing whether to support President Obama's plan, though some had resolved to oppose it.
Carper wanted to hear more about he specifics of the plan and where West Virginia's congressional delegation stood on the subject. He said he had not been able to get in contact with U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney to see what his position on the plan was, but he said Jenkins did return his call.
Hardy heavily questioned representatives from the UMWA and the citizens advocating for the plan about the federal financing for it. But he also suggested the federal government owed Appalachian communities if they were going to place regulations on its primary industry, coal.
"If you're going to have policy that plays a role in the demise of an industry - notice I said role, not cause - they need to step up," Hardy said.
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow
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