HUNTINGTON – Infrastructure is tough to define but easy to understand: At its core, infrastructure is the complicated systems and networks that we all use every day that make modern life possible. We all need them, and so we build them together so we can all benefit from them.
While the infrastructure negotiations in Washington might have pivoted to include a broader group of negotiators, West Virginia’s senators, Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito, deserve recognition for the progress and achievements made toward striking a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Their work brings hope that Congress can come together to address the challenges facing our country.
Energy is precisely the kind of infrastructure Americans want our leaders to invest in. Why? Gas prices at a seven-year high is a strong reminder that making pipelines more secure is a worthwhile investment. West Virginia prides itself on being a national energy leader. However, the average customer across our state experienced more than 7.5 hours of power outages in 2019, compared to those in Arizona and North Dakota, who experienced less than an hour during the same year.
Grid reliability issues have posed an increasingly serious threat to homes and businesses across the state, and the need for more stability and resiliency in our energy infrastructure hit close to home last winter, when the ice storms from the polar vortex left more than 97,000 West Virginians suffering without power because of energy transmission failures. The energy resources, generation facilities and transmission and distribution lines Americans rely on for power play just as critical a role in our economy as our nation’s roads, bridges and transit systems.
Any discussion of building a 21st-century America must include robust investments in American energy infrastructure — which supports a commonsense, achievable approach to our transition to reliable, low-emissions energy resources while protecting affordability.
Under Capito’s leadership, the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works’ recent unanimous passage of the surface transportation infrastructure reauthorization bill is setting the standard for bipartisan negotiations in the broader infrastructure debate. The Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act takes meaningful steps to repair our country’s crumbling roads and bridges, creates jobs, simplifies the permitting process and recognizes the realities of a changing climate as we modernize our nation’s infrastructure.
This product is the result of months of good-faith negotiations, and it is further proof that a bipartisan infrastructure deal is possible. It also could be the anchor of a larger infrastructure package as we move forward.
Setting transportation infrastructure funding at a historic high of $303.5 billion, the new bill received unanimous approval by the EPW Committee as it invests billions of dollars in reducing carbon emissions from the transportation sector, building out and improving America’s electric-vehicle charging capacity, streamlining the process for vital projects to become shovel-ready and advancing energy efficiency and alternative fuels, among other key priorities.
Make no mistake, West Virginia and other largely rural states are counting on Congress to maintain an all-of-the-above approach to investing in clean energy and innovation to address our infrastructure needs. Prioritizing funding for states to continue incorporating emerging clean energy resources and carbon-capture technologies will help make the electric grid more reliable for local communities and offer long-term workforce sustainability to energy-dependent economies.
In the past year, West Virginia’s leaders have recognized the economic importance of the state’s diverse energy portfolio and need for the all-of-the-above energy strategy as a fundamental investment for infrastructure and innovation. Gov. Jim Justice’s proclamation and the recent adoption of West Virginia House Resolution 14 and Senate Resolution 35 acknowledges that there is a bipartisan consensus that the clean energy industry — wind, solar, hydro power, nuclear, clean coal technology, natural gas and energy storage — can continue to expand and diversify the state’s economy.
West Virginians know what infrastructure is, and they know energy is central. Infrastructure affects everyone; everyone agrees that it needs to be repaired, and everyone should have a stake in its success. Our state’s steadfast senators rightly recognize the need for all-of-the-above energy infrastructure investments, carbon-capture advancements, climate resiliency and permitting reform as part of America’s core, physical infrastructure.
These investments are critical, because American energy is American infrastructure — there is no separating the two. As the pressure to abandon the opportunity for bipartisanship, in favor of partisan paths increases, history has shown us that West Virginia’s senators’ commitment to bipartisanship will continue to lead the way.
Bissett is president and CEO of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. Reams is the executive director of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.