CHARLESTON, WV (WOAY) – In addition to the previously scheduled September Interim Committee meetings, lawmakers arrive at the state capitol for a special session.
Governor Jim Justice issued a proclamation calling for the session to take place Monday afternoon. In it, two items were being addressed for the legislature to consider.
The first is a “Certified Industrial Business Expansion Development Program” within the Department of Economic Development. Its focus would be on the continued development of high-impact industrial plants in West Virginia that would support renewable electricity sources.
Justice said that while fossil fuel production needs to continue to be embraced, so do the new green energy companies potentially coming into the state.
“You know, we want to embrace our alternative energies, as well,” he says. “We surely don’t want to just make West Virginia a spot where not everyone is welcome, we want West Virginia to be an all-welcoming state.”
The second item on the agenda was a supplemental appropriations bill. It’s a bill that would capitalize on the state’s revenues and investing’s in transportation infrastructure. It would do this through a grant of $150 million to the Division of Highways for secondary road maintenance.
Justice said that the investment will allow for at least two major road projects to be undertaken in each of the 55 counties across the state.
“When I got here we didn’t have any way to even take care of our roads, and we have resurfaced all across this state in every way, we have pulled ditches and fixed slips, and absolutely on and on and on, and we are going to stay at it until absolutely we have the best roads of anyone in the nation,” says Justice.
