Governor Justice vetoed House Bill 5528, aiming to increase utility-scale solar project capacity in West Virginia, citing potential harm to the coal industry
“Really and truly, I believe that what is going on from the higher-ups that are incentivized to try and shove coal to the background”
“it is very important that we are careful not to cripple our great coal-fired energy industry in the process”
House Bill 5528 would have lifted the limit on utility-scale solar project size from 50 MW to 100 MW.
coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 89% of West Virginia’s total electricity net generation, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Hydroelectric power and wind energy contributed 7%, and natural gas provided about 4%
0.08% of all electricity in the state comes from solar power