Every day the West Virginia Senate meets, the agenda includes “Remarks by Members.” Any senator may stand and address the body as they see fit. Senators frequently use this time to advocate for a specific policy proposal, for example.
On Wednesday morning, Sen. Rupie Phillips (R-Logan) took a different approach.
“Mamaw can’t afford it,” he said, referring to the cost of electric bills. “Me and the gentleman from Mingo County represent some of the poorest people in the state.”
“I tried to set up a meeting with someone about trying to lower rates as they consider microgrids,” he said, referring to a bill introduced yesterday by fellow Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
The bill’s title is “The Power Generation and Consumption Act of 2025.”
According to Morrisey, “A microgrid is a self-contained power network that operates separately from the main power grid,” as reported by RealWV yesterday.
“Right now, the West Virginia Code allows for two microgrids throughout the state. Our bill aims to change that, as well as to meet the demands of data centers that are desperate to be connected in order to be closer to the power source.”
West Virginia has been actively lobbying private businesses and federal government officials for a data center for months, according to RealWV this winter.
Data centers require massive amounts of electricity to operate. Morrisey’s bill not only allows microgrids to generate electricity, but it also changes the requirements for coal-fired power plants in West Virginia.
For example, the bill requires utility companies to keep 45 days’ worth of coal on hand at each power plant and to operate at nearly double their current capacity.
Emmett Pepper, Policy Director for Energy Efficient West Virginia, believes the bill will result in higher electricity rates.
“There are two parts of the’microgrids bill,'” he says in a statement to RealWV. “The majority of it is focused on data centers and microgrids. The final five pages are all about ratepayers paying more to fund coal-fired power plants.
“AEP customers have seen their bills double in the past 15 years,” he says. “Those five pages would increase the likelihood that bills keep going up.”
Which brings us back to Senator Phillips’ remarks. “I attempted to schedule a meeting with someone to discuss lowering microgrid rates. Well, the gentleman from New Jersey declined to meet with the group of people I wanted to meet with.
Several senators raised their eyebrows when they heard the comments directed at Gov. Morrisey. He was born in Edison, New Jersey, and ran for Congress in his home state in 2000, finishing fourth out of four primary candidates. A decade later, he relocated to West Virginia and entered politics.
Morrisey’s Communications Director, Alex Lanfranconi, responded on X, saying, “The gentleman from Logan (Phillips) was a Democrat throughout the Obama administration.” If anyone is out of place in the conservative state of West Virginia, it isn’t the governor.”
Drew Galang, Lanfranconi’s deputy in Morrisey, added, “So we’re calling utility lobbyists ‘impoverished voters’ now? “Quite a stretch.”
Phillips concluded his remarks, without identifying who he intended to accompany him to meet with the governor, by saying, “I’m just going down to my office and eat a bologna sandwich.”
HB 2014 has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Public Works.
