House Bill 2014 that is currently being considered by the West Virginia House of Delegates hands over almost all decision-making about data centers and microgrids to the state, while shutting out the local communities that will have to live with the consequences. In the interest of West Virginia’s rural communities, it should be quickly defeated.

Industrial development may bring new jobs to a community. it may also harm existing business and subsequently result in the loss of existing jobs.

The locations chosen for these new power plants and massive data centers will almost certainly be in our more rural areas, partly because the human cost of air and water quality deterioration is less in rural areas, but also because small rural communities largely lack the political and economic power to have much of a say in such decisions.

This proposed legislation institutionalizes such rural disadvantage, and continues West Virginia’s long history of sacrificing the interests of its rural citizens to those of powerful out-of-state corporations.

The proposed power plant and data center in Tucker County is a case in point. The county’s economy is largely based on tourism.

Tourism is the most rapidly growing economic sector of West Virginia’s economy and it is the single most important economic activity in the West Virginia Highland counties.

Tourists come to see Dolly Sods, and Blackwater Falls, and the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and to ski and recreate at Canaan Valley State Park and Timberline. They come to shop and eat and drink in the galleries and bistros of Thomas and Davis.

According to a 2017 WVU economic study, Leisure and Hospitality businesses employ one fifth of the Tucker County workforce. I suspect that those figures are similar in Pocahontas and Pendleton Counties, and perhaps Randolph as well.

I am certain that the current economic importance of tourism to these counties is significantly greater than it was when the WVU study was done in 2017. In 2024, tourism-supported jobs accounted for nearly seven percent of all jobs in the state and a total of $2.2 billion of income. The tourism industry supports nearly 61,000 West Virginia jobs, accounting for nearly 7% of jobs in the state.

The proposed power plant and data center will transform Davis and Thomas and Canaan Valley, but without input from the people who actually live there.

To the potential tourist, it will change the perception of the area from one of unusual natural beauty that is worth visiting to just another industrial landscape.

While the jobs created will most likely go to people with specialized training from outside the area, the communities will experience increases in housing costs and increases in the demand for government services including schools and healthcare.

The current residents of these areas should have a say in such important and potentially transformative decisions.

James J. Van Gundy

Elkins