Of current legislation that is moving through Congress, federal aid to highways and global climate change could have the biggest impact on West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, according to Rep. Nick Rahall.
Rahall, D-W.Va., says energy bills passed by Congress in the past focused on renewable standards and other standards for the automobile industry. He says the new global climate change legislation must have more incentives for coal-to-liquid technologies and processes.
“I stand firmly behind the coal-to-liquid process, not only because of its importance to West Virginia but also for importance to national security,” Rahall said last week during an interview with The Register-Herald’s editorial board. “The country must continue to move away from its dependence on foreign oil and also continue to develop more domestic sources of energy.”
Equally important to southern West Virginia is legislation regarding federal aid to highways.
“This year we will also continue to lay the roadwork for major federal highway legislation that must be done by 2009,” Rahall said. “The current federal aid to highways bill expires in September 2009.”
Rahall said as vice chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee he will be heavily involved in developing the bill.
“I will be in the front seat as we write that bill,” he said.
Rahall claims the southern part of the state has tremendous obstacles to overcome when it comes to building roads.
“Let’s face reality, we face the most rough terrain in the nation in southern West Virginia when it comes to building roads,” he said. “It can cost us up to $24 million per mile versus $1 million per mile in a flat state.”
Rahall was asked when — or if — the Coalfields Expressway and King Coal Highway would be completed.
“I have been able to specifically allocate over $30 million in last three federal aid to highways bills for the Coalfields Expressway. Also over $70 million for the King Coal Highway, and Sen. Robert C. Byrd does even more. Will those roads be completed and built through these efforts alone? No, they will not,” he said.
Rahall said federal allocations jump-start the road building process and show a commitment from the federal, state and local levels, but he believes the state can do more.
“I give them credit for the 20 percent match; however, my position is the state should be more than just a 20 percent partner,” he said. “Instead, they should be a full partner with the federal government.”
Rahall says southern West Virginia does not have a single road project on the state’s six-year transportation plan.
“The state’s position is there are higher growth areas with roads closer to completion that should receive the money first,” Rahall said. “When those roads are completed, then the attention will come to the southern part of the state.
“I give the governor credit for trying to use scarce resources to the best of the state’s ability. I read the article about our state’s highway commissioner pleading for more money. That’s all very true and valid. However, there are several projects we have under way in the southern part of the state that should not be ignored. The CT plant in Mingo County that is coming close to reality, the many high-tech corridors and centers we are creating in southern West Virginia, the federal prison and the other road and economic development projects appear to have not gone into the model that the state consultants used to show that there is more growth in the Eastern Panhandle and elsewhere in the state.”
Rahall says the Rahall Transportation Institute at Marshall University is re-examining these economic feasibility models used by consultants to develop the state’s transportation plan.
“We want to show that we do have the growth in southern West Virginia that warrants more than what we are getting from the state’s discretionary highway funds,” he said.
Rahall says “thinking outside the box” with innovative leveraging of scarce federal and state resources must be done. An example he uses is when coal companies take the coal, then lay the road bed and do grading work, saving both the state and federal governments dollars in having to build the entire road alone.
“This has been done in Mingo County, along certain stretches of the King Coal Highway,” he said. “Everyone benefits and it’s these types of innovative approaches to building a road that we must look at more often.”
In part two of this series, Rahall discusses coal and the environment, and if coal will be economically feasible in the future.
