AEP Appalachian Power, Triana Energy, and University of Charleston
This morning some of us went on a run/walk/hike around Montgomery. The skies opened up just a few minutes into the excursion and we got rained on pretty heavily, but it was a refreshing type of rain, not too cold to enjoy. Emily then cooked up a delicious pancake breakfast for us, complete with frozen berries, maple syrup, and melted peanut butter.
Our first stop for the day was at the Charleston office of AEP- Appalachian Power. We were received with a delicious Qdoba lunch and then had the privilege of meeting with Chris Beam, the COO and President. We learned about AEP's generation portfolio, strategic plans, and values as well as about how they fit into the West Virginian economy. We learned about Appalachian Power's goal to decommission all coal plants by 2040, put solar panels on top of reclaimed mountaintop removal sites (flat ground in hard to find around here, clever use of space!), and also build more combined-cycle gas plants and wind farms in their operating area, which extends beyond WV. Their goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to their 2000 level. We learned that Walmart is a company that wants to source all its energy from renewable sources and is actually a large enough player to have leverage on power providers like AEP. During this conversation we were thinking about and asking questions about how all these plans and trends would be impacting jobs in the state, energy poverty, and the communities in general. We asked about what AEP is doing to try to ensure the best outcome for the people of West Virginia.
After meeting with Mr. Beam we headed 4 floors down in the same building to a presentation by Eddie Gray, CEO of Triana Energy. Some of us have met Eddie before, as he also happens to be Mike's neighbor! He told us a lot of insightful things about both the history of gas extraction in West Virginia and the current practices of horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale gas. He kindly responded to our many questions about fracking fluid waste disposal, water and energy use in the process, aquifer contamination risks, jobs, and community involvement, just to name a few. He then took us out to a vertical fracking site right in the middle of Charleston, on the campus of the University of Charleston. It was cool to see what a tiny surface footprint a drill site has after surface reclamation is complete.
At this point in the afternoon we headed to the UC campus, where we got to participate in a panel discussion with Eddie Gray, Kathy Beckett (a lawyer at Appalachia Development Group as well as the Chamber of Commerce) and Dustin White (a project coordinator at the environmental advocacy group OVEC). The panel was facilitated by UC sociology professor Dr. Hallie Dunlap. It was an engaging, often fiery debate between the three panelists, representing such different interest groups. The conversation was largely centered around industry regulation, the health of West Virginian communities and economy, and the impact of politics on the energy industry. The panel was followed by a dinner at the UC cafeteria that the panelists were also invited to.
Whew! What an eventful day. We were all exhausted by the end!
Here are a few select highlights from what we've learned today that kept us thinking and talking into the night:
Our first stop for the day was at the Charleston office of AEP- Appalachian Power. We were received with a delicious Qdoba lunch and then had the privilege of meeting with Chris Beam, the COO and President. We learned about AEP's generation portfolio, strategic plans, and values as well as about how they fit into the West Virginian economy. We learned about Appalachian Power's goal to decommission all coal plants by 2040, put solar panels on top of reclaimed mountaintop removal sites (flat ground in hard to find around here, clever use of space!), and also build more combined-cycle gas plants and wind farms in their operating area, which extends beyond WV. Their goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to their 2000 level. We learned that Walmart is a company that wants to source all its energy from renewable sources and is actually a large enough player to have leverage on power providers like AEP. During this conversation we were thinking about and asking questions about how all these plans and trends would be impacting jobs in the state, energy poverty, and the communities in general. We asked about what AEP is doing to try to ensure the best outcome for the people of West Virginia.
After meeting with Mr. Beam we headed 4 floors down in the same building to a presentation by Eddie Gray, CEO of Triana Energy. Some of us have met Eddie before, as he also happens to be Mike's neighbor! He told us a lot of insightful things about both the history of gas extraction in West Virginia and the current practices of horizontal hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale gas. He kindly responded to our many questions about fracking fluid waste disposal, water and energy use in the process, aquifer contamination risks, jobs, and community involvement, just to name a few. He then took us out to a vertical fracking site right in the middle of Charleston, on the campus of the University of Charleston. It was cool to see what a tiny surface footprint a drill site has after surface reclamation is complete.
Triana Energy CEO Eddie Gray showing us a vertical gas well on the UC campus.
Group photo on the UC campus, after dinner, with the capitol building and the Kanawha River in the background. Photo includes Eddie Gray, Prof. Dunlap and her daughter Cora, and Leanne Mericil.
Whew! What an eventful day. We were all exhausted by the end!
Here are a few select highlights from what we've learned today that kept us thinking and talking into the night:
- A Chinese partner company of AEP is planning to invest $80 billion in underground natural gas liquids storage facilities in West Virginia and an ethylene cracker. Ethylene is one of the components in natural gas that gets removed when the gas is dried, leaving essentially all methane to be transported in pipelines or on trucks. These liquids can be used as feed stock to the petrochemical industry. Proponents of this deal, such as AEP and Mrs. Beckett, believe that it will bring much needed jobs and security to the state and will pick up the electric load, allowing utility rates to go down for the average residential consumer. Opponents, such as OVEC, fear that it will lead WV into yet another cycle of boom and bust economy relying too heavily on a single resource/industry, and lead to unforeseen environmental disasters and health impacts.
- There are several state funded educational programs available to displaced coal miners, including full tuition and transportation stipends for an associates degree, but not many eligible people are taking advantage of them. We debated what the possible reasons might be: lack of awareness, further economic hardships, opioid addiction, psychological conditioning? We did learn form Mike that several registered students drop put of his lineman training course at Bridge Valley Community and Technical College upon learning that they would be drug tested, but we don't know much else.
- Severance tax from the the extraction industries can be appropriated to go towards education and public health, though it has not been done well with coal. What makes the proponents of the gas and petrochemical industries think that it would be different this time? And if it were, would that further worsen the state's economic dependence on the extraction industries?
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