A more than $100 million investment in solar energy in West Virginia has been canned by the new administration, and the West Virginia Public Service Commission, which has been consistently hammering customers with higher and higher utility rates, seems OK with it.Â
To be fair, that's a bit of an assumption. No one from the PSC, including member and former coal lobbyist Charlotte Lane, was around to answer Gazette-Mail reporter Mike Tony's questions about the move late last week, when the news that the Solar for All program had been nixed by the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency.Â
But based on the PSC's past behavior, which includes going to extreme measures to keep inefficient and heavy polluting coal-fired power plants operating at capacities even the companies that own them say is uneconomical, it seems logical to conclude the agency would be just fine with the decision.Â
When it comes to generating electricity in the United States, coal has slipped even further in the national portfolio, down to 15%, while natural gas use has soared, along with renewables like solar and wind power. But West Virginians still get most of their power from coal, and now pay some of the highest electricity rates in the nation because of it.Â
Natural gas is cheap. Renewables are cheap now, too, and have come a long way in reliability at industrial scale. Coal remains mired in the past. Industry lobbyists and backers can't do much about that at the national level, but they can certainly tilt the scales in West Virginia. The Mountain State remains a dark-ages sacrifice zone, where climate science and basic market principles are given a disapproving finger wag and tongue click.Â
Why embrace a new industry with a bright future when you can continue to wring the last filthy dollars out of an old, dying one? Change is hard. It's much easier, apparently, to gouge a poor customer base and send men and women underground to contract black lung.Â
The EPA under Trump has tried to revitalize coal and other industries by handicapping the competition and rolling back air quality and environmental protections. It hasn't worked.Â
In fact, as it turns out, this latest move might also be illegal, because the money for Solar for All was already approved last year. The issue likely will be decided in court. In the meantime, West Virginia remains in the Dark Ages.Â
