News from the South - West Virginia News Feed
Former head of WV’s economic development urges Trump to preserve clean energy tax credits
by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
June 16, 2025
Mitch Carmichael, the former secretary of economic development in West Virginia, is spearheading a new ad campaign urging President Donald Trump to preserve energy tax credits that he says are vital to creating jobs and growing business in West Virginia.
The clean energy tax credits in question were enacted by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The U.S. House of Representatives voted last month, while considering the massive government spending bill, to cut them. West Virginia Republican Reps. Carol Miller and Riley Moore both voted in support of the bill.
The budget bill is now being considered by the U.S. Senate, where the energy tax credits have been central to conversations and debate. If the bill in its current form is passed, billions of dollars in incentives for clean energy and alternative energy projects in communities across the country would come to an end, potentially taking thousands of jobs along with them.
Carmichael is working on the new campaign as the executive director of Built For America, a group recently formed specifically to advocate for and protect the energy tax credits. He said the organization decided to target Trump with its message instead of Congress because he is “certain” that the president will understand where the group is coming from.
“We believe that Donald Trump will do the right thing and will see the commonsense here,” Carmichael said. “These tax incentives represent basically the quintessential American Dream: Companies and individuals doing something well, investing in communities, and being rewarded for that. We believe that he will agree.”
Environmentally focused advocacy groups have been sounding the alarms regarding potential cuts to the tax credits for months, warning that — if they end — businesses, communities, consumers and the environment will be worse off.
“We’re not coming at this from a climate ideology,” Carmichael said. “We are focusing on how these tax credits are job makers, they’re essential to growing the manufacturing industry [in places like West Virginia] and they’re based on real, actualized outcomes — not politics.”
The credits at risk give companies incentives to either start new projects based around clean energy or convert current energy sources into clean energy, like solar, wind, geothermal and more. They also provide direct benefits to consumers through credits for buying electric vehicles or installing solar panels on a home.
Carmichael said in West Virginia these credits have already been instrumental in recruiting investments from companies for large manufacturing projects. Specifically, he pointed to the Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company project in Ravenswood, where a solar microgrid is powering the manufacturing of titanium products, and the Form Energy’s iron air battery manufacturing site in Weirton.
The Berkshire Hathaway project represented a $500 million investment in the Jackson County town. In Weirton, 300 people are currently employed at the Form Factory 1.
“Those investments happened in large part because of these tax credits,” Carmichael said. “We need more companies like this and we need more projects like this. These incentives help us make that happen.”
Carmichael, who also served as the state Senate president from 2017-2021, was clear that the point of these projects is not to “put coal [or natural gas] out of business.” Instead, he said, the investments allow the state to diversify its economy by exploring and inviting in industries previously not here.
And those industries, Carmichael said, create jobs — something he knows firsthand is difficult to do in the state.
In one of his first acts as governor in January, Patrick Morrisey announced his plans for a “Backyard Brawl” to make West Virginia economically and financially competitive with surrounding states. Though that plan so far has largely included cutting taxes and “red tape” in the hopes of incentivizing businesses to locate in West Virginia, Morrisey said in January that energy infrastructure will be core to the initiative.
This legislative session, a critical piece of legislation was passed to introduce a new industry — data centers — into the state.
House Bill 2014 created a certified microgrid program within West Virginia state code. Under the law, data centers will be allowed to form microgrids to generate their own power instead of hooking up to already existing utilities. Initially, the bill required that the microgrids be powered through renewable energy. But a change to the bill during session opened that up to any form of energy, including coal and natural gas.
The bill — and the new tax structure created within it for the distribution of taxes collected on such sites — have been somewhat controversial. Residents in places like Tucker County, where a natural gas-powered data center is proposed, are upset that the legislation allows private companies to completely disregard local zoning ordinances, robbing them of any chance they’d have to protect their community from the worst consequences of industrial sites.
But Carmichael said he was excited to see what’s accomplished under the law. He said opportunities to grow the state’s economic resources is a good thing, and the tax credits would help to incentivize such growth.
“We all know what can be possible in West Virginia,” Carmichael said. “These tax credits make it so these large companies have more of a reason to look to us when they’re trying to grow their businesses. That’s what we need here.”
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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.
The post Former head of WV’s economic development urges Trump to preserve clean energy tax credits appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
This content primarily reflects a center-right perspective, focusing on economic development, job creation, and market-based solutions such as tax credits and incentives to encourage investment in clean energy. It highlights a Republican figure advocating for preserving energy tax credits as a practical means to grow business and diversify the state’s economy without emphasizing climate ideology or liberal environmental agendas. The article underscores pragmatic economic priorities typical of a center-right approach, blending support for both traditional energy and clean energy initiatives within a market-driven framework.
News from the South - West Virginia News Feed
Jay's Evening Weather for Thursday 07/31/25
SUMMARY: Jay’s Evening Weather for Thursday 07/31/25 reports southern West Virginia is currently very warm at 91°F with a heat index near 99°F, recently peaking at 101°F. Partly cloudy skies prevail with 56% humidity and light northwest winds. A front northwest of the region is causing showers and thunderstorms particularly in northern counties like Nicholas, Fayette, and Raleigh. These storms may become strong tonight with some heavy rain possible near Charleston, warranting flash flood monitoring. Temperatures elsewhere range from mid-70s to upper 80s, with lows in the 60s overnight. Rain persists into Friday, ending by weekend, leading to cooler, more pleasant days ahead.
More showers and storms are coming into the area thanks to a front, but in addition to giving us rain, the front will also cool us off quite a bit.
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News from the South - West Virginia News Feed
New federal school voucher program poses a quandary for states: Opt in or opt out?
by Robbie Sequeira, West Virginia Watch
July 31, 2025
When President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he gave state leaders — not federal regulators — the power to decide whether and how to participate in the first-ever national tax credit scholarship program.
That decision now looms largest in blue states, where Democratic governors and lawmakers must weigh whether to reject the law outright on ideological grounds — or try to reshape it into something that reflects their own values.
“This isn’t the federal voucher program we were worried about five years ago,” said Jon Valant, a senior fellow in governance studies at the left-leaning Brookings Institution who testified before Congress on earlier versions of the bill. “It still has serious problems — but states now have tools to mold it into something they might actually support.”
The final law gives states wide discretion, he said. They can opt out entirely. They can opt in passively, leaving the program to operate as written. Or, as Valant suggests, they can try to redraw its footprint — focusing less on private school tuition and more on public school supports like tutoring, transportation and enrichment services in underserved districts.
“My hope is that blue states take a hard look and ask: Can this be used to address our own needs?”
For progressives and education advocates who are wary of school vouchers, the decision is fraught. Opting in could draw criticism for approving what many see as a vehicle for privatization of K-12 education. But opting out could mean turning down federal dollars — education money that states with budding or robust private school voucher infrastructures, such as Arizona and Florida, will gladly take.
“There’s money on the table, and it can be used for more than just private school tuition,” Valant said. “If blue states want to keep that money from reinforcing inequality, they’ll have to get creative, and act fast.”
Since 2020, private school choice programs — once limited to low-income or special needs students — have rapidly expanded.
In 2023, $6.3 billion was spent nationwide on private school choice programs — less than 1% of total public K-12 operational spending, according to EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice measures. From 2023-24 to 2024-25, participation in universal private school choice programs surged nearly 40%, growing from roughly 584,000 to 805,000 students in just one school year.
By 2026-27, about half of all U.S. students will be eligible, according to estimates by FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University.
These trends, combined with new federal tax credit, could fundamentally reshape the education funding landscape across state governments, experts say.
“States will need to decide whether to encourage the redirection of funding to support private and religious schools — either by expanding existing voucher programs or, if they don’t have one, by introducing such a program for the first time,” said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy for AASA, The School Superintendents Association. The group opposes the national voucher plan.
State regulations
As of this May, 21 states operated tax credit scholarship programs with varying degrees of funding and oversight. According to the EdChoice Friedman Index, the states of Florida, Arkansas, Arizona and Alabama rank highest in private school access, with 100% of students eligible for school choice programs.
Some states, like Florida and Arizona, already have extensive tax credit scholarship systems. Others, including Texas, are building new infrastructure such as statewide voucher programs and education savings accounts, known as ESAs.
States with no current programs face decisions about participation, regulation and equity, but without clear federal guardrails, education advocates told Stateline.
The federal policy builds on existing state-level tax credit scholarship programs — such as Alabama’s — but significantly expands eligibility, removes scholarship caps and broadens allowable uses to include not just tuition, but also tutoring, therapy, transportation and academic support services. Beginning in 2027, scholarships will be excluded from federal taxable income.
Valant, of Brookings, told Stateline that some of his initial concerns were addressed in the version of the bill signed into law.
“There was a very realistic scenario in the earlier version of the bill where a small number of very wealthy people could essentially make money off this,” Valant said. “That was mostly addressed.”
The enacted version eliminates stock donations and caps individual tax credits at $1,700. And with states that opt in having the power to shape their own program, Valant said that gives them the chance to establish their own guardrails, such as income eligibility caps or nondiscrimination policies for participating schools.
If blue states want to keep that money from reinforcing inequality, they’ll have to get creative, and act fast.
– Jon Valant, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution
The scholarship-granting organizations, known as SGOs, would then be subject to new state regulations about where the money can go.
“States could say SGOs can’t give money to schools that discriminate based on sexual orientation. … There’s quite a lot of room here for state regulation,” he said.
Looking ahead, Valant said he’ll be watching how states interpret their regulatory powers — and how effective scholarship-granting organizations are at fundraising under the new rules, which prohibit large stock gifts and rely instead on millions of smaller donations.
“Now it’s a strange pitch: ‘Can you front me $300 to give to the SGO? I swear the IRS will give it back,’” he said. “It’s going to take time to figure out how to sell this to families.”
Concerns over transparency and equity remain. The program allows donors, scholarship-granting organizations and families to direct funds with little public accountability, critics say. And in states without robust oversight, Valant warns that funds could be misused — or channeled to institutions that exclude students based, for example, on identity or beliefs about sexual orientation.
He also emphasized that early participation is likely to skew toward families already in private schools, particularly in wealthier ZIP codes — mirroring patterns seen in programs in Arizona, Florida and Georgia.
“One big risk is that the funds will disproportionately flow to wealthier families — just like we’ve seen in many ESA programs,” Valant said.
What do these programs look like across the country?
FutureEd studied eight states — Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia — where 569,000 students participated in school choice programs at a cost to taxpayers of $4 billion in 2023-24.
The FutureEd analysis found significant differences among the states in design, funding and oversight.
Arizona’s ESA program was the first of its kind in 2011, and also the first to shift toward universal eligibility in 2022.
Florida operated the largest and most expensive program, with broad eligibility, no caps or accreditation requirements, and a major influx of higher-income families, though it mandated some university-led performance reviews. Iowa fully funded ESAs and, like other states, saw mostly existing private school families benefit.
Arkansas had a cautious rollout due to legal delays and geographic clustering of participants, while West Virginia allowed spending across state lines with no performance reporting.
Newcomer North Carolina began with income-based prioritization but quickly expanded under political pressure or demand, while Alabama and Louisiana will launch ESA programs in 2025-26 using general state revenues.
Utah enacted a universal voucher program in 2023, providing up to $8,000 per student for private school or homeschool expenses. A state teachers union sued, arguing that participating schools were not “free and open to all children” and that the program diverted public school funds. A state court this April ruled the program was unconstitutional.
As the new federal law opens the door for tax-credit-funded tuition support, Texas is building its first universal school voucher program, aided through ESAs to begin in the 2026-27 school year. The program is funded with $1 billion over two years, with $10,000-$11,000 per student — up to $30,000 for students with disabilities and $2,000 for homeschoolers.
The Texas comptroller will oversee the program, and private schools must be open for at least two years to be eligible for funds.
Voucher programs can drain state budgets, and budget wonks predict the cost for Texas could rise to around $4.8 billion by 2030, The Texas Tribune reported.
A spokesperson for the Texas comptroller’s office said that details are still being finalized; the state has issued a request for proposals due Aug. 4 to select eligible educational assistance organizations that would help funnel scholarship dollars to schools.
Other states may be more cautious. The Missouri National Education Association filed a lawsuit this summer to block $51 million in state appropriations to private school scholarships through the MOScholars program. The suit argues that using general revenue rather than private donations violates the state constitution and undermines public education funding.
Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.
West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.
The post New federal school voucher program poses a quandary for states: Opt in or opt out? appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
This content provides a generally factual overview of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the national tax credit scholarship program it established. It presents perspectives from various stakeholders, including education policy analysts from the left-leaning Brookings Institution and advocacy groups critical of voucher programs. The article leans slightly toward a Center-Right bias by focusing on expanding school choice, including the benefits of private school access and state flexibility, while also acknowledging concerns raised by progressives and education advocates. The nuanced discussion of potential equity and oversight issues alongside support for school choice funding frameworks suggests an overall balanced but slightly pro-school-choice, market-oriented viewpoint typical of Center-Right coverage.
News from the South - West Virginia News Feed
Jay’s Evening Weather for 07/30/25
SUMMARY: Southern West Virginia experienced a warm afternoon with temperatures mostly in the mid-80s, cooler in areas with rain such as Beckley (76°F) where thunderstorms occurred. Humidity remains high, making it feel hotter, especially in Pineville and Welch where it feels like 94°F. Showers are beginning near Summersville and along Route 19. A cold front bringing thunderstorms is expected to move through Thursday to Saturday, possibly severe in higher elevations like Greenbrier Valley. By Sunday, conditions will clear with significantly cooler temperatures, dropping into the upper 50s and lower 60s, offering a welcome break from recent heat.
There have been more showers and storms around today, but after one more day of summerlike weather, a big change is in the forecast.
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