Last week, state dignitaries joined with officials from Procter & Gamble to break ground in Berkeley County for a new $500 million manufacturing plant.
Capturing the plant, along with the estimated 700 jobs and millions of dollars in revenue it will produce for the Mountain State, is a major coup of the state's Commerce Department, whose staff works hard to bring employers, both large and small, to West Virginia.
While it's a great economic development win, the size, employment and the revenue produced pale in comparison to six interstate pipeline projects proposed to move West Virginia natural gas to market.
"There are billions of dollars worth of investments that will go forward in the next three to four years, and that's equal to what would be spent on developing a factory," Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association, told the Clarksburg Exponent Telegram last week.
The projects, representing about $5.7 billion worth of in-state investment, include the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Supply Header Project, both proposed by Dominion; Energy Transfer's Rover Pipeline; EQT's Mountain Valley Pipeline; and Columbia Pipeline Group's Leach XPress and Mountaineer XPress pipelines.
Combined, these projects could bring an estimated 17,000 construction jobs to West Virginia and generate around $61 million in tax revenues during construction.
Once the pipelines are in the ground, many jobs remain to keep them operating safely, and revenue will flow into West Virginia in both taxes and income.
There is much precedent for West Virginia being a major provider of natural gas to the eastern United States. West Virginia and the surrounding areas of Appalachia were the center of the late-19th and early-20th century gas exploration, production and transportation boom.
Mid-century, the industry developed the technology to extract large gas reserves from offshore Gulf of Mexico, and much of the nation's production shifted to the Gulf states, creating the interstate pipeline system the nation has now.
Now, as Gulf gas supplies diminish and new technology exists to get more clean-burning, abundant natural gas from deep reserves in West Virginia, the Mountain State is once again becoming a hub of natural gas production. But new pipelines are needed.
The nation's desire for energy isn't shrinking, and West Virginia can be one of the primary energy providers once again.
State residents and officials are encouraged to do everything possible to help these pipeline projects get built.