Ben Sullivan

Ben Sullivan

Discovering Harmony in the Hills

I write this piece on my farm outside of Charleston while looking out my windows at a beautiful early autumn day. We are blessed in West Virginia to have four beautiful seasons, a luxury that many in the United States do not have in such abundance. Of all of the seasons, I would say that autumn is my favorite – filled with warm afternoons of fishing, hiking, biking and other activities sandwiched between cool mornings and evenings. The trees have not yet started to change colors in Kanawha County, but they will do so in the coming weeks.

Even though the summer of 2020 has just ended, the IOGA team has been hard at work preparing for the 2021 legislative session (honing our legislative agenda, meeting with legislators and those running for political office, finalizing endorsements for GOpac - see page 15 for a list of endorsements), courting potential new members, and conducting meetings with regulators and other stakeholders, as well as managing our highly successful member insurance program and preparing for the 2021 Winter Membership Meeting. We also have been on-boarding new Board members, some with considerable IOGA historical experience and some new to our association.

One of the most exciting developments on the policy side over the last month has been the finalization of approval from the West Virginia Economic Development Authority of a small loan guarantee that is a vital step in the process to hopefully kickoff the construction and operation of a new 830-Megawatt clean-burning natural gas-fired IOGA President power plant in Brooke County that is being developed by Energy Solutions Consortium. The power plant is projected to be capable of powering the equivalent of 700,000 homes and will create more than 1,000 construction related jobs and have an annual economic impact of more than $400 million. The loan guarantee process was a long and arduous one, but strong bi-partisan political advocates such as State Senators William Ihlenfeld II, Mike Romano and Ryan Weld, House Members Phil Diserio, John Kelly, Richard Iaquinta and Randy Swartzmiller, the Brooke County Commission, and Governor Jim Justice helped rally ultimate support for the project. Our own Executive Director, Charlie Burd, and several of our Board members, spent countless hours working with the plant developer and lending support and encouragement to the effort.

I was particularly pleased to see the two industry associations – IOGA and WVONGA – working in harmony and taking leadership roles and partnering with the WV Affiliated Construction Trades on supporting the project. When industry and labor work together, the possibilities for our industry in West Virginia are enormous, particularly on the power generation and downstream development side. In order to grow our fine industry, and the attendant jobs, tax revenue, and capital investment in our State we need more such projects, and the IOGA team is working tirelessly in conjunction with the West Virginia Development Office and others to help identify and support the same. 2020-2021 OFFICERS BOARD MEMBERS

Ben Sullivan President

Maribeth Anderson Vice President/Program Chair

Jim Pritt Secretary-Treasurer/Commerce Committee Chair

J. Kevin Ellis Immediate Past President

Doug Douglass Director/Vice Chair Producer Issues Comm. and Finance & Taxation Comm. Jon Farmer Director/Producers Issues Committee Chair Michael Forbes Director/Membership Committee Chair David Haney Director/Safety Committee Chair Jon Hildreth Director/Membership Committee Vice Chair Jeff Isner Director/ Comm. & Educ. Comm. Chair Bob Radabaugh Director/Environmental Committee Chair Eric Vir Director/Commerce Committee Vice Chair Chris Weikle Director/ Govt. Affairs Comm. Chair

Marc Monteleone Finance & Taxation Committee Chair