Originally published in the Spirit of Jefferson, June 26, 2024
In January of 2024 Governor Jim Justice issued a press release calling on “the Biden Administration to cease the war being waged by his federal agencies against West Virginia.” Justice cited some communications from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of Agriculture to the WV Department of Transportation and Department of Natural Resources. The “war” as Justice described it related to issues concerning endangered species.
Justice claimed that these issues were causing delays in completing Corridor H and the Coalfields Expressway, the two highest priority highway projects in the state. However, an article in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph from 2015 attributes the delays on the Expressway to the “current depressed state of the coal industry.” An update on the WV Department of Transportation website makes no mention of Federal government initiated delays. It mentions in fact that the Federal government has to date supplied $140 million to fund the highway.
Delays on Corridor H are real but are attributable to actions of local WV residents for drilling in the Monongahela National Forest and the plan for the highway to intersect the towns of Davis and Thomas. Residents want to have the highway diverted to the north of the two towns. The drilling was proposed by a local West Virginia group, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, to test the proposed road bed for stability. But the Forest Service by law needs to review the request.
There are still two sections of the highway in West Virginia that are not complete at this point, the Davis section being one.
The second incomplete section runs from Wardensville to the Virginia line. In June of 2024, it was redesignated as a major project, which Senator Capito felt would cause another delay in completing it. A major project is one estimated to cost over $500 million. But the US Highway administrator assured her that the change would bring in additional Federal money and would not cause in itself any major delay.
But the plot thickens. The state of Virginia, which decades ago was proposed to carry Corridor H from the West Virginia border to connect with Interstate 81 in Virginia may never be built. Virginia’s mandate to build the road has lapsed and it now sees no benefit to itself. That may create a much more crucial delay, but it has nothing to do with the Federal government.
So why is Justice pointing the finger at Federal agencies? It likely has more to do with these agencies now being in the administration of a Democratic president and Justice is a Republican. In late 2018 during the Trump administration, Justice issued a press release thanking the Federal government for a $40 million grant half of which was earmarked for Corridor H. This was funding from the FAST act, passed during the Obama administration.
Justice made no mention of the Trump administration warring with West Virginia and there was no talk of delays. He was effusive in his thanks. (By the way, there was no new infrastructure bill passed during Trump’s presidency.)
In August 2021 President Biden’s administration, Senator Manchin announced an outlay of $200 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law targeted for Corridor H, the first portion delivered in January 2022. There was no mention in Governor Justice’s press releases of either announcement.
Then in March 2024, Manchin announced a total of $191 million of earmarks for West Virginia projects, including $12.5 million for Corridor H. In June 2024, Governor Justice issued a press release heralding a $150 million supplement in WV Senate Bill 1002 for highway funding. In one line of this long press release praising the legislature and describing the impact of the supplement, he writes: “The money is in addition to $190 million received by the WVDOH in federal highway funds.”
It’s not clear if Justice is referencing the $191 million that Manchin announced for the state, only a portion of which is earmarked for highway funding. But Manchin is not thanked nor are the targeted projects for the funds detailed.
Could it be because Manchin is not a Republican and the money came from the very same Biden administration that Justice says is at war with West Virginia? It would be some kind of war where the enemy supplies you with ammunition.
Of course Justice is a politician and so we should expect that he will act as a politician. But the war he believes Washington is waging with West Virginia is entirely in his mind.