Justice says his goal as U.S. Senator is growing America’s energy industries
Justice also discusses discretionary funding award to Greenbrier County Schools for athletic facility upgrades
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – During his weekly press briefing on Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice said he spent much of his day on Tuesday in Washington, DC, preparing to become West Virginia’s next U.S. Senator, and he discussed his goals once sworn in – one of them being the growth of America’s energy industries.
“I was at the Library of Congress,” Justice said. “I was there all day . . . and flew back and ended up in Lincoln County last night coaching a basketball game.”
Although Justice said it was a long day for him, he admitted it was a good day.
Justice explained that once he “gets his feet under him,” he plans to change things. First, though, he needs to build the trust of the American people.
“I feel strongly about this,” Justice began. “Yesterday, I told folks in the Senate, and everything, in fact I wrote it out and gave it to Steve Daines (R-MT) – he was sitting right in front of me – and here’s what I said, I said, ‘At the end of the day, what I think we should do as senators is, early on, we’ve gotta build a confidence with Toby and Edith.’” (Justice’s frequent names for everyday citizens.)
Justice added that once he gets going, one of his biggest goals will be ensuring that America remains a leader in the global energy industry.
“The key to the whole situation is energy,” Justice stated.
He said that if the “energy dilemma” were solved, inflation would be solved. Additionally, businesses would want to locate here.
“If we solve the energy dilemma it drives so much business to this country, that’s all over this world, because businesses want to come to the energy. They don’t want the energy shipped all over the world. To them, they want to come to the energy.”
To increase the country’s revenue, Justice once again said that energy is the key.
“Well, you can tax the people more, which is ludicrous. We need to cut taxes,” Justice stated. “The only way I can see is we are sitting on energy like you can’t imagine. Why are we exporting it? Why in the world are we not absolutely doing any and everything? Why are we not Saudi Arabia? . . . Whether it be our natural gas reserves, which are unflat believable, why in the world have we turned our noses up at the greatest coals in the world – our metallurgical coals that make incredible steel. Why are we turning our noses up at our thermal coal? Why are we blowing our own legs off everyday and saying, ‘China, you just take over. India, you just take over. You’re building a coal-fired power plant every other day, almost. Why don’t you all just take over, while we blow our own legs off?’”
Justice noted that he will do “as much deal-making as he needs” while in Washington.
“I’m going there to get something done, and that’s all there is to it. And that’s what I’m going to do,” Justice said.
Changing focus, after being asked by a reporter to explain the recent $1 million in discretionary funding awarded to Greenbrier East and Greenbrier West high schools for athletic facility upgrades, Justice, who is the girls basketball coach at Greenbrier East High School, responded that he and those in his office try to keep things fair for all schools in the state.
“I guess, to some degree, there’s some dollars that the governor’s office can decide on their own. But, we’ve given a lot, a lot of money to schools all over the state, and we’ve still got some projects that we want to try and take care of,” Justice said.
“We really try to spread it out, and be really fair, and take care of the spots that are in the greatest need,” Justice concluded.
