Morrisey discusses more about his plan for an ‘Economic Backyard Brawl,’ introduces Todd Johnston

By Autumn Shelton, RealWV

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – During his press briefing on Thursday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey provided additional information about his “Economic Backyard Brawl” executive order, and introduced Todd Johnston as the director of the newly established Energy, Infrastructure and Competitiveness Council. 

According to Morrisey, he has always been a “believer in the power of competition,” and one of the best ways to gauge how a state is doing economically is to look at its neighboring states. 

“If you start to look at what your state is doing in the economic arena, and you compare it to all the states that you touch, you start to have barometers of where you stand and how you can be better at what you do.” 

Morrisey explained that members of his administration, along with state advocates, have developed a focus on energy, infrastructure and competitiveness to drive West Virginia’s success in the future. 

“We know that West Virginia, in order to unleash its true potential we have to be an energy powerhouse,” Morrisey said. “And that means taking advantage of all our energy resources. That means ensuring that the price of electricity is very competitive – one of the best things we can sell businesses is where we stand in that area. We know that we have to continually invest in infrastructure to that end.”

Morrisey applauded the Roads to Prosperity program implemented by former Governor Jim Justice, and stated that his administration plans to build upon that program. 

As for the Economic Backyard Brawl, Morrisey stated that it would be a “friendly competition.” 

“Every single day that I wake up, and every day that our whole cabinet wakes up, we’re focusing on how we can defeat all the states that we touch economically,” Morrisey said. “And it’s a good, friendly competition.” 

Morrisey said that he has spoken to the governors of other states, and they have all shared an interest in working collaboratively on regional issues. 

“We know that there are challenges,” Morrisey explained. “We’re going to be creating economic metrics that you all can see, and we can see where we are today. So, we’re not just going to be just having rhetoric, we are going to have facts that you can look at and compare to others.” 

Morrisey cited the following examples as to where West Virginia stands nationally: 

• The state is ranked 46th in CNBC’s top states for business 2024.
• The state is ranked 49th in Forbes’ best states for business 2024.
• The state is ranked 13th in business costs.
• The state is ranked 50th in labor supply and regulatory environment and business growth prospects. 

“I want to change that,” Morrisey said. “West Virginians deserve that change.” 

Morrisey then introduced Todd Johnston as the director of his administration’s Energy, Infrastructure and Competitiveness Council. Johnston also serves as Morrisey’s Deputy Chief of Staff. 

“He is going to be helming up an effort involving not only people within the governor’s office, but with our secretary of the DEP, with our transportation secretary, with our commerce and our economic development staff in order to make sure we are fixing the fundamentals so that we can grow,” Morrisey said. 

According to information in a news release issued by the governor’s office shortly after the press briefing, “Todd Johnston is a public policy professional with extensive experience working on energy, natural resource, and infrastructure issues. This includes more than a decade in federal and state government where he served in leadership positions on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and as a policy and regulatory adviser at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. Todd also has worked with the mining and cement industries on policy and regulatory compliance matters. Todd has a political science degree from Hampden-Sydney College.”

One of the areas that Johnston will work on is permit approvals, Morrisey said. 

“We’re looking for ways to accelerate permit application approvals,” Morrisey explained. “That’s critical. . . . Maybe you’re looking at a section 404 permit, or you’re looking at some of the water permits or the air permits. We know that there’s a certain amount of time that it takes in order to get those things approved.” 

Morrisey said that the state will work with the federal government to improve permitting issues, and be “better than the states that we touch.” 

“The goal of this effort is to identify things, number one, that we can fix directly, that we uniquely control, but also to build on the partnership that we’re going to have with the Trump administration. Because they’re looking for different ways to be very aggressive on reducing regulations and red tape,” Morrisey said. 

Lastly, Morrisey announced that in March, his administration will be hosting a conference among the state’s private sector business leaders to identify other issues present in West Virginia and to stimulate economic growth.