Republican senator calls Gov. Morrisey ‘the gentleman from New Jersey’ in spat over electric bill costs

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV

Each day the West Virginia Senate is in session, the agenda includes “Remarks by Members.” Any senator may stand and address the body as they choose. Senators often use the time to advocate for a particular policy idea, for example. 

On Wednesday morning, though, Sen. Rupie Phillips (R-Logan) took a different tact. 

“Mamaw can’t afford it,” he began, referencing electric bill prices. “Me and the gentleman from Mingo County represent some of the poorest people in the state.” 

“I tried to set up a meeting with someone about trying to lower the rates as they consider microgrids,” he continued, referencing a bill introduced yesterday by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a fellow Republican. 

The bill is titled “The Power Generation and Consumption Act of 2025.” 

As RealWV reported yesterday, Morrisey argued, “A microgrid is a self-contained power network that operates separate from the main power grid,” Morrisey explained. “Right now, the West Virginia Code allows for two microgrids in the entire state. Our bill seeks to change that, and to accommodate the demand of the data centers that are so desperate to be hooked up to get closer to the power source.”

West Virginia has been actively lobbying private business and federal government officials for a data center for months, as RealWV reported this winter.

Data centers require huge amounts of electricity in order to operate. Morrisey’s bill not only enables microgrids, which could produce electricity, it also changes the requirements for coal-burning power plants in West Virginia. 

For example, language in the bill requires utility companies to keep 45 days of coal onsite at each power plant and to operate at almost double their current capacity. 

Emmett Pepper, Policy Director for Energy Efficient West Virginia, believes the bill will raise electrical rates. 

“There are two parts of the ‘microgrids bill,’” he says in a statement to RealWV. “Most of it is about data centers and microgrids. Then, the last five pages are all about ratepayers paying more to fund coal-fired power plants.”

“AEP customers have seen their bills double in the past 15 years,” he continues. “Those five pages would increase the likelihood that bills keep going up.”

Which brings us back to the remarks from Sen. Phillips. “I tried to set up a meeting with someone about lowering the rates…the microgrids. Well, the gentleman from New Jersey chose not to meet with the group of people I wanted to meet with.”

The eyebrows of several senators were raised by the comments, as they were directed towards Gov. Morrisey. He was born in Edison, New Jersey, and ran for Congress in his home state in 2000, coming in 4th in a primary field of four. A decade later, he moved to West Virginia and entered politics.

Alex Lanfranconi, Communications Director for Morrisey, responded by saying on X, “The gentleman from Logan (Phillips) was a Democrat the entire Obama Administration. If anyone is out of place in the conservative state of West Virginia, it sure as hell isn’t the governor.” 

Drew Galang, deputy to Lanfranconi for Morrisey, added, “So we’re calling utility company lobbyists ‘impoverished voters’ now? Quite a stretch.” 

Phillips ended his remarks, without identifying who he wanted to take with him to meet the governor, by saying, “I’m just gonna go down to my office and eat a bologna sandwich.” 

HB 2014 has been referenced to the House Committee on Energy and Public Works. Stay tuned to RealWV for updates.