West Virginia coal’s next best friend in the Senate

Dec 20, 2023

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Gov. Jim Justice speaks during a bill-signing ceremony at a power station.

Gov. Jim Justice speaks during a bill-signing ceremony July 30, 2019, at Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia. | Gov. Jim Justice/Flickr

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is on track to win a Senate seat next year — bringing with him a desire to save his family's coal empire and a history of combining politics with business interests.

As I report today, new details show how Justice pushed a tax break for a coal-burning power plant owned by a company suing one of the governor’s family businesses. Bluestone Energy Sales is part of the Justice family business empire, which is racked with lawsuits, bankruptcies, unpaid bills and fines.

In 2019, Justice leaned on state lawmakers to save Pleasants Power Station with a $12.5 million tax break — but he didn’t disclose that the plant’s owner was suing his family company. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, with the plant’s owner, a subsidiary of utility giant FirstEnergy, settling its claims against Justice’s business for pennies on the dollar.

None of that is illegal in West Virginia, a state with notoriously lax ethics laws. That means Justice — who says he didn’t know about the lawsuit — has faced little scrutiny for his Donald Trump-esque blend of politics and personal business.

Can of worms?

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s retirement handed Justice, who abandoned the Democratic Party to become a Republican in the Trump era alongside many of his constituents, one of the easiest Senate flips on the 2024 electoral map.

But the tax break and subsequent lawsuit settlement is part of a pattern of potential conflicts of interest that will likely surface as Justice’s political star ascends. Justice has steered tens of thousands of state dollars and tax incentives toward the Greenbrier resort he owns, appointed the state officials tasked with regulating his coal mines and has seen business tax debts get quietly resolved by agencies he controls.

State Democrats are already pushing for an inquiry into the lawsuit settlement, a chorus that could grow if national Democrats push for more scrutiny as well.

“I definitely think it’s an issue, and I think it’s something the citizens of West Virginia deserve to know all the answers to,” state Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin told E&E News. “People deserve to have public servants who are more interested in serving the public than serving themselves.”

It's Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Scott Waldman. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to swaldman@eenews.net.

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