West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey told Newsmax that his state will soon be a powerhouse supporting the entire nation.
Morrisey told "The Chris Salcedo Show" on Thursday that West Virginia can take a major role nationally, serving as "the battery for America."
The governor said thanks to President Donald Trump's focus on fossil fuel and nuclear energy, West Virginia is poised to help provide power for all of the developing initiatives in America that need lots of power.
"We're America's energy state," he said. "And we're going to be able to move faster than virtually any other state to extend the use for the coal plants, to build out a lot of new gas plants, and nuclear. And we need that badly."
Morrisey said with the emerging focus on artificial intelligence development in the U.S., the need for tremendous amounts of energy to support the infrastructure is critical to America's survival. "If you're watching carefully what's going on in China, what's happening on the global stage in this war for information technology supremacy, you know that there's an insatiable need for more energy to power up our data needs," Morrisey said.
He said the initial approach sets a high bar for his state. "We challenged our state to have what we call a 50 by 50 plan, 50 new gigawatts of energy by 2050," Morrisey said.
Morrisey explained that the Trump administration working closely with states to build up new energy production sites is paramount. "It relates to national security, economic independence and quite frankly, just the growing wealth and income standard of our people," he said.
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Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.
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