Testimony Before the West Virginia House Standing Committee on Energy and Public Works in Support of SB 420

Tim Benson, Senior Policy Analyst

Heartland Impact

March 9, 2026

Chairman Anderson, Chairman Hansen, and Members of the Committee:

Thank you for holding this hearing on SB 420 and allowing me the opportunity to give my perspective on this bill.

My name is Tim Benson, and I am the senior policy analyst with Heartland Impact. Heartland Impact is the advocacy and outreach arm of The Heartland Institute. Both are independent, national, nonprofit organizations working to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Heartland specializes in providing state lawmakers the policy and advocacy resources to advance free-market policies towards broad-based economic prosperity.

With its commonsense support of local affordable and reliable energy sources, SB 420—the West Virginia Energy First Act—is crucial to the Mountain State’s ability to effectively meet rapid and imminent surging growth in electricity demand.

The bill establishes a comprehensive regulatory framework aimed at preserving and enhancing the role of coal-fired and natural gas-fired electric generation within West Virginia and is premised on legislative findings that emphasize the importance of in-state fossil fuel generation for energy reliability, affordability, and security, referencing recent federal executive actions and state legislative history to justify its approach.

It sets a minimum operational utilization goal for coal-fired facilities, requiring them to achieve at least a 69 percent utilization rate on a rolling twelve-month basis, with compliance monitored through monthly reporting to the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Public Energy Authority (PEA). Utilities failing to meet this standard are considered noncompliant, and the PSC is tasked with establishing a rate recovery program that incentivizes adherence to these goals.

The legislation introduces significant restrictions on the premature retirement or capacity reduction of coal and natural gas plants, mandating prior approval from both the PSC and PEA, and only permitting such actions if they do not negatively impact rates, reliability, or market exposure, and if a suitable in-state replacement resource is operational. It also limits utilities’ ability to recover costs or seek regulated returns on investments in new intermittent generation resources, such as wind or solar, unless strict conditions are met to ensure no adverse effects on rates, market reliance, or reliability. Utilities not in compliance with the Act’s core requirements are further barred from entering new power purchase agreements for intermittent resources.

SB 420 also coordinates the use of the Electric Grid Stabilization and Security Fund, directing its resources exclusively toward stabilizing generation costs, supporting plant life-extension projects, and enhancing grid resilience, while prohibiting its use for decommissioning or closing operational units. It expands the oversight and responsibilities of the PEA, requiring annual operational analyses and plans from utilities, including detailed reporting on fuel supply, plant upgrades, maintenance, and expenditures. Utilities must maintain a minimum 30-day supply of base fuel for grid and homeland security, and the PEA is empowered to inspect, verify, and report on compliance, with annual findings submitted to state oversight bodies.

Further, SB 420 also mandates that utilities include coal and natural gas utilization and life-extension analyses in their integrated resource plans, and requires the PSC and PEA to oversee participation in the PJM regional transmission market to maximize ratepayer benefits and limit exposure to market volatility. The PSC is authorized to issue orders and directives necessary to implement and enforce the Act, and utilities are required to provide any data or reports needed to demonstrate compliance.

The intermittent nature of wind and solar would lead the instability of West Virginia’s electrical grid if those two sources of generation were relied upon heavily at the expense of coal and natural gas. Still, many utilities like First Energy and American Electric Power are trying to achieve “net zero” carbon-dioxide emissions by transitioning away from reliable, “dispatchable” power sources to unreliable “non-dispatchable” power sources.

“Dispatchable” power sources are those that can adjust to the electric grid on demand, such as a natural gas turbine, a coal plant, a hydroelectric dam, or a nuclear plant. Non-dispatchable power sources, such as solar and wind, cannot be turned on or off to meet demand and are highly intermittent. They are not continuously available 24 hours a day because of factors that cannot be controlled, such as cloud cover, daylight, wind speed, air density, and other variables, and are therefore unreliable.

While replacing a megawatt of electricity generation from, say, a coal plant with a megawatt of generation from a wind or solar source may appear to be an apple-to-apple swap, that is not the case. This is due to “capacity factor,” the measure of how often a power plant runs for a specific period of time, expressed as a percentage and calculated by dividing the actual unit of electricity output by the maximum possible output.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), solar had a capacity factor of just 24 percent in 2025, while wind’s capacity factor was just 34 percent.[i] If you’re thinking, “well, these are new technologies, there’s always room for them to grow,” keep in mind these numbers have effectively been stationary for a decade.

Comparatively, the capacity factor for nuclear was 91 percent in 2025, while natural gas had a capacity factor of 58 percent, and coal 48 percent.[ii] So, a megawatt-to-megawatt swap from a dispatchable power source to these non-dispatchable sources results in a decrease in overall capacity. As more dispatchable sources of the grid are swapped for non-dispatchable sources, the grid becomes less reliable. It is critical that the Mountain State does not go down this path.

The West Virginia First Energy Act aligns closely with the state’s mission to support its coal and natural gas industries, maintain energy reliability and affordability, and enhance grid and homeland security. West Virginia ranks second in the nation in terms of coal production and fifth in natural gas production.[iii] The provisions in SB 420 would help keep it that way.

This committee would be right to prioritize energy sources that are cheap, reliable and, in the case of natural gas and coal, ones that the Mountain State has in abundance. The policies set forward in SB 420 would align environmental stewardship with economic strength, and would help West Virginia lead the nation in sustainable growth and reliability.

Thank you for your time.

Heartland Impact can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Cameron Sholty, at csholty@heartlandimpact.org or 312/377- 4000.

[i] U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Electric Power Monthly: Table 6.07.B. Capacity Factors for Utility Scale Generators Primarily Using Non-Fossil Fuels,” accessed March 8, 2026, https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_6_07_b.

[ii] U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Electric Power Monthly: Table 6.07.A. Capacity Factors for Utility Scale Generators Primarily Using Fossil Fuels,” accessed March 8, 2026, https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=table_6_07_a.

[iii] U.S. Energy Information Administration, “State Profiles – West Virginia,” accessed March 8, 2026, https://www.eia.gov/states/wv/rankings.