Shelley Moore Capito has spent much of her first two years as the junior U.S. senator from West Virginia trying to limit the damage being done to the coal industry and the economy of our state by the policies of the Obama administration. If not for her – and Joe Manchin's – efforts to stem the tide of bureaucratic tyranny, we'd be much worse off than we are now.
Late last year, she and Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota introduced a bipartisan resolution of disapproval in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Clean Power Plan regulations for existing power sources.
Earlier in the year, Capito had introduced the Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act, co-sponsored by Manchin, to “fight back against the assault on coal, and the broader threat to affordable, reliable energy nationwide.”
With only a month to go until the end of a miserable, misanthropic, eight-year assault on the American Dream, Capito is shifting gears and looking for ways to undo the damage and offer genuine hope and change for the better.
Her proposed Creating Opportunities for Rural Economies (CORE) Act would leverage available tax credits to support new investment and business development in distressed communities across West Virginia.
Those available tax credits were made possible by the New Markets Tax Credit program, launched in 2000 to provide incentives for investment in low-income communities and operated through the U.S. Treasury Department.
Only 17 projects totaling $97 million have been invested in in West Virginia through the program, even though more than $40 billion has been claimed for projects in other states across the country.
Capito wants West Virginians to know what projects are eligible for the credits and ensure that the neediest communities get them. With $10.5 billion in new market tax credits to be dispersed over the next three years, her CORE Act will set aside 5 percent annually for investments in 12 under-served states like West Virginia.
Help is on the way.