Op-eds

In West Virginia, we’ve become all too familiar with the trials and tribulations of well-known projects like Corridor H, the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the new Nucor steel mill face as they navigate the burdensome federal review process and any litigation that follows. Businesses often clear a regulatory hurdle only to find themselves right back in permitting purgatory after an agency changes its mind on a permit or outside groups file a frivolous lawsuit. In practical terms, these... Read More

For good reason, we often hear of the need to “unleash American energy” and “return to energy independence.” To accomplish this, we should be enacting policies that actually make it easier to produce and export energy of all kinds here in the United States. That means sources that continue to provide baseload power generation like coal, oil, and natural gas, and also renewables like wind and solar. That must also include the need to strengthen and advance nuclear energy,... Read More

If you build it, they will come. Good luck getting a government permit to build it. That’s the hard part. The federal permitting process forces American energy infrastructure to endure a maze of regulations, mountains of paperwork, bureaucratic foot-dragging, and costly studies. That’s all before the court battles begin. The economy and the American people are the big losers. A recent review by the Council on Environmental Quality found that just completing an Environmental Impact... Read More

If you build it, they will come. But good luck getting a government permit to build it. That’s the hard part. The federal permitting process forces American energy infrastructure to endure a maze of regulations, mountains of paperwork, bureaucratic foot-dragging, and costly studies. That’s all before the court battles begin. The economy and the public are the big losers. A recent review by the Council on Environmental Quality found that just completing... Read More

If you build it, they will come. Good luck getting a government permit to build it. That’s the hard part. The federal permitting process forces American energy infrastructure to endure a maze of regulations, mountains of paperwork, bureaucratic foot-dragging, and costly studies. That’s all before the court battles begin. The economy and the American people are the big losers. A recent review by the Council on Environmental Quality found that just completing an Environmental... Read More

“I’m tearful because I sit here looking at upcoming bills and I’m having to decide to pay a bill or buy groceries.”That’s what one West Virginian wrote to me, but unfortunately, it’s a common theme I’m hearing all across our state.In reality, families in West Virginia and across our nation continue to struggle because the policies and priorities of the Biden administration have made essential items and goods unaffordable. Whether it be gas, goods and services, energy prices, utility costs, small... Read More

“I’m tearful because I sit here looking at upcoming bills and I’m having to decide to pay a bill or buy groceries.”That’s what one West Virginian wrote to me, but unfortunately, it’s a common theme I’m hearing all across our state.In reality, families in West Virginia and across our nation continue to struggle because the policies and priorities of the Biden administration have made essential items and goods unaffordable. Whether it be gas, goods and services, energy prices, utility costs, small... Read More

“I’m tearful because I sit here looking at upcoming bills and I’m having to decide to pay a bill or buy groceries.”That’s what one West Virginian wrote to me, but unfortunately, it’s a common theme I’m hearing all across our state.In reality, families in West Virginia and across our nation continue to struggle because the policies and priorities of the Biden administration have made essential items and goods unaffordable. Whether it be gas, goods and services, energy prices, utility costs, small... Read More

“I’m tearful because I sit here looking at upcoming bills and I’m having to decide to pay a bill or buy groceries.”That’s what one West Virginian wrote to me, but unfortunately, it’s a common theme I’m hearing all across our state.In reality, families in West Virginia and across our nation continue to struggle because the policies and priorities of the Biden administration have made essential items and goods unaffordable. Whether it be gas, goods and services, energy prices, utility costs, small... Read More

“I’m tearful because I sit here looking at upcoming bills and I’m having to decide to pay a bill or buy groceries.”That’s what one West Virginian wrote to me, but unfortunately, it’s a common theme I’m hearing all across our state.In reality, families in West Virginia and across our nation continue to struggle because the policies and priorities of the Biden administration have made essential items and goods unaffordable. Whether it be gas, goods and services, energy prices, utility costs, small... Read More

(Editor’s note: This column was originally released Saturday afternoon, prior to President Biden’s visit to Texas) After almost two years in office, President Biden has said he is finally going to visit our southern border. This checks a box, but it doesn’t even begin to solve the problems we are facing there. Visiting El Paso, Texas is one thing, but it’s another to actually see the thousands of people gathered on the other side of the southern border waiting to cross... Read More

After almost two years in office, President Joe Biden has said he is finally going to visit our southern border. This checks a box, but it doesn’t even begin to solve the problems we are facing there. Visiting El Paso, Texas is one thing, but it’s another to actually see the thousands of people gathered on the other side of the southern border waiting to cross into the country illegally. It’s unclear if the president even has plans to witness this.  But, before we can even address that, it can’t... Read More

The damage done by President Biden’s anti-energy policies is no secret to working families across the United States. How we got here is plain to see for those who now pay higher utility bills and put more expensive gas in their cars and trucks. It turns out that shutting down pipelines, stopping oil and gas leases, denying or delaying permits and targeting energy producers with fees and burdensome regulations eventually strains families’ budgets and strangles the U.S. economy.Whether... Read More

The damage done by President Biden’s anti-energy policies is no secret to working families across the United States. How we got here is plain to see for those who now pay higher utility bills and put more expensive gas in their cars and trucks. It turns out that shutting down pipelines, stopping oil and gas leases, denying or delaying permits and targeting energy producers with fees and burdensome regulations eventually strains families’ budgets and strangles the U.S. economy.Whether... Read More

The damage done by President Biden’s anti-energy policies is no secret to working families across the United States. How we got here is plain to see for those who now pay higher utility bills and put more expensive gas in their cars and trucks. It turns out that shutting down pipelines, stopping oil and gas leases, denying or delaying permits and targeting energy producers with fees and burdensome regulations eventually strains families’ budgets and strangles the U.S. economy.Whether... Read More

The damage done by President Biden’s anti-energy policies is no secret to working families across the United States. How we got here is plain to see for those who now pay higher utility bills and put more expensive gas in their cars and trucks. It turns out that shutting down pipelines, stopping oil and gas leases, denying or delaying permits, and targeting energy producers with fees and burdensome regulations eventually strains families’ budgets and strangles the U.S.... Read More

Within the next few weeks, the U.S. Senate will consider a nomination that could have deep impact on West Virginia and Indiana businesses and their employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is one of those Washington, D.C. agencies that could, through overregulation and interference, disrupt American business and put jobs in danger.We have seen far too often in West Virginia and Indiana how unelected bureaucrats have hindered advancement and progress through their policy... Read More

With the U.S. economy now likely in a recession, inflation at its highest point in 40 years and Americans paying more for just about everything, you’d think now would be a good time to hold off on pouring more fuel on the fire.Yet, inexplicably, Democrats have revived their reckless tax-and-spending spree, formerly known as Build Back Better and now, laughably, called the “Inflation Reduction Act."In doing so, they are choosing to ignore the consequences of inflation for working... Read More

For too long, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. have ignored West Virginians while they make decisions that fundamentally reshaped our state’s economy and everyday way of life. As a candidate, President Biden promised that he would be a “President for All Americans.” I had hoped that President Biden would stay true to his word and steer us away from that harmful past. A year and a half into this administration, it is clear the president instead wants to double down on a... Read More

The United States has a permitting problem.At a time when energy and natural resource security is more important than ever, we need an all-of-the-above approach to unleash American energy. However, that will not be possible until the Biden administration supports our drillers, miners, and energy innovators with tools to help do their jobs. For now, the administration seems focused on the opposite — shutting down domestic production in the long term and placing ill-suited measures on a much... Read More