West Virginia Executive - Spring 2014

www.wvexecutive.com $7.50

Fighting Fire and Ice

FestivALL Marks 10 Years

Foreign Direct Investment

Keith BurdetteExploring Our Economic Potential

wvu.edu

Joseph SterankaBS, Journalism, 1979Seven years as CEO of the PGA of America

Previously worked for sports agency ProServe, directing marketing campaigns for Arthur Ashe, Michael Jordan, and Jimmy Connors, and for the NBA’s Washington Bullets and Cleveland Cavaliers

Dr. Bernadette Mazurek MelnykBS, Nursing, 1979Associate Vice President for Health Promotion; University Chief Wellness Officer; and Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing, The Ohio State University

Internationally recognized expert in intervention research and child and adolescent mental health, author of four books and over 210 publications

Dr. Vicente Anido Jr.BS, Pharmacy, 1975; MS, Pharmacy Administration, 1978Chairman and CEO, Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Ophthalmology industry veteran and leader with 37+ years of multinational general management experience at both large and small companies

Dr. Gopala KrishnaPhD, Genetics and Developmental Biology, 1984Executive Director and Head of Preclinical R&D and Competitive Intelligence, Supernus Pharmaceuticals

Helped develop the drugs Lipitor, a cholesterol reducer, and Omnicef, an antibiotic, creating a significant contribution to international wellness and worth $15 billion in annual sales

West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni 2014 Inductees

Since 1988, the Academy of Distinguished Alumni has honored graduates who attain national or international distinction in their profession or discipline. This prestigious award has been bestowed on more than 90 West Virginia University alumni. For more, visit alumni.wvu.edu/awards/academy.

Some Mountaineers not only touch the world in a special way, they change it. Each year, we honor these people for showing us what WVU graduates can achieve.

w e s t v i r g i n i a e x e c u t i v e 2

West Virginia’spremierbusiness publication!Published by Executive Ink, LLC

Editor in Chief Kensie HamiltonCreative Director Jennifer Jett

Senior Graphic Designer Lisa AffolterProduction Assistant Amy Arnett

Production Assistant Maggie Matsko

Business Development

Vice President of Business Development Mark [email protected] • 304.543.2505

photography

Mark Campbell/Prestige Photography and Videography, John Sibold, University Healthcare, Tracy Toler, Alpha Natural Resources, Tim Cox, Thorney Lieberman, Appalachian Power, West Virginia Department of Commerce,

Murray Energy Corporation, Lea Ann Parsley, U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, Chris Morris, Chase Henderson, Josh Saul, Greg Sava, Berkeley Springs Castle, Jim Wassel/Wassel Photo

and Design, Michael Marshall, Southern States Energy Board, WV Department of Commerce

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West Virginia Executive is published quarterly by Executive Ink, LLC, PO Box 6277, Charleston, West Virginia 25362. All rights reserved. All contents are copyrighted by Executive Ink, LLC; reproduction in whole or part without written permission from Executive Ink, LLC is expressly forbidden and punishable by law.

West Virginia Executive is not responsible for unsolicited materials. All opinions expressed within West Virginia Executive belong to the feature’s author and are not necessarily the opinions of the publishers or Executive Ink, LLC employees.

West Virginia Executive and Executive Ink, LLC reserve the right to refuse any idea, material or subject matter, especially those of racist, sexist, pornographic or religiously derogating intent.

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About thE CovEr Keith Burdette, cabinet secretary of the West Virg in ia Department of Commerce and execut ive director of the West Virg in ia Development Office.

Business Development Bonnie McBee [email protected] • 304.290.8464

Business Development Amie [email protected] • 304.345.551

Business Development Greg [email protected] • 304.261.9414

Managing Member Linwood [email protected] • 304.543.4142

Chris Deweese,Member

Charleston | Parkersburg

Celebrating40 Years of Excellence

40

www.suttlecpas.com

Our Natural ResourcesTeam is proud to serve

the Energy sector.

Contact: Chris Deweese 304-343-4126

The hospitals which make up the Thomas Health System –

Saint Francis and Thomas Memorial – deliver a full

range of healthcare services to our community.

Delivering Care

From the birth of a baby to

high-tech cardiac care

Managing Health

From diabetes education to the

latest in imaging services

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From joint replacement to

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Your CompleteHealthcare Team

4

Many West Virginians have a natural passion for their home state, and I think it’s fair to say that many of them also have a passion for the industry in which they work. Throughout my career, I have been blessed to meet and spend time with many of them. This same pride, enthusiasm and determination for a job well done was exemplified during our recent visit to the Alpha Natural Resources Running Right Leadership Academy.

Some of the Executive Ink girls—Lisa Affolter, Amy Arnett and Maggie Matsko—and I had the opportunity to spend some time with Gary Frampton, director of Administration, and Cheryl Stapleton, vice president of Learning and Develop-ment, at the academy. Within minutes of our arrival, it became obvious that this academy is much more than a job to them.

The Running Right Leadership Academy, located in Julian, WV, is the first of its kind in the nation. While miners visit this state-of-the-art mine safety and training center for job-related education, the academy offers more than just classrooms.

The 435,453-square-foot facility houses: • Five simulators, including a

continuous miner, haul truck, coal scoop and roof bolter;

• Virtual welders;• A welding training center and• A 96,000-square-foot mine

that can be filled with smoke for emergency training. During our tour, we certainly stepped

out of our comfort zones. I got to spend time behind the wheel of a simulated haul truck, and they even let me crash it! Each simulator gives a score based on

the number of errors that occur. I won’t bother to tell you how bad my score was.

We also got to experience first-hand what it’s like to use a lifeline to find our way out of a smoke-filled mine. It was an eye-opening experience that really made us respect what miners have been doing in West Virginia for centuries.

It’s wonderful for our team to immerse ourselves in the energy industry each year. It is an industry on which West Virginia was built, and it will continue to be an important sector moving forward. I hope you enjoy the stories, ads and photos featured in our 2014 Energy and Manu-facturing Issue.

Executive Road Trip

Affordable natural gas is enabling West Virginia’s Blenko Glass to invest in its staff and facilities. Think about it.

Artfully crafted. Efficiently powered.


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InLetter from the Publishers

Of all the issues of West Virginia Executive magazine the staff at Executive Ink produces, we get especially pumped up about the energy issue. It gives us an opportunity to explore in greater detail two of our oldest industries—coal and natural gas—while learning more about the opportunities for alternative energy sources in the Mountain State.

It didn’t take a great deal of digging for us to realize that we needed to broaden the focus of this annual issue. With the expansion of the Marcellus Shale devel-opment in West Virginia and the impact it is expected to have on a recovering man-ufacturing industry, it only made sense that this year’s issue encompass both the evolution of the industry and the resur-gence of manufacturing in West Virginia.

One sentiment that kept coming up during production was that, with regard to the manufacturing industry, the pieces seem to be falling into place for history to repeat itself. In 1920, the first major com-mercial cracker was built in Clendenin, WV by Union Carbide. The result was a man-ufacturing boom in the Kanawha Valley that generated a ripple effect of job creation and economic growth. With the surge in natural gas drilling in the Mountain State and Odebrecht’s exploration into building a cracker in Wood County, optimism is on the rise for the industry’s future.

While the construction of a cracker would have a significant impact on the manufacturing industry in West Virginia, the industry itself is solid—so much so, in fact, that companies from around the globe are drawn to expand their busi-nesses into the Mountain State. This re-alization led us to create “Mountain State Manufacturing,” a map that provides a snapshot of some of the companies oper-ating throughout the state. In this map,

located on page 40, logos mark the loca-tions of the domestic and international companies that are members of the West Virginia Manufactures Association.

In this issue, WVE had the opportunity to discuss the energy and manufacturing industries from an economic standpoint with Keith Burdette, executive director of the West Virginia Development Office. We also toured the Toyota Motor Manufactur-ing West Virginia facility in Buffalo, where we talked with Millie Marshall, the first female president in Toyota’s history, about the impact of the Toyota Way. Kenneth Nemeth, the executive director of the Southern States Energy Board, explores the possibilities of energy farms in “Di-versifying Appalachia,” and Bob Murray of Murray Energy Corporation tells us why the war on coal is hurting America and how he’s fighting back.

Our goal with every issue of WVE is to affect change in our state through con-versation and idea sharing. Behind every struggle we share with our readers is a bigger story: the determination of West Virginians to combine creativity with op-portunity to shape a brighter future. Our coal and natural gas industries—and, as a result, our manufacturing industry—are facing many challenges right now, like regu-lations that demand immediate change and rapid growth that requires innovation. By addressing these industry challenges, the state will be on track to become an economic powerhouse. The resources are available; the opportunity is ripe. It’s time for us to show the rest of the world what the great State of West Virginia has to offer.

NATIONAL RESOURCES + dedicated relationships

Serving the Energy Industry for More Than 35 Years

• ServingnaturalgasandcoalclientsthroughoutAppalachiaandbeyond

• Clientsranginginsizefromlocalbusinessestopublicly-tradedcompanies

• Long-standingrelationshipswithmanyofthetopnamesintheregionalenergymarket

• Local,seasonedexecutivesavailabletoofferideasandinsight

W ith stats like that,and advisors like this,

Shouldn’t We be Talking?k k

dhgllp.com | Charleston 800.924.6697 | Morgantown 877.826.6372

Certified Public Accountants and Advisors

Rick SlaterManaging Partner

Executive Committee Member

Sandra ThomasPartner, Director of Tax

Allison BallardAssurance Partner


63

FEATURES31 LetterfromtheGovernor

33 NaturalGasandthe GlobalEnergyEconomy

37 TaxCreditsforRenewable EnergyResources

40 MadeinWestVirginia

44 NaturalGas’Value-Added Opportunities

49 FiringonallCylinders

63 RunningRight LeadershipAcademy

69 OnTheGrid

74 BobMurrayandtheWaronCoal

78 ExportingCoalandNaturalGas

83 EnergyandtheEconomy

87 HereComestheSun

90 DiversifyingAppalachia

Exploring Our Economic PotentialKeith Burdette is the executive

director of the West Virginia

Development Office and

secretary of the West Virginia

Department of Commerce.

As a representative for the

state, he sees first-hand the

power of energy, the rebirth

of manufacturing and the

importance of positioning

the state for future growth.

59

49

74

33

[inthisissue|spring2014]

THEENERGyANDMANUFACTURiNGiSSUE

10 w e s t v i r g i n i a e x e c u t i v e

LEADERSHip16 youngGunsReloaded

19 CEOtoCEOMentoring

20 GenerationWestVirginia

COMMUNiTy23 2014photoContest

25 HospitalFoundations

REALWV102 FightingFireandice

106 FestivALLMarks10years

108 BerkeleySpringsCastle

DiSASTERpREpAREDNESS113 SBADisasterLoanprogram

114 CrisesintheWorkplace

117 BusinessCrisis Communicationplans

ECONOMy121 EmployeeClassification

123 ForeignDirectinvestment

LiFESTyLE126 ClimbingKilimanjaro

130 yellowBrickBank

iNEVERyiSSUE2 Masthead

4 Editor’sJournal

6 inink

12 Contributors

95 AroundtheState

135 RegionalFocus

140 AdFinder

[inthisissue|spring2014]

16

23

126

117 123

108

Your Inspiration Today is Fueling Creativity TomorrowAt Chesapeake we strive for continuous improvement in everything we do.

We’re finding energy and producing it smarter and more efficiently while reducing

our environmental footprint. We know the world we live in tomorrow depends on

the difference we make today. This is our commitment to leading a responsible

energy future.

Leading a Responsible Energy Future™


Amy ArnettAmy Arnett studied public relations at West Virginia University before her position as a production assistant with West Virginia Executive magazine. Born and raised in Philippi, WV, she is a proud West

Virginian and takes every opportunity to share her love for the Mountain State. In her spare time, Arnett enjoys community service and traveling, and she rarely turns down an adventure. She may be reached at (304) 941-0600, ext. 10, or by email at [email protected].

Matthew BallardMatthew Ballard is the president and CEO of the Charleston Area Alliance and Charleston Regional Chamber of Commerce. He currently serves on the Governor’s Disaster Recovery Board, the

Governor’s Broadband Council and the board of directors for the Chemical Alliance Zone, Alderson Broaddus University and the Hatfield-McCoy Trail. Ballard was recently elected to the national board of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives and as a member of the international committee of the International Economic Development Council.

Nikki BowmarNikki Bowmar is a public affairs specialist for the West Virginia District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) where she focuses on ensuring small busi-nesses know and under-

stand the programs and services offered by the SBA. Bowmar was born and raised in West Virginia, attended West Virginia University and resides in Bridgeport with her husband and son.

John FelmyJohn Felmy is the chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute. Felmy, who received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctor-ate degree in economics, has 30 years of expe-rience in energy, economic and environmental analysis. He is a member of several professional associations including the American Economics Association, the National Association for Business Economics and the International Association for Energy Economics.

Ann GreenAnn Green is the presi-dent of Ann Green Com-munications, a company headquartered in South Charleston, WV and is nationally recognized as a leader in bridging com-munications between

companies and communities. Green has more than 30 years of experience in consulting with more than 100 companies in 32 states. She holds bachelor’s degrees in history and journalism from Glenville State University and master’s degrees in journalism and behavioral science from West Virginia University.

Judy KnightJudy Knight is the director of Communications at the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, one of six U.S. regional energy efficiency organizations that promote energy ef-ficiency as a catalyst for

economic growth, work force development and energy security. Knight’s recent work includes an economic analysis that identifies the return on investment and job creation impacts achieved by energy efficiency investments in the Southeast.

Gordon LaneGordon Lane is a member of the energy and mining group at USI Insurance. A native West Virginian, Lane spent a semester studying international business and philosophy abroad at Oxford before

earning his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Charleston. After graduation, he went to work for a law firm where he handled energy investments and transactions. Lane lives in Charleston with his daughter, Caroline.

Brooke LordBrooke Lord is the manager of Marketing and Development for Dixon Hughes Goodman. Actively involved in a variety of community or-ganizations, Lord is the co-chair of Generation

West Virginia and serves on the board of the Kanawha County Public Library.

Michael MarshallMichael Marshall, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at West Liberty University and a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Wheeling, WV. Marshall is the author of three books and a dozen

scholarly psychology research articles. He and his wife of 36 years, Mary Kay, love to travel and enjoy visiting family in Alaska and mining for gold.

Maggie Matsko

Maggie Matsko, a pro-duction assistant for West Virginia Executive magazine, is a graduate of West Virginia University (WVU), where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in

journalism. A Delaware native, Matsko has free-lanced for the Delaware State News and WVU’s newsletter, Signals WV. Matsko is an alum member of Phi Sigma Pi and was a recipient of the 2011 Outstanding Advertising Senior Award for the Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism. She may be reached via email at [email protected].

Lance McCoyLance McCoy is the direc-tor of Communications at Pickering Energy Solutions, LLC. McCoy is a green entrepreneur and renewable energy enthusi-ast who holds a Residential Photovoltaic Site Assessor

Certificate from the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. He has served as a member of the Community Advisory Board for the West Virginia University Parkersburg Solar Technology Program since 2012, and he supported the formation of the first solar energy club in the state at Parkersburg High School.

Candace Nelson Candace Nelson is a senior communications specialist for Univer-sity Relations-News at West Virginia Universi-ty (WVU). Previously, Nelson worked as a re-porter for the Charleston

Daily Mail and has contributed to WV LiViNg, Spotlight West Virginia and Savor! West Virginia. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the Mountain State and blogging about food culture. Nelson is originally from Wellsburg, WV and currently lives in Morgantown with her pet turtle, Franklin.

[contributors|spring2014]

Business Services ConstructionEnvironmentalEnergy &

Natural Resources

ENERGY CHOICE FOR WEST VIRGINIA.

Employment& Labor

Creditors’ Rights& Insolvency Litigation Real Estate/Title

The right choice for your legal counsel is a fi rm that understands every aspect of energy law and is fl exible

and responsive to your needs. Our diverse team in West Virginia includes former in-house counsel and

attorneys with litigation, environmental, regulatory and legislative backgrounds important to energy clients.

We have more than 25 years of experience in energy and environmental law, and our focus is the

Appalachian Region. Make an informed choice about your next legal project. Contact us in Charleston

at 681.205.8888.

WEST VIRGINIA PENNSYLVANIA OHIO NEW JERSEY


Kenneth Nemeth

Kenneth Nemeth is the secretary and executive director of the Southern States Energy Board, where he is responsible for the direction, for-mulation, development, demonstration and imple-

mentation of all board programs. Nemeth is the principal investigator for the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership and serves on numerous boards, organizations, task forces and partnerships representing energy and environ-mental strategies and technologies.

Monica Orosz Monica Orosz is a former longtime reporter and editor for the Charleston Daily Mail who now free-lances, dividing her time between West Virginia and South Carolina. Orosz makes sure she returns

home for FestivALL every year.

Joseph PriceJoseph Price is a member of Robinson & McElwee PLLC, a Charleston-based law firm with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry. For more than 30 years, Price has represented clients in

employee benefits litigation, wage and hour matters, employment discrimination cases and arbitrations on both federal and state levels. He represents clients in the oil and natural gas, chemical and manufacturing industries, as well as service busi-nesses and the timber industry.

Christine RischChristine Risch is the director of Resource and Energy Economics for the Center for Business and Economic Research at Marshall University. She focuses on regional industry and market

analysis and energy and environmental policy analysis. Her specific industries of focus are natural gas, coal, electricity, energy efficiency and renew-able energy. Risch designed the West Virginia Stock Index, which tracks the top 25 publicly traded firms that do business in West Virginia.

F. Scott RotruckF. Scott Rotruck is the director of Energy and Transportation Services at Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC. He serves as a key player on the firm’s government rela-tions team, focusing on

the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale plays. Prior to joining Spilman, Rotruck served as Chesapeake Energy’s vice president of Corporate Development and State Government Relations.

Aaron RubyAaron Ruby is an energy consultant based in Richmond, VA. He spe-cializes in state and federal energy policy, including electricity generation and transmission. Ruby grad-uated with a bachelor’s

degree from the University of Virginia in 2006.

Lisa SableLisa Sable is the regional executive of Delaware Val ley for Vis tage International, the world’s leading CEO member-ship organization. Sable received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and

holds a master’s degree in business administra-tion. She has more than 20 years of business de-velopment experience helping regional executives of Fortune 1000 companies achieve their sales goals through the design and execution of local marketing programs.

Joseph SchaefferJoseph Schaeffer is an attorney at Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC’s Morgantown office where his primary area of prac-tice is general litigation with a special emphasis on legal work in the shale

gas industry. Schaeffer is a regular contributor to The Shale Play Today, Spilman’s monthly e-news-letter focusing on the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Ken SchuckersKen Schuckers is a tax professional who is active with a variety of energy incentives. He serves on the board of directors of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, one of six U.S. regional energy

efficiency organizations that promotes energy ef-ficiency as a catalyst for economic growth, work force development and energy security.

Jessica StrangJessica Strang is the d i rec tor o f Ta lent Development for Alpha Natural Resources. In her six-year tenure with the company, she has also managed internal com-munications and the

company’s NexGen college recruiting program, which she helped start. Strang graduated from King University in Bristol, TN with degrees in English and communications.

Elizabeth SudduthElizabeth Sudduth is a financial services ad-ministrator with First Century Bank. A native of Bluefield, WV, she moved back to the area in 2003. Sudduth graduated from Elon University in North

Carolina and received her master’s degree from West Virginia University. She currently serves as co-chair of Generation West Virginia and is ex-tremely active civically and within her community.

Tom WittTom Witt, Ph.D., is the managing director and chief economist at Witt Economics, LLC. As chief economist, Witt provides research and counsel to leading organizations and businesses both within

West Virginia and nationally. Prior to this position, he was a professor of economics and the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University. He is the author of the recently-released study entitled “Building Value from Shale Gas: The Promise of Expanding Petrochemicals in West Virginia.”

[contributors|spring2014]

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in 2002, West Virginia Executive named David McKinley, the vice president of Investments and senior member of McKinley Investment Group, one of its Young Guns, acknowledging his devotion to West Virginia and his philosophy regarding the benefits of community involvement. McKinley has made it his personal mission to offer solutions rather than simply talk about the problems in West Virginia.

In his Young Guns interview in 2002, McKinley spoke of his decision to stay in the Mountain State, as well as ways to create opportunities for future generations. Today, as the president and managing director of McKinley Carter Wealth Services, he shares with us the decision that led him to start his own company, the benefits of owning a West Virginia-based business and the impact community service has had on him, personally and professionally.

WVE: In 2003, after 10 years in the financial services industry, you founded McKinley Carter Wealth Services. What led you to go out on your own?

DM: I realized that after working in bank trust and brokerage environments, these departments were unable to provide support to advisory teams like mine that focused on more comprehensive financial advisory services. I decided to form a new company that would meet those needs, and today, we employ 35 people who share this same vision.

WVE: With expansions into Maryland and Pennsylvania, why have you chosen to maintain your headquarters in West Virginia?

DM: With so many of our family members, friends, employees and clients living in West Virginia, I can’t imagine moving our headquarters to anywhere else. This has been a great environment in which

to build McKinley Carter Wealth Services and attract employees who share our appreciation for the Mountain State. This has translated into a very successful delivery of services to clients by compassionate and caring advisors and employees.

WVE: In your Young Guns profile in 2002, you were quoted as saying, “I believe that to achieve overall success in life, it is important to have a supportive spouse, to be surrounded by trustworthy and dedicated professionals and to embrace a work ethic in which failure is not an option.” How have these three things helped shape you as a professional?

DM: Now, having been married for nearly 17 years and having 35 employees, I am even more confident than ever in making this statement. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that I cannot achieve my vision for a great family and thriving company by myself. Relationships with key people have been extremely important to the successes we’ve experienced at home, at work and in the community.

WVE: In your Young Guns profile, you also shared that your philosophy

regarding community involvement has been based on the saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” How have you remained involved in your community and how has that helped you grow as a professional?

DM: I’ve served on many boards over the years, and the two philanthropic organizations to which I have most recently dedicated a lot of my time and energy are the local Boy Scouts council and my alma mater, West Liberty University. Other roles to which I am dedicated are serving as a trustee of the West Virginia Investment Management Board and a member of an advisory council to the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank. While I believe I’ve contributed to the boards on which I’ve served, I am equally confident that I’ve grown as a leader through my service to community organizations by working with great board members and executive directors.

By Maggie MatskoPhotography by Mark Campbell/

Prestige Photography and Video

Young GunsDavid McKinley

Class of 2002

[leadership]

Services Provided:• EstatePlanning

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At 21st Century Financial, we help provide for the financial planning needs of our clients through a discovery process—we gather facts, analyze data and design strategies in several key areas of planning.

At 21st Century Financial, our client is our number one priority. We are dedicated to providing you with products and services best suited to meet your needs, and we welcome the opportunity to work with you.

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John ChambersPhone:(304)429-2505•Fax:(304)429-2504E-mail:[email protected]

John Chambers is a lifelong resident of West Virginia and has been in the financial services industry for 30 years. He graduated from Marshall University with a business degree and recently completed his Masters of Business Administration with a concentration

in Accounting. Chambers takes an analytical approach to giving his clients the best advice possible. Over the years, he has won numerous awards and attended many training conferences. He will sit for the CPA exam in 2015.

Mark Vujevich*Phone:(412)733.4031•Fax:(412)733.4070E-mail:[email protected]

Mark Vujevich is a 1991 graduate of Lafayette College where he received his bachelor’s degree in economics. A member of NAIFA, GAMA and MDRT, Vujevich has spent the last ten years helping individuals maximize their wealth. He specializes in business planning,

business succession planning, estate planning, wealth transfer, life insurance and education and retirement funding strategies. Vujevich has won numerous industry awards and has attended many industry conferences during his time with 21st Century Financial.

Mark Vujevich*: 381 Mansfield Ave., Ste. 131Pittsburgh, PA 15220

John Chambers:503 5th Ave.Huntington, WV 25701

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At Charleston Dental Associates, we have been providing dental care to individuals and families in the Charleston and surrounding area since 1977. Dr. Ernest Pennington, Dr. Stephen Graziani and Dr. John Jackfert are graduates of West Virginia University School of Dentistry and focus their practice on Cosmetics, Endodontics and Children’s Dentistry. Our highly skilled and experienced dentists offer a broad range of general and cosmetic services, including dental implants, crown and bridge and periodontal gum disease treatments. With more than 45 years of experience here at Charleston Dental Associates, we are creating new smiles with old-fashioned service.

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iMagine fOr a MOMent being the CEO of a company. It’s your responsibility to make good decisions that are best for the company as a whole. While you may have a terrific senior management team and a highly-engaged board of directors, the people giving you advice also have a personal stake in the outcome. While these board members, in most cases, sincerely offer their best input and counsel, the situation does raise the question: Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs who have no personal, vested interest in the outcome?

Here are five benefits CEOs will realize by regularly engaging with a peer advisory group.

Empathy

It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what it’s like to be in their shoes. Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance or human resources; they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day. The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience. Its impact is not only felt professionally but personally as well.

[leadership]

Objectivity

An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome. Fellow CEOs from noncompeting businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration. They can ask the hard questions without regard for personal relationships or other organizational or industry blinders. It’s an eye-opening experience for many CEOs when their peers can provide insight on a specific challenge after looking at the scenario through a completely impartial lens.

Shared Challenges

While the CEOs in a peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology and uncertainty. The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from one another.

Learning

While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector. Sharing ideas across industries helps CEOs learn from one another. What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures. This display of trust creates an environment in which a CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow. And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.

Accountability

As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being the leaders that they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on the stated course of action. This atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.

CEO to CEO MentoringFive Reasons to Join a Peer Advisory Group

When it comes to simultaneously working on your business and working on yourself, the peer advisory model has no match. Given the many benefits—both personal and professional—to be reaped through participation in a group dynamic like this, CEOs should take a closer look at how these groups can help their organization. By Lisa Sable


Imagine a West Virginia that is a destination for talented young people who are actively involved leaders on the local, regional and state level. Imagine that they know West Virginia as a vibrant, proud and successful community of young individuals where it is possible to obtain a life in which they can find a balance of personal, professional and play. Imagine a West Virginia that maintains a strong commitment to involving the next generation of leaders

and serves as a national example of innovation and leadership in attracting, retaining and advancing young talent. This is Generation West Virginia’s (GWV) vision.

Generation West Virginia is a statewide coalition of young talent organizations that was founded in 2007 with seed money from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. As a stra-tegic partner of Vision Shared, GWV shares the mission, ob-jectives and goals of strengthening the economy, transforming communities, promoting progressive government and improv-ing the quality of life for West Virginians.

There are 13 young talent organizations in West Virginia: Generation Beckley, Generation Charleston, Generation GAP in Mercer County, Generation Greenbrier Valley, Generation Morgantown, Generation Putnam, Generation Randolph, Pendleton County YPC in Franklin, Generation Huntington, North Central Young Leaders, OV Connect in Wheeling, Young Emerging Leaders of the Mid-Ohio Valley and the Young Pro-fessionals of the Eastern Panhandle. While these local organi-zations operate independently in their respective regions and differ in structure and stages of growth, GWV as a whole serves as a strategic partner and resource center and represents a col-lective voice for the young talent in our state.

“Generation Randolph is now in its second year of develop-ment and was formed because of the current disconnect in our region among the younger demographic,” says Kate Reed, co-chair of Generation Randolph and a Generation West Virginia board member. “There are so many opportunities in our community to get involved, but very few young professionals were being sought out to become volunteers or mentors or to make meaningful con-nections across industry lines. Generation Randolph provides an opportunity for the under-45 movers and shakers in our area to find an outlet for their talents and start making a positive impact.”

Carissa Collins, the membership chair for Generation Mor-gantown, joined the Morgantown group at the age of 22 and says with certainty that it was a move that proved to be a catalyst for both her career and her adult life. “I’ve met the most amazing friends and mentors, learned to be an effective board member and gained a deeper understanding of what it means to be a professional,” she says.

GWV has been making noticeable strides in advancing the interests of young talent poised to become West Virginia’s next leaders. Since 2008, GWV has worked with the state’s execu-tive branch through the Governor’s Council of Young Talent,

a group comprised of a representative from each of Generation West Virginia’s organizations. Working with former Governor Joe Manchin and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, the group has shared ideas and explored opportunities for collaboration.

Through this partnership, several members have become more actively involved in state government through appointments to state boards and commissions. Four members are currently serving on a state level with the West Virginia Economic Development Authority, West Virginia Lottery Commission and Early Child-hood Advisory Council. In order to become invested in prepar-ing for the state’s future and contributing to its present, these young leaders need a seat at the table on state boards such as these in order to contribute to the planning and decision making.

As part of its outreach efforts, Generation West Virginia has held a day at the legislature for the past several years, creating an opportunity for others to get involved and learn about the legisla-tive process. This event invites young talent to gather at the Capitol for a day of roundtable discussions, meetings with leadership of the legislative and executive branches of state government, lead-ership training, legislative education and state-level networking.

“Generation West Virginia Day at the Legislature is a won-derful opportunity for young professionals from around the state to meet with their representatives,” says M.R. Rowe, co-chair of the GWV legislative and policy committee. “It is our intention to not only be involved and informed at the local and state levels but also to encourage members of our young talent organizations to run for office and make a difference.”

GWV’s vision is attainable, and the organization continues to support the growth of the local young talent organizations through the work of its five committees: leadership develop-ment, legislation and policy, best practices and outreach, mar-keting and economic development. It’s not just a group of young leaders but a growing movement and energy of new ideas and a promising future for the state.

For more information on how to get involved with the movement, visit generationwv.com.

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King’s knowledge and experience have led him into a variety of photography specialties; commercial, weddings, aerial stills and video, school and sports, family, senior and infant portraits, boudoir and pin-up are all part of his repertoire. Most recently, one of his images received a Silver Award in the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International photography contest, and in April, he had production images published in Digital Photo Pro, Rangefinder and Shutterbug magazines.

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each suMMer, seventh and eighth grade students from around the state who are interested in the medical field get the

opportunity to attend a junior nursing academy where they learn basic nursing skills: taking vital signs, checking blood glucose levels, practicing shot administration on oranges and learning about CPR and infection control. This academy, which invests in the future of the Mountain State, is funded by The Foundation for the Thomas Memorial and Saint Francis Hospitals and is just a small piece of what hospital foundations are accomplishing across West Virginia.

“The foundation touches lives, from newborns to the elderly, through programs funded and equipment purchased,” says Executive Director Sandy Zando. “We consider all that we do as an investment to make our community a happier and healthier place to live.”

The community impact made by Thomas Memorial and Saint Francis hospitals is always expanding, and the events and programs sponsored by the founda-tion have become wildly successful. Other campaigns include The Gap Fund, which helps provide patients

with medications and equipment after discharge; the Drive-Thru Flu Shot Program; an infant car seat program; the Baby Bed Project, which gives baby beds to families in need and the Kidoodle Kids’ Day Health and Safety Fair, an event that promotes education and healthy lifestyles for children and provides 500 free bicycle helmets to attendees.

The Foundation for the Thomas Memorial and Saint Francis Hospitals is just one of several hospital foundations in West Virginia working to make a dif-ference in hospital facilities and care. Hospital founda-tions each operate with specific goals for their hospi-tals, but they all work toward a common overall goal to raise, receive and provide funds to financially assist with capital projects, technology, health, education and community involvement for their organizations.

Many hospitals award scholarships for students pursuing careers in health care. “We sponsor 37 $1,000 scholarships each year, and students are eligible to receive these scholarships for up to four years,” says Bill Hennessey, executive director of the Mon General Hospital Foundation. Mon General’s goals, like many hospitals in the state, are deep and community-based. “Mon General has a vision of being an exceptional hospital. That means investing in our people and fa-cilities to the highest levels to achieve great patient care outcomes. It is simply not possible to achieve those targets without private funds.”

As a large, regional employer, Mon General knows they have a duty to their community. They employ more than 1,300 people and treat more than 9,000 inpatients, 180,000 outpatients and 31,000 emer-gency patients a year. In order to continue to serve this number of West Virginians, they work tirelessly to coordinate events and programs that best support their needs. Their fundraisers include concerts with the Fabulous Hubcaps and Rick K. & The Allnight-ers, four golf events around the state and wine tastings at Heston Farms in Fairmont.

BY AMY ARnEtt“We consider

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[community]

GolfersatTheFoundationfortheThomasMemorialandSaintFrancisHospitals’AnnualGolfTournament.


The Mon General Health System is ever-expanding, and this year, Preston Memorial Hospital is becoming a part of it. With the combination of the two health systems, Preston Memorial is now fundraising for a capital campaign called “Building a Healthy Future” through 2018, which will go toward building a new facility in Preston County.

Kimberly Colebank, director of the Preston Memorial Hospital Foundation, says the relationship will also allow for more expansion, something that will help promote hospital programming and care. “Everyone in the community benefits from the founda-tion, not only the patients,” says Colebank. “When a healthy hospital exists, there is a stronger economic base, more opportu-nity for growth and expanded partnering abilities throughout the entire community.”

Another hospital system that knows about partnerships is WVU Healthcare (WVUH). The hospital is a partner with the University Healthcare system, which includes Berkeley Medical Center (BMC) in Martinsburg and Jefferson Medical Center (JMC) in Ranson. This year, the foundation has undergone a rebranding after operat-ing as WVUH-East since 2005.

Working for two medical centers has created a regional partnership that focuses on rewarding members of the Eastern Pan-handle as a whole. The foundation closed a capital campaign in December 2013 that raised $2.25 million for both medical centers and funded a new catheterization lab, ICU and emergency department at BMC, as well as a new Women’s Imaging Center at JMC.

In order to raise funds, University Health-care works in three ways: by holding fund-raising events, by having personal donors and by owning property. The rent paid on those properties goes toward the founda-tion’s annual income, which has been invalu-able to the foundation’s efforts. University

Healthcare focuses on all areas to make sure they are providing for the needs of their hospitals, and they have found inno-vative ways to do it.

Personal donations, especially wills and bequests, are a common occurrence for hospital foundations, and University Health-care has taken care to make sure people are aware of these opportunities to provide support. “We hosted an estate planning professionals seminar on our BMC campus in February,” says Vice President of Mar-keting and Development Teresa McCabe. “This was an opportunity for estate planning professionals to obtain their continuing education licenses, and it also gave the hospital a platform to communicate the need for donations in the event that their clients might want to donate to our foun-dation or include us in their estate plans.”

While some hospital foundations have a broad approach to organizing events, the use of programming and projects to build or improve facilities also covers the spectrum. Even though Princeton Com-munity Hospital (PCH) serves a smaller community, their hopes and outlook reach far and wide. They have recently become affiliated with Charleston Area Medical Center in order to help extend their reach, and the programs they have enacted serve their patients in inventive ways.

According to Crystal Mabe, executive services coordinator for PCH, the hospital foundation’s largest project to date was the construction of the Princeton Health and Fitness Center (PHFC). “PHFC is a 44,000-square-foot facility that holds two racquetball courts, a group exercise studio, strength training equipment, cardiovascu-lar fitness areas, a quarter-sized basketball court, massage therapy, a lap pool and a therapy pool,” says Mabe. “The state-of-the-art facility is located across from the

hospital, and our Kid’s Korner and Kid’s Gym areas are also available for children ages 12 weeks to 12 years.”

In addition to the fitness center, PCH offers a hospitality house, which has private sleeping quarters, a common area kitchen and a living room for families to use while their family member is in the hospital. PCH also has the Muldoon Scholarship Program and the Have A Heart Program, which helps patients cover expenses during times of crisis.

To raise funds, the foundation has three major fundraising events throughout the year: a golf tournament held at Glade Springs Resort; the Neighborhood Invest-ment Program, which offers community members the chance to donate and Lights of Love, an event held in December where the Lights of Love Tree is lit in a ceremony that remembers and honors loved ones.

Supporting loved ones is the ultimate goal of any hospital foundation, and all groups of the community need the best medical care, including children. Cabell Huntington Hospital Foundation knows that well, as their current campaign is to reconstruct the Hoops Family Children’s Hospital. When complete, the children’s hospital will include 25 new pediatric in-patient rooms, 10 pediatric intensive care rooms and the 36-bed neonatal intensive care unit that opened in 2007.

“Our foundation’s goal is to build lasting relationships with individuals, business-es and foundations that understand the unique issues children have when it comes to healing and health care issues,” says Charles Shumaker, Media and Commu-nity Relations manager for Cabell Hun-tington Hospital. “Community support has been—and will continue to be—an enormous part of our fundraising.”

Whether it is supporting technology, services and accommodations in hospitals or creating funding that increase educa-tion and invest in the future of health care employees, hospital foundations work for the betterment of our communities. As some of the largest employers in the state, West Virginia’s hospitals give back in many ways, and their foundations are designed to enable community members to do their part in giving back as well. Whether it’s through monetary giving or volunteerism, there are countless ways to support West Virginia’s hospital foundations.

Photography by John Sibold and University Healthcare

The2013JudeSilverScholarshiprecipientswithSusanSnowden,boardchair,andTeresaMcCabe,vicepresidentofMarketingandDevelopmentofUniversityHealthcare.The2013JudeSilverScholarshiprecipientswithSusanSnowden,boardchair,andTeresaMcCabe,vicepresidentofMarketingandDevelopmentofUniversityHealthcare.The2013JudeSilverScholarshiprecipientswithSusanSnowden,boardchair,andTeresaMcCabe,vicepresidentofMarketingandDevelopmentofUniversityHealthcare.The2013JudeSilverScholarshiprecipientswithSusanSnowden,boardchair,andTeresaMcCabe,vicepresidentofMarketingandDevelopmentofUniversityHealthcare.

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The Mountain State has long been one of the nation’s leading energy producers. In fact, companies from around the world are investing in West Virginia to meet the increasing demand for energy. This issue of West Virginia Executive comes at an exciting time in our state’s energy industry. For several years, we’ve worked hard to make the most of the increased energy production associated with the development of the Marcellus and Utica shales. Our goal is to do more than just extract and ship our resources elsewhere—we want to create manufacturing jobs right here in West Virginia.

Last November, I announced that Odebrecht will explore the development of a new petrochemical complex in Wood County, an area that provides a unique opportunity to construct a cracker that maximizes the downstream value-added benefits of the abundant Marcellus and Utica shale reserves. Since the announcement, Odebrecht has closed on property planned for an ethane cracker, three polyethylene plants and associated infrastructure for water treatment and energy co-generation, and Antero Resources has signed an agreement to act as the project’s anchor ethane supplier. While there is still work to be done, this project is a game changer for West Virginia, bringing billions of dollars in investment, thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs. We believe the potential manufacturing opportunities we could attract because of this cracker and the feedstock it would create will change the economic landscape of the Mountain State.

Last fall, I also announced that Carbonyx will invest tens of millions of dollars in a new, clean coal technology plant in Jackson County. Carbonyx will use state-of-the-art technology to produce a carbon alloy, which can be used as a clean substitute for coke, a key ingredient for making steel. The company estimates at full production it could use up to 1,750,000 tons of West Virginia metallurgic coal each year.

Both of these companies could have located anywhere in the world. In fact, both were heavily recruited, but they chose the Mountain State. Companies around the world are recognizing what we have known all along: West Virginia’s energy sector is expanding, and our energy future is bright. Our state is considered one of the most attractive locations for oil and gas development in the world. Nationally, we rank second in total coal production. In 2012, West Virginia produced enough electricity from renewable hydroelectric and wind generating facilities to power more than 250,000 homes. Together, these energy industries make our small state a powerhouse for domestic energy production.

I am proud of West Virginia’s diverse, strong and growing energy sector. It is the cornerstone of our state’s economy and plays a significant role in meeting our nation’s energy demands.

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the discOVery and development of large shale gas reserves in West Virginia are bringing about changes, both at

home and abroad. There are, of course, changes in job forecasts and state budgets, as well as the number of white trucks crisscrossing West Virginia. Beyond our borders, the shale gas revolution is also impacting the way gas is priced worldwide, which could affect the balance of political and economic power around the globe.

Setting a PriceThroughout Europe and Asia, the price of natural

gas has not been based on simple supply and demand but has historically been based on a linkage to the price of oil. This odd system originated in the early 1960s when the Dutch were developing a supergi-ant gas field that enabled them to begin exporting natural gas to neighboring countries. Prior to this, European countries had generally only used domes-tically produced gas for which the government set the price. This left the Dutch with the big issue of determining how to price the gas in order to sell it to other countries. To be competitive, they linked the price of their gas exports to other local fuel prices. Over time, this resulted in gas prices being linked to oil prices, with gas priced at approximately one-sixth of the price of oil based on the difference in the BTU output of gas versus oil.

BY GORDOn LAnE

From Port to Pipeline

Natural Gas and the Global Energy Economy


While this pricing system became the standard, another de-velopment was occurring that impacted pricing. Gas production on the European continent came to be dominated by a relatively small group of producers. The largest of these was Grazprom, the Russian state-controlled gas producer. With little options for consumers and no spot market, producers demanded that consumers enter into long-term contracts that often exceeded 20 years. The contracts required buyers to make large volume commitments with steep penalties for cancellation or noncom-pliance with volume commitments. It is estimated that this system has generated future purchase commitments worth as much as $2.1 trillion.

Commodity HubsMeanwhile, the U.S. developed its own system of pricing gas

based on the free market and supply and demand. American exploration and production companies were busy at work drilling gas wells that fed pipelines that eventually crossed the nation. These pipelines formed networks where gas could be bought and sold at hubs at a hub price the same way other commodities were sold. Harsh winters increased demand, and high prices for alternative fuels drove prices higher. Likewise, increased supplies of natural gas or reduced prices for alterna-tive fuels would drive prices down. The discovery of large shale gas deposits has done the same, increasing supply significantly and driving prices down materially in the process.

In the mid-1990s, the U.K. began developing a spot price system for their North Sea gas. The National Balancing Point system was similar to the U.S.’s Henry Hub, setting the main price within the system for natural gas in the U.K. However, limited pipelines to the European continent and an inability to effectively transport natural gas around the world still led to market isolation in Europe, Asia, the U.K. and the Americas.

This began to change with the confluence of several factors. First, large-scale pipelines connected the U.K. to Europe, making market-priced natural gas available on the continent. This was followed by reduced demand due to the global recession that began in 2008, and significant new gas supplies arriving from the Middle East. This combination led to a precipitous drop in spot prices for natural gas, rendering the old oil price-linked long-term contracts uncompetitive. In some cases, spot prices were as much as 35 percent lower than the long-term contract prices.

Political RepercussionsThe battle between market-priced natural gas and oil-linked

long-term contracts has enormous potential political impacts. As previously stated, some of the largest suppliers of natural gas to the EU countries have been Russian state-controlled, or formerly state-controlled, organizations. In fact, the Russian economy relies heavily on oil and gas exports, which account for as much as 25 percent of their overall economy. At times, the Russians have used their energy supply monopoly as leverage in foreign relations. In 2009, they cut off pipelines to exert pressure on European countries dependent upon them for critical fuel supplies. Additional reliable natural gas supplies could reduce that influence by providing greater energy independence and economic security to countries in Europe and around the world.

Facts About Liquefied Natural Gas Exports

Fact #1Each export terminal for LnG is a multi-billion-dollar investment, which not only creates construction jobs but also permanent manufacturing jobs. According to a July 2013 study from ICF International, employment from LnG exports is expected to create between 73,100 and 452,300 jobs between 2016 and 2035; 7,800 to 76,800 of those jobs will be in manufacturing, with 1,700 to 11,400 specifically in the refining, petrochemicals and chemicals sectors.

Fact #2At a time when states and municipalities are being forced to cut vital public services, just one LnG export terminal could create nearly $11 million in new tax revenue every year for federal, state and local governments. total government revenue (taxes plus royalties) from a single export facility could exceed $25 billion over a 30-year time frame.

Fact #3LnG exports could substantially reduce America’s trade deficit. According to a study by ICF International, just one LnG export facility could reduce the trade deficit by as much as $7.1 billion.

Fact #4Selling some of America’s natural gas would mean billions of dollars in new business for manufacturers in the United States. Each terminal that would be built to liquefy and export natural gas represents up to $10 billion in investment —not only in parts, materials and other equipment from companies across the United States but also in wages and salaries for American workers.

Fact #5A recent IHS CERA study found that shale gas development supported 1 million jobs in 2010, and expanded development will support 1.5 million U.S. jobs by 2015 and 2.4 million jobs by 2035. As studies from Deloitte and the Energy Information Administration highlight, most of the natural gas (63 percent) needed for LnG exports will come from new production.

SouRCe: Center for Liquefied natural Gas


Energy Speaks—It is our mission to provide factual information about the natural gas

industry in our state. Backed by nearly 2500 members and 34 Supporting Partners from

industry and business, we know that by working together we can reinvigorate our local

economies and share in the benefits of a growing natural gas industry.

Together we can strengthen the future of West Virginia.

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A New era in American energyWhat will change worldwide distribution, and how does that

impact West Virginians? The simple answer is liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG plants take natural gas and super cool it to minus 256. This reduces the size to 1/600th of its original size, enabling effective containerization and transportation to markets worldwide. The result is the creation of a global, market-based system for the distribution and sale of natural gas. Countries are no longer constrained by landlocked pipeline systems. If you have a port, you have a pipeline.

The U.S. and Canada are currently permitting and building LNG export facilities. Even with the cost of liquefying and transporting the gas, it is widely believed that the export of do-mestically produced LNG, especially from our own Marcellus and Utica gas, can be profitable.

Along with our unmined coal reserves and new oil discover-ies, shale gas is helping usher in a new energy era in America. This new era will not only strengthen our own national security and enhance our economy at home, but our gas reserves here in West Virginia, coupled with the LNG investment to trans-port the gas, are helping create a truly global gas market.

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With fOssil fuel reserVes

in decline and renewable energy output expected to double

nationwide between 2009 and 2035, West Virginia is on the cusp of an important transition—one with tremendous potential to concurrently drive job creation and robust economic growth. West Virginia currently produces more than 96 percent of its energy from fossil fuels, like coal, natural gas and petroleum, and 3.7 percent from renewable resources, according to the Energy Information Administration, which means right now the state is putting almost all of its energy eggs into one basket.

In 2012, the West Virginia Public Service Com-mission adopted interconnection standards that have encouraged the state to develop new energy sources like solar, hydro, wind and biofuels. To truly trans-form the energy market, though, businesses and ho-meowners need incentives to get on board. The good news is these incentives already exist.

When it comes to renewables, home and business owners need to consider using them in the right place at the right time. Placing solar panels on a shady plot of property would not be a good invest-ment for a homeowner. However, solar may be a good option for homeowners and businesses located in portions of Kanawha or Marion counties in West Virginia because they contain many open areas with good sun exposure. Likewise, there are parts of the state where wind power would be much more effective. For most individual and corporate citizens, a portfolio of both renewables and fossil fuels would be the best option. Just like you wouldn’t want all of your stock to be tied up in one company, a diverse energy portfolio will give you the greatest return while minimizing risk.

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West Virginia currently produces

more than 96 percent

of its energy from fossil fuels, like

coal, natural gas and

petroleum, and 3.7

percent from renewable resources,

according to the Energy

Information Administra-tion, which

means right now the state

is putting almost all of

its energy eggs into

one basket.

Renewable Energy IncentivesTax

Credits for Renewable

Energy Resources


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E-mail [email protected] Call 304.252.1918.

www.hscindustrial.com

There are several state and federal tax incentives to help offset the initial costs of adding renewable energy to a home or business. These credits can be complex, so you should consult your tax advisor if you are considering them.

Residential Solar energy Credit The West Virginia Legislature enacted the residential solar

energy credit of 30 percent with a maximum credit of $2,000 for the cost of purchasing and installing a solar system. In order to qualify, the solar system had to have been used to generate electricity, heat or cool a structure or provide hot water for use by a structure. This credit applies to purchases and instal-lations that occurred between July 1, 2009 and July 1, 2013. While credits for purchases made after July 1, 2013 are not available, the opportunity still exists to claim this credit on the 2013 West Virginia tax return for those who installed a solar system in the first half of 2013.

Alternative-Fuel Tax CreditThe West Virginia Legislature also enacted the Alternative-

Fuel Tax Credit for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2011. This tax credit can be used against personal income, business franchise or corporate net income taxes. Alternative fuels include compressed natural gas; liquefied natural gas; liq-uefied petroleum gas; fuel mixtures that contain 85 percent or


more by volume when combined with gasoline or other fuels such as methanol, ethanol or other alcohols; natural gas hy-drocarbons; hydrogen and electricity, including electricity from solar energy. There are four categories of alternative-fuel tax credits in West Virginia: the Alternative-Fuel Motor Vehicle Tax Credit, the Qualified Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Home Refueling Infrastructure Tax Credit, the Qualified Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Refueling Infrastructure Tax Credit and the Qualified Alterna-tive-Fuel Motor Vehicle and Qualified Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Refueling Infrastructure Refueling Tax Credit for owners of pass-through entities, such as a partnership or S corporation.

The amounts of the credit vary by type. For example, an in-dividual buying an alternative fuel vehicle may receive up to a $7,500 credit for a vehicle weighing fewer than 26,000 pounds, while vehicles weighing more can receive a credit of $25,000. For purchases made after April 15, 2013, only natural gas-fueled vehicles will qualify for the Qualified Alternative-Fuel Motor Vehicle Tax Credit. Also after April 15, 2013, the qualified home infrastructure installations credit is no longer available.

Renewable Fuel Incentives Generally, individuals can take advantage of a 30 percent

federal tax credit, with some income tax limitation rules, on the basis of energy property placed in service during the tax year. Energy equipment includes qualified solar property, quali-fied solar water heating property, qualified small wind energy property and qualified geothermal pump property. For qualified fuel cells, the owner must calculate kilowatt capacity to deter-mine the amount of the credit. This credit is available through December 31, 2016.

Tax Incentives for BusinessesThe federal government offers a significant number of tax

incentives for businesses. One recently extended law general-ly allows an investment tax credit of up to 30 percent of the basis of qualified property to companies that construct equip-ment to produce, distribute or use energy derived from solar, wind or geothermal. This credit is available for tax years prior to January 1, 2017.

Some of the other federal credits include the qualifying advanced coal project credit, advanced coal-based generation technology property, bio-diesel and biomass. These types of credits seem to come in and out of the law, sometimes very quickly. Therefore, care should be taken when considering the production or use of these types of energy sources.

Regardless of which energy sources might work best for you or your company, there are simple and practical ways to save energy. Start with low-cost improvements such as air sealing and weather stripping. Next, replace those old incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient ones. For additional ways to save energy and money, get an energy audit from a professional who has completed a home energy rating system or building performance institute certification.

Remember, as state and federal laws come in and out of favor, the ability to get the maximum return on investment requires careful analysis of how and when these laws are enacted, repealed or expire. As always, you should try to consider the right place at the right time so that you can take advantage of the winds of change that are coming.

Ladders Fixed, Straight, Caged, Crossover, Access, Industrial, Tank and Platform

Handrail Systems Platforms, Walkways, Stairways and Tank Tops

Platforms Walkways, Catwalks and Floating

Stair Systems Standard, Crossovers and Ships Ladders

Grating Smooth or Gritted, Square and Rectangular Mesh

Decking Smooth or Gritted and Fiberglass Stair Tread Covers

Covers and Enclosures Building Panels, Foam Core and Open

FRP Pipe and TanksHigh Performance, Field Modified and Fabricated

Locally owned and operated, GEF Incorporated has been providing industry leading fiberglass products, outstanding customer service and quality fabrication since 1987. GEF’s staff of engineering designers and fabricators holds more than a century of combined fiberglass design experience. This experience and GEF’s state-of-the-art facility allow the staff to specialize in custom designs that are tailored to meet the customer’s needs.

6497 Winfield RoadWinfield, WV 25213304-755-1600 • 1-800-784-0529Fax: 304-755-3150

www.gefinc.com

Innovative Solutions in

Fiberglass

*The companies represented on this map are members of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association.


industry reigns supreMe in West Virginia. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2011, the state reported 1,278 manufacturing facilities, and in 2012, total output from manufacturing was $6.2 billion. Manufacturing in West Virginia accounts for 9 percent of the total state output and employs 6.3 percent of its work force.

The Mountain State is home to a variety of sectors within the manufacturing industry like steel, aluminum, glass, wood, polymers, chemicals, ceramics, energy, pharmaceuticals and automotive. Companies from around the globe have taken notice of West Virginia’s strengths as a business host, such as its prime location within close proximity to half of the U.S. population, its access to natural resources, its quality work force and its lower operations costs. Manufacturing ac-counted for 46.6 percent of West Virginia’s exports in 2013, as well as 48,500 jobs. For chemical and polymer manufacturing alone, the state is home to nearly 140 companies that employ 12,800 workers.

We have created the following map to show that, despite its small size, West Virginia is a major player both in manufacturing exports and contributing to the global marketplace. West Virginia Executive partnered with the West Virginia Manufacturers As-sociation to showcase their members so our readers can see just how much the manufacturing industry means to the Mountain State. The companies, which are represented by their logos on the map, are cur-rently manufacturing products in the state. We hope the map and accompanying business profiles make our readers aware of all the products that are made in West Virginia.

Mountain State Manufacturing


AC&S, Inc.AC&S, Inc. is a chemical manufacturing company committed to a high standard of quality that supports a continuing effort to improve the industry’s management of chemicals.

Nitro, WV www.acandsinc.com

Acme Wood Preserving, Inc.• 25Employees• $516,000inAnnualPayrollAcme Wood Preserving is a wood preserving plant that has been pressure treating wood products since 1974 that are supplied to the railroad and also used in agriculture.

Princeton, WV www.acmewoodpreserving.com

AddivantAddivant is a leading global supplier of antioxidants, intermediates and inhibitors, polymer modifiers and UV stabilizer solutions. The Morgantown facility is also a certified Responsible Care facility.

Morgantown, WV www.addivant.com

Alfab, Inc.Alfab manufactures quality aluminum and steel dump bodies, trailers and oil field equipment designed to meet the specifications of each individual customer. In addition, Alfab provides repair services for existing equipment.

Smithville, WV www.alfab.com

Allevard Sogefi USA Inc.• 181Employees• $8MillioninAnnualPayroll

(ExcludingBenefits)Allevard Sogefi produces automotive engine products, including fluid filtration modules and air-intake

manifolds. The company supplies more than 25 vehicle models for customers.

Prichard, WV www.sogefigroup.com

Allied Processing Services• 24Employees• $1.1Millionin

AnnualPayroll• $230,730inAnnual

TaxesandBenefitsWorking within the Allied Logistics family of companies, Allied Processing Services has been providing quality toll services to the chemical industry from its four West Virginia locations since 1988. Allied deals primarily with dry powders.

Huntington, WV Kenova, WV Nitro, WV Parkersburg, WV www.alliedlogistics.com

Appalachian Wood Pellets• 20Employees Appalachian Wood Pellets specializes in the production of environmentally-friendly, cost-efficient wood pellets, which are a sustainable, green alternative for customers’ heating needs.

Kingwood, WV www.appalachianwoodpellets.com

ArcelorMittal Weirton, LLC• 1,000Employees• $66.5Millionin

AnnualPayroll• $2.2MillioninTaxes

PaidtoWVArcelorMittal Weirton is a steel finishing facility that provides tin mill products to the packaging industry. The facility has been producing steel in Weirton for more than 105 years.

Weirton, WV www.arcelormittal.com

ArmstrongArmstrong is a leader in the design and manufacturing of floors and ceilings. The company designs products for residential and commercial customers.

Beverly, WV www.armstrong.com

Ashland Inc. • 44Employees• $4.9Millionin

AnnualPayroll Ashland Inc. produces high-purity maleic anhydride for a number of industries, including chemical, paper and pharmaceutical. Ashland’s Kenova plant has been serving the chemical industry since 1976.

Kenova, WV www.ashland.com

Axens North America, Inc. – Willow Island Facility• 30EmployeesAxens North America, Inc. is an international provider of advanced technologies, catalysts, adsorbents and services to the refining, petrochemical, gas and alternative fuels industries. The Willow Island facility specializes in reforming catalyst production.

Belmont, WV http://usa.axens.net

Axiall Corporation• 500Employees• $38.2Millionin

DirectPayroll• $22.3MillioninBenefits• $2.48MillioninAnnual

TaxesPaidtoWVAxiall Corporation’s products include chlorine, caustic soda, hydrogen, hydrochloric acid and calcium hypochlorite. The plant opened in July 1943 and operated as PPG Industries before becoming Axiall Corporation in January 2013.

Proctor, WV www.axiall.com

Ball Corporation – Metal Food and Household Products Division • 300Employees• $13.4Millionin

AnnualPayrollOperating in West Virginia since 1965, Ball Metal Food and Household Products produces sheets and ends for food and aerosol cans in a 158,600-square-foot facility.

Weirton, WV (2 Locations) www.ball.com

Bayer CropScience • 175Employees• $20Millionin

AnnualPayroll• $1.2MillioninAnnual

TaxesPaidtoWVIn addition to producing thiodicarb, a pesticide active ingredient, the Bayer CropScience’s Institute Industrial Park provides shared services to other corporate tenants, including the Dow Chemical Company.

Institute, WV www.bayercropscience.us

Bayer MaterialScienceBayer MaterialScience manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives, sealants, polycarbonates and polyurethanes for various industries. Their products are primarily distributed to companies in automotive manufacturing, electrical engineering, electronics, construction, home products, sports and leisure.

New Martinsville, WV South Charleston, WV www.materialscience.bayer.com

Braskem • 110Employees• $7.2Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWV

Braskem is the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas and is the world’s leading biopolymers producer, manufacturing green polyethylene from sugarcane-based ethanol.

Kenova, WV www.braskem.com

C-E Minerals Processing, Inc.C-E Minerals Processing Inc. processes bauxite, brown fused alumina and alpha star, C-E Minerals’ proprietary premium bauxite. The Newell location provides a Northeast/Midwest distribution point and offers logistical advantages to many customers in the region.

Newell, WV www.ceminerals.com

Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC• 1,015Employees• $66Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWVConstellium is a global sector leader strongly committed to designing and manufacturing innovative and high-value-added aluminum products and solutions for a broad range of applications dedicated primarily to aerospace, automotive and packaging markets.

Ravenswood, WV www.constellium.com

Continental Brick Co.• 25EmployeesContinental Brick has been supplying brick for a variety of construction projects for 90 years. The company is known throughout the industry for its color control and excellent physical properties.

Martinsburg, WV www.continentalbrick.com


manifolds. The company supplies more than 25 vehicle models for customers.

Prichard, WV www.sogefigroup.com

Allied Processing Services• 24Employees• $1.1Millionin


TaxesandBenefitsWorking within the Allied Logistics family of companies, Allied Processing Services has been providing quality toll services to the chemical industry from its four West Virginia locations since 1988. Allied deals primarily with dry powders.

Huntington, WV Kenova, WV Nitro, WV Parkersburg, WV www.alliedlogistics.com

Appalachian Wood Pellets• 20Employees Appalachian Wood Pellets specializes in the production of environmentally-friendly, cost-efficient wood pellets, which are a sustainable, green alternative for customers’ heating needs.

Kingwood, WV www.appalachianwoodpellets.com

ArcelorMittal Weirton, LLC• 1,000Employees• $66.5Millionin

AnnualPayroll• $2.2MillioninTaxes

PaidtoWVArcelorMittal Weirton is a steel finishing facility that provides tin mill products to the packaging industry. The facility has been producing steel in Weirton for more than 105 years.

Weirton, WV www.arcelormittal.com

ArmstrongArmstrong is a leader in the design and manufacturing of floors and ceilings. The company designs products for residential and commercial customers.

Beverly, WV www.armstrong.com

Ashland Inc. • 44Employees• $4.9Millionin

AnnualPayroll Ashland Inc. produces high-purity maleic anhydride for a number of industries, including chemical, paper and pharmaceutical. Ashland’s Kenova plant has been serving the chemical industry since 1976.

Kenova, WV www.ashland.com

Axens North America, Inc. – Willow Island Facility• 30EmployeesAxens North America, Inc. is an international provider of advanced technologies, catalysts, adsorbents and services to the refining, petrochemical, gas and alternative fuels industries. The Willow Island facility specializes in reforming catalyst production.

Belmont, WV http://usa.axens.net

Axiall Corporation• 500Employees• $38.2Millionin

DirectPayroll• $22.3MillioninBenefits• $2.48MillioninAnnual

TaxesPaidtoWVAxiall Corporation’s products include chlorine, caustic soda, hydrogen, hydrochloric acid and calcium hypochlorite. The plant opened in July 1943 and operated as PPG Industries before becoming Axiall Corporation in January 2013.

Proctor, WV www.axiall.com

Ball Corporation – Metal Food and Household Products Division • 300Employees• $13.4Millionin

AnnualPayrollOperating in West Virginia since 1965, Ball Metal Food and Household Products produces sheets and ends for food and aerosol cans in a 158,600-square-foot facility.

Weirton, WV (2 Locations) www.ball.com

Bayer CropScience • 175Employees• $20Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWVIn addition to producing thiodicarb, a pesticide active ingredient, the Bayer CropScience’s Institute Industrial Park provides shared services to other corporate tenants, including the Dow Chemical Company.

Institute, WV www.bayercropscience.us

Bayer MaterialScienceBayer MaterialScience manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives, sealants, polycarbonates and polyurethanes for various industries. Their products are primarily distributed to companies in automotive manufacturing, electrical engineering, electronics, construction, home products, sports and leisure.

New Martinsville, WV South Charleston, WV www.materialscience.bayer.com

Braskem • 110Employees• $7.2Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWV

Braskem is the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas and is the world’s leading biopolymers producer, manufacturing green polyethylene from sugarcane-based ethanol.

Kenova, WV www.braskem.com

C-E Minerals Processing, Inc.C-E Minerals Processing Inc. processes bauxite, brown fused alumina and alpha star, C-E Minerals’ proprietary premium bauxite. The Newell location provides a Northeast/Midwest distribution point and offers logistical advantages to many customers in the region.

Newell, WV www.ceminerals.com

Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC• 1,015Employees• $66Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWVConstellium is a global sector leader strongly committed to designing and manufacturing innovative and high-value-added aluminum products and solutions for a broad range of applications dedicated primarily to aerospace, automotive and packaging markets.

Ravenswood, WV www.constellium.com

Continental Brick Co.• 25EmployeesContinental Brick has been supplying brick for a variety of construction projects for 90 years. The company is known throughout the industry for its color control and excellent physical properties.

Martinsburg, WV www.continentalbrick.com

Corhart Refractories Corhart Refractories, part of the Saint-Gobain Corporation, is the world’s leading manufacturer of specialty refractories for reinforcement and insulation fiberglass, specialty glass and container glass.

Buckhannon, WV www.sefpro.com

Cytec Industries Inc.Cytec, a producer of specialty material and chemical technologies, serves a diverse range of end markets, including aerospace and industrial materials, mining and plastics. The company’s focus is on developing products that change the way their customers do business.

Willow Island, WV www.cytec.com

Dow Chemical Company• 900Employees• $51Millionin

AnnualPayrollDow, through its subsidiary, Union Carbide, has a history of research, development and production in three West Virginia facilities. Products include key ingredients and building blocks that make up hundreds of materials that touch people’s lives every day.

Institute, WV South Charleston, WV (2 Locations) www.dow.com

DuPont Washington Works • 1,670Employees• $135Millionin

AnnualPayroll• $7MillioninPropertyand

SalesTaxesPaidtoWV DuPont Washington Works produces a variety of polymers that are used for a broad range of automotive, industrial and household applications, including Teflon®, Delrin®, Zytel® and Butacite®.

Belle, WV Martinsburg, WV Washington, WV www.dupont.com

Dyna-Mix Custom Mixed Rubber • 105Employees• $2MillioninAnnualPayrollDyna-Mix has been manufacturing rubber products for nearly 100 years. The parent company, Rex-Hide Inc., was founded in 1917, with the West Virginia location opening in 1987. The company mixes rubber formulations for all applications, molded and extruded.

Grafton, WV www.dyna-mix.com

E&H Manufacturing, Inc.• 16Employees• $650,000inAnnualPayroll• $20,000inTaxesPaid

AnnuallytoWVIncorporated in 1991, E&H Manufacturing, Inc. offers custom steel fabrication, including ASME process vessels, atmospheric storage and holding tanks. E&H also builds a portable timber bridge, an environmentally-friendly way to cross small streams with heavy loads.

Gandeeville, WV Leroy, WV www.eandhmanufacturing.com

Eagle Manufacturing Company• 180Employees• $11.5Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWVEagle Manufacturing, established in 1894, is a prime manufacturer of safety cans, safety cabinets, spill containment products, poly drums, material handling products and cigarette receptacles. Eagle products are compliance solutions that help industries meet regulations on hazardous materials.

Wellsburg, WV www.eagle-mfg.com

Ecolabs, Inc.Ecolabs, Inc.’s vision is to be the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services while providing and protecting what is vital.

Martinsburg, WV www.ecolab.com

Elementis Specialties• 38Employees• $3MillioninAnnualPayrollAt Elementis Specialties, the specialty products division provides high-value, functional additives to the architectural and industrial coatings, personal care and oil field markets that improve the physical properties and performance of its customers’ products.

Charleston, WV New Martinsville, WV www.elementis.com

Ergon, West Virginia, Inc.• 177EmployeesErgon, West Virginia, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ergon, Inc. Built in 1972 and acquired from Quaker State in 1997, the refinery has the capacity to process more than 20,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Newell, WV www.ergon.com

Essroc• 250Employees• $14Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWVEssroc, a member company of Italcementi Group, the fifth largest cement producer in the world, manufactures cement in its Martinsburg location. With headquarters in Parkersburg, the company also has six ready-mixed facilities in the state.

Martinsburg, WV www.essroc.com

Feroleto Steel Co., Inc.Feroleto Steel processes flat-rolled steel. Founded by Frank Feroleto in 1958, the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho America, Inc. in 1990 and has since expanded into Knoxville, TN and Weirton, WV to meet customers’ needs.

Weirton, WV www.feroletosteel.com

Flint Group• 70EmployeesFlint Group is dedicated to bringing color and function to the printing and packaging products that consumers touch, see and use each day. With a portfolio of highly specialized colorants, the Huntington site services many industries across the globe.

Huntington, WV www.flintgrp.com

FLSmidth USA Inc.• 65Employees• $3.8Millionin

AnnualPayroll• $165,000Annual

TaxesPaidtoWVFLSmidth is a global engineering company supplying one-source plants, systems and services to the cement and minerals industries. The company is a leading supplier of vibrating equipment and services to the global minerals industries before, during and after construction.

Fraziers Bottom, WV www.flsmidth.com

Gat Creek• 118Employees• $3.7Millionin


TaxesPaidtoWVGat Creek manufactures solid-wood furniture from Appalachian hardwoods. The company is an industry leader in sustainability and sells products through independent and national home furnishing retailers throughout the U.S.

Berkeley Springs, WV www.gatcreek.com

Hinchcliff Products Co.Hinchcliff Products is a privately-owned company established in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio as a manufacturer of wood products. In 1967, the company opened a second pallet mill in West Virginia, which is the largest manufacturer of hardwood pallets, crates and boxes in the state.

Hendricks, WV www.hinchclifflumber.com

Hino Motors Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc.• 200Employees• $10Millionin

AnnualPayrollHino, a Toyota Group company, builds medium-duty trucks for the commercial market in its West Virginia facility. Their focus on environmental and quality performance has helped Hino become the fastest-growing, medium-duty commercial truck brand in the U.S.

Williamstown, WV www.hmmusa.com

ICL IP America, Inc.• 130Employees• $9MillioninAnnualPayroll• $1.5MillionAnnual

TaxesPaidtoWVICL IP America, Inc., a division of ICL Industrial Products, is the world’s largest bromine producer. Building on its bromine economies of scale, ICL IP is continuously diversifying into new fields of applications in the chemical industry.

Gallipolis Ferry, WV South Charleston, WV www.icl-group.com

J.H. Fletcher & Co.J.H. Fletcher, founded in 1938, is a world leader in designing and manufacturing roof drills, bolters, scaling machines, drill jumbos and specialty equipment that improve safety and productivity in underground mines.

Huntington, WV www.jhfletcher.com

Kanawha Manufacturing CompanyKanawha Manufacturing got its start in 1902 building mine cars for the coal mines in West Virginia. Since the 1960s, they have expanded into the power generation aftermarket for both products and maintenance services.

Charleston, WV www.kanawhamfg.com

Kent Cartridge• 20 Employees• $800,000 in Annual Payroll• $98,000 in Annual

taxes Paid to WVKent Cartridge is a leading manufacturer of ammunition products for hunting and training. Established in 1997 and located in the Eastern Panhandle, the company serves customers like Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shop, Gander Mountain and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Kearneysville, WV www.kentgamebore.com

King Brothers Fabricating, Inc. King Brothers Fabricating has been in business since 1998 and fabricates structural steel for commercial, industrial and private projects. Its specialty is miscellaneous steel, handrails and stairs.

Vienna, WV

Kingsford Manufacturing Co.• 131 Employees • $4.9 Million in

Annual Payroll Kingsford Manufacturing’s West Virginia operations is responsible for manufacturing, packaging and shipping high-quality charcoal briquettes. The market distribution for the facility is the entire Northeast, from Virginia to Maine.

Parsons, WV www.kingsford.com

Koppers Inc. • 55 Employees Koppers Inc.’s Follansbee plant converts crude coke oven tars into chemical oil, naphthalene, middle distillate oils, refined tars and various grades of coal tar pitch for use in the aluminum, steel, plastics, treated wood, rubber and resin industries.

Follansbee, WV www.koppers.com

Kureha PGA, LLC• 33 EmployeesKureha PGA produces Kuredux® Polyglycolic Acid, a polyester resin that offers controllable biodegradability, excellent mechanical strength and superior barrier performance to both CO2 and O2. This is the first and only industrial-scale plant in the world to make PGA.

Belle, WV www.kureha.com

LifeTite Metal Products, LLC• 36 Employees• $490,000 in Annual

taxes Paid to WVLifetite Metal Products, LLC offers metal roofing, custom trim, gutters and buildings made to custom specifications. The products are Energy Star certified, have the highest possible UL rating against the elements and are made of recycled content.

Belington, WV Kenna, WV www.lifetite.com

M&G Polymers uSA, LLCM&G Polymers USA is a division of M&G Chemicals, which is among the three largest producers of PET resin for packaging applications in the world and the second largest in the Americas.

Apple Grove, WV www.mg-chemicals.com

Mankin equipment, Inc.• 9 EmployeesMankin Equipment builds new and refurbished rail equipment for the coal industry. It is the original manufacturer of mantrips, locomotives and three to four person rides. Mankin has also served the industry for almost 30 years with repair and parts service.

Mount Hope, WV

Marble King, Inc.• 20 EmployeesMarble King has been producing glass marbles for use in toys, board games, decorations, jewelry and multiple industrial applications for 65 years. Each day, Marble King manufactures more than 1 million marbles.

Paden City, WV www.marblekingusa.com

McJunkin Red Man Corp.Headquartered in Houston, TX, McJunkin Red Man is a Fortune 500 company that ranks as the largest global distributor of pipe, valve and fittings and related products and services to the energy industry.

Nitro, WV www.mrcglobal.com

Medical Action Industries Inc.Medical Action Industries Inc. develops, manufactures and distributes a variety of high-quality, disposable medical products to the health care industry. Medical Action is the leading manufacturer and distributor of operating room disposable supplies.

Clarksburg, WV www.medical-action.com

Metsch Refractories Inc.Metsch Refractories Inc. is a dry process, custom design manufacturer of technical ceramics for industrial and consumer products. The company has been meeting customer needs for more than 50 years across a wide scope of industries.

Chester, WV www.metschinc.com

Momentive Performance Materials Inc.Formed in 2010 from two parent holding companies, Momentive Performance Materials is a global leader in specialty chemicals and materials, with a broad range of advanced specialty products that help industrial and consumer companies support and improve everyday life.

Friendly, WV www.momentive.com

Mull Group, Inc.Mull Group, Inc. was originally founded in 1961 in Wheeling, WV as Mull Machine, Inc. Mull Group is a recognized leader in designing, manufacturing, repairing and servicing equipment for the metals industry worldwide.

Wheeling, WV www.mullindustries.com

Mylan Inc.• 2,897 EmployeesMylan, a global pharmaceutical company, is one of the world’s leading generics and specialty pharmaceutical companies. Founded 50 years ago, Mylan offers a growing portfolio of more than 1,300 generic pharmaceuticals and several brand medications.

Morgantown, WV www.mylan.com

NGK Spark Plugs u.S.A., Inc.When it comes to spark plugs, NGK is the world leader. They have grown from a single product in 1936 to now producing spark plugs for virtually every automotive, motorcycle, marine and small engine application.

Sissonville, WV www.ngksparkplugs.com

Northwest HardwoodsNorthwest Hardwoods manufactures lumber at sawmills and concentration yards in three of the prime growing regions in the U.S., including three facilities in West Virginia. Northwest Hardwoods also imports exotic hardwoods.

Bartow, WV elkins, WV Hacker Valley, WV http://northwesthardwoods.com

Peerless Block & Brick Co.Peerless Block & Brick Co., founded in 1905 in Saint Albans, has added retail locations in Parkersburg, Barboursville and Beckley. Peerless is a leading regional manufacturer and distributor of quality block, brick, stone and retaining wall and paver products.

Saint Albans, WV www.peerlessblock.com

Phillips Machine Service, Inc.Over a span of 40 years, Phillips Machine Service, Inc. has grown into a large, full-service company. Phillips is involved in almost all phases of repairs, remanufacture, fabrication, development and sales of mining machinery.

Beckley, WV www.phillipsmachine.com

Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc. Plum Creek is one of the largest landowners in the nation, managing approximately 6.8 million acres in 19 states, 257,000 of which are in West Virginia.

Lewisburg, WV www.plumcreek.com

Precision, LLC• 30 Employees• $1.1 Million in

Annual Payroll• $55,000 in Annual Property

taxes Paid to WVPrecision, LLC is a metals fabricator serving the primary aluminum, oil and gas, wireless telecommunications and mining industry segments. Precision services customers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Sistersville, WV www.precisioninc.net

Proviron Inc.• 11 Employees• $433,000 in Annual Payroll• $14,000 in Annual

taxes Paid to WVProviron Inc. is a toll manufacturer of commodity and specialty chemicals such as polyurethane intermediates, polyurethane catalysts, surfactants, polymers and prepolymers. The West Virginia site opened in 1996.

Friendly, WV www.proviron.com

Resolute Forest Products • 103 Employees• $7.8 Million in

Annual Payroll • $851,643 in Annual

taxes Paid to WVResolute Forest Products’ Fairmont mill opened in 1995. The mill produces market pulp for use by manufacturers of paper-based products. More than 600 tons of recovered paper is used per day to produce recycled pulp.

Fairmont, WV www.resolutefp.com

Richwood Industries, Inc.• 150 Employees• $10 Million in

Annual PayrollFor more than 30 years, Richwood has designed and manufactured conveyor accessories for the bulk material handling industry.

Huntington, WV www.richwood.com

SABIC Innovative Plastics uSA LLCSABIC Innovative Plastics is a world leader in providing engineering thermoplastic material solutions in more than 35 countries worldwide. SABIC purchased the West Virginia location in 2007.

Washington, WV www.sabic-ip.com

Shell LubricantsShell is the number one global lubricant supplier, delivering market-leading lubricants to consumers in more than 100 countries. Shell’s plant in West Virginia blends and packages motor oil.

Newell, WV www.shell.com

Sistersville Tank Works, Inc.For more than a century, Sistersville Tank Works has been manufacturing custom ASME-code pressure vessels and shell-and-tube heat exchangers, API-spec storage tanks, reactors, processing columns and other specialty products.

Sistersville, WV www.stwinc.com

Star Plastics, Inc.• 120 Employees Star Plastics, Inc. has been a global plastics processor for more than 25 years as a custom compounder of pre-colored, engineering- grade thermoplastics. Star Plastics has two manufacturing locations with over 350,000 square feet of production space.

Millwood, WV Ravenswood, WV www.starplastics.com

Swisher International, Inc.Swisher International has been manufacturing tobacco products in West Virginia since the late 1800s. Currently in the Wheeling plant, they produce smokeless tobacco products.

Wheeling, WV www.swisher.com

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc. • 1,350 Employees• $145.5 Million in

Annual Payroll• $7.5 Million in Annual

taxes Paid to WVToyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc., established in Buffalo in 1996, manufactures 4-cylinder and 6-cylinder engines and 6-speed automatic transmissions.

Buffalo, WV www.toyota.com

Tri-State Machine, Inc.• 80 EmployeesTri-State Machine, founded in 1971, offers a full line of metal working services in their 52,000 square feet of combined fabrication and machining floor space.

Wheeling, WV www.tri-statemachine.com

u.S. Silica Company• 75 EmployeesU.S. Silica’s Berkeley Springs plant has been mining the Oriskany deposit along the Warm Springs Ridge for more than 100 years where the sand produced is 99.9 percent pure, buff-white sandstone that is low in iron.

Berkeley Springs, WV www.ussilica.com

Welding, Inc. • 25 EmployeesFounded in 1947, Welding, Inc. maintains a complete steel fabrication and code shop in Charleston. The family-owned business has ASME certification for new manufacturing and repairs of existing code vessels.

Charleston, WV www.weldinginc.net

Wheeling-Nisshin, Inc. • 175 EmployeesWheeling-Nisshin has become one of the largest hot-dip coating mills, producing 700,000 tons per year. In 1988, Wheeling-Nisshin began operation at their Follansbee location.

Follansbee, WV www.wheeling-nisshin.com

Wilson Quality Millwork, Inc.Wilson Quality Millwork, Inc. was established in 1995 and produces a full range of millwork products, including molding, flooring, customized doors, stair parts and countertops.

elkins, WV www.wilsonqualitymillworks.com

Wissmach Glass Co.• 25 EmployeesWissmach Glass Co. has been manufacturing opalescent and cathedral stained glass since 1904. Today, more than 13,000 square feet of glass is produced each day.

Paden City, WV www.wissmachglass.com

Zoetis • 95 Employees• $9.5 Million in

Annual Payroll• $500,000 in Annual

taxes Paid to WVZoetis discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes a diverse portfolio of animal health medicines and vaccines designed to meet the real-world needs of veterinarians, livestock farmers and owners of companion animals.

Willow Island, WV www.zoetis.com

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the Marcellus shale regiOn is the largest, most prolific natural gas play in the United States, and the conditions are ripe for the region to develop

a local petrochemicals industry that uses available, high-value raw materials. There is an opportunity for West Virginia and the Appalachian region to reintroduce local chemical manu-facturing given its location in the heart of the Marcellus Shale development area. The primary cost advantage in the ethylene value chain is access to cost-competitive feedstock. Building an ethane cracker and associated polyethylene manufactur-ing facilities in West Virginia is a watershed economic oppor-tunity for the state. It will bring a high-value manufacturing industry and with it create high-wage jobs, technology devel-opment and the prospect for expanding downstream plastics industry investments.

Underground Investments

Creating Value-Added Opportunities from Natural Gas

BY DR. tOM WItt

The key policy question is how to balance the export of raw materials out of the region with their use in the region to best capture their full value and to stimulate local development. Investment in down-stream natural gas processing and natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation facilities can spur follow-on in-vestments in pipeline infrastructure and creates the opportunity for continued investment in value-cap-turing plants that use NGL products as raw mate-rials. Thus, with North America becoming a focus region for natural resources and petrochemical ex-pansion due to the discovery of significant new hy-drocarbon reserves, the opportunity exists for West Virginia to re-emerge as a center of chemical manu-facturing, given its close proximity to critical feed-stock. Downstream conversion of polyethylene into products that consumers use every day is where the ethylene value-chain touches the consumer. Products ranging from food and product packaging and trash bags to building and construction materials, home furnishings and industrial machinery all use polyeth-ylene as a major raw material and rely on competi-tively priced polyethylene to thrive.

In response to the growth in both reserves and pro-duction, significant investments have been announced in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays to process and deliver natural gas and, increasingly, NGL to markets. While West Virginia had existing gas processing and fractionation capacity, the growth of the Marcellus and Utica shale plays has dramatically increased regional gas production and, consequently, investments in gas processing and fractionation. This growth is largely being driven by the liquids-rich plays in the Marcel-lus/Utica region. Adequate processing capacity will be built and available to handle this increase.

Developing infrastructure takes time and resources; transforming West Virginia from a region focused on resource extraction to a region focused on leveraging its natural resources in order to produce high-value products will require the region to become a hub for petrochemicals, modernizing and upgrading key assets like NGL storage, pipeline connectivity and expanded transportation corridors. Working together, West Vir-ginia’s government and work force can partner with the business community to invest in the region and enable the growth of an entire petrochemical industry in the mid and upper Ohio valleys. Such develop-ment will yield billions of dollars in ongoing annual economic impacts for the West Virginia economy, but this requires a long-term commitment to grow the petrochemical industry and revive the manufacturing sector of West Virginia’s economy. As the petrochemi-cal industry enters its next period of expansion and growth, there is tremendous promise for the United States and, potentially, for West Virginia.

The positive economic impact of building a world-scale ethane cracker and associated polyethylene plants also brings with it a significant opportunity to advance and expand the regional industrial base by attracting new polyethylene product manufacturers to the state. Ethylene is one of the primary building block organic chemicals in the chemicals industry. Its primary end-use product sector is for conversion into polyethylene (PE). The polyethylene industry has a robust end-use manufacturing component that converts the PE pellets produced in the polyethylene plants into manufactured products across a broad spectrum of consumer products including window siding, detergent, food packaging, housewares, clothes, toys, sealants, paint and paper coatings.

exedgeThe first ethylene plant was built in Clendenin, WV by Union Carbide in 1920, marking the start of the petrochemical industry.

Source: www.unioncarbide.com

Investment in downstream natural gas processing and natural gas liquids

fractionation facilities can spur follow-on

investments in pipeline

infrastructure and

creates the opportunity

for continued investment

in value-capturing

plants that use NGL

products as raw materials.

MARCELLUS AND UTICA SHALE FORMATION MAP

SoURCE: www.marcelluscoalition.org


Utica Shale Formation

Marcellus Shale Formation

Utica underlying Marcellus


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The major drivers of profitability in end-use polyethylene converter plants are:• The price of delivered polyethylene raw

material;• The cost of electricity;• Proximity to finished goods distribution

and retail centers and• The availability of a skilled work force.

The presence of an ethane cracker and polyethylene plants, local raw material ad-vantage, competitive electricity rates and a skilled work force place West Virginia in a position to attract downstream poly-ethylene converters. Attracting such poly-ethylene product manufacturers could be a tremendous opportunity for West Virginia to further capture the down-stream value-added benefits of its NGL resources. Creating the conditions for the manufacturers to thrive would drive significant economic impacts in the years following the startup of an ethane cracker and polyethylene plants.

SoURCE: “BuildingValuefromShaleGas:ThepromiseofExpandingpetrochemicalsinWestVirginia”

EConomIC ImpACts AssoCIAtEd WIth ConstruCtIon of nEW EthAnE CrACkEr And AssoCIAtEd poLyEthyLEnE pLAnts In WEst vIrgInIA (2012)

AnnuAL EConomIC ImpACts AssoCIAtEd WIth opErAtIon of An EthAnE CrACkEr And AssoCIAtEd poLyEthyLEnE pLAnts In WEst vIrgInIA At fuLL opErAtIon (2012)

Impact Type Employment(Job-Years)

Employee Compensation

Output

direct Effect 18,156 $893,000,000 $1,346,000,000

Indirect Effect 976 $46,000,000 $134,000,000

Induced Effect 5,087 $178,000,000 $563,000,000

Total Effect 24,118 $1,116,000,000 $2,043,000,000

Impact Type Employment Employee Compensation Output

direct Effect 325 $35,000,000 $585,000,000

Indirect Effect 1,229 $62,000,000 $196,000,000

Induced Effect 534 $19,000,000 $59,000,000

Total Effect 2,088 $116,000,000 $840,000,000

note: Theeconomicimpactsfromconstructionarespreadovertheconstructionperiodandareone-timeimpacts.Forexample,thedirectemploymentof18,156full-andpart-timejobsarespreadoverafour-yearconstructionperiodandwouldbeatmultiplelocationswithinthestate.Tabletotalsdonotaddupduetorounding.

note: Totalsdonotaddupduetorounding.


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Besides the quantifiable economic impacts, there are many nonquantifiable economic impacts associated with construc-tion and operation of an ethane cracker and associated poly-ethylene plants. • The presence of a cracker complex sends a signal to other

chemical and manufacturing companies to make similar investments in ethane crackers or downstream plants using the petrochemicals produced at this complex. Out-of-state suppliers to the new plant may perceive expanded economic opportunities and may relocate operations within the state. Similar phenomena occurred when Toyota announced its engine—and now transmission—assembly plant in Buffalo, WV. The Toyota manufacturing facility has undertaken considerable expansion since 1996, and its success has attracted other automotive equipment manufacturers to the state, including NGK Spark Plugs, Diamond Electric, K.S. West Virginia and Hino Motors.

• The increased demand for ethane may necessitate considerable expansion in natural gas drilling plans, resulting in additional lease acquisition, permitting, drilling and natural gas production. The resulting increases in natural gas supplies may be attractive to firms using a significant amount of natural gas in their production processes. This increased supply might also necessitate development of more midstream processing and pipeline extensions in the state.

• Expanded economic activity rooted in the sciences should reinforce the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in public schools, community colleges and colleges and universities.

• Consistent with other petrochemical plants within the state, considerable investments in maintaining a safe operating environment will result in employees being trained on fire safety and suppression procedures. Some of the trained employees may also be members of volunteer fire and ambulance organizations.

• Consistent with bringing technologically advanced industry to the state, the demand for a highly skilled work force will attract a population with advanced science and mathematics skill levels and drive educational advancement.

• Finally, the resulting chemical industry renaissance will provide an endorsement of the state’s economic viability to global markets.West Virginians are encouraged to learn more about the op-

portunities available through value-added manufacturing asso-ciated with shale development. For additional information on this topic, read “Building Value from Shale Gas: The Promise of Expanding Petrochemicals in West Virginia,” which can be found on the West Virginia Department of Commerce’s Web site at www.wvcommerce.org.

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AproductionteammemberloadsacrankshaftontoanautomaticguidedcartfordeliverytotheZRengineassemblyline.

grOWing up in Lexington, KY, Millie Marshall’s dream was that she would be a professional horse trainer. When her

parents asked her about college, she originally didn’t plan to go. Today, sitting as the president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc. (TMMWV) with multiple technical degrees, her dreams have shifted, but she isn’t one to shy away from change.

In 1991, Marshall began working for Toyota’s In-formation Systems (IS) Department and moved up in the company through Human Resources (HR) and management before taking the role of president at the West Virginia manufacturing facility in January 2014. Marshall credits her openness to taking on new roles, as well as Toyota, for fostering her movement up the corporate ladder.

Marshall shared with us her experience at the company on every level and detailed her reasoning for continuing to work for Toyota: their company culture and values, which are built on respecting and empowering their team members as well as community involvement. In fact, our visit to the Buffalo, WV facility in April came on the heels of two separate Arbor Day projects that assisted both the Mason County Welcome Center and Environ-mental Park in Eleanor with landscaping. It also coincided with a cookout hosted by Green Acres, a nonprofit water distributor dedicated to provid-ing services, support and jobs to developmentally disabled adults, celebrating their employees’ part-nership providing water to Toyota.

BY AMY ARnEtt Marshall

credits her openness

to taking on new roles, as well as Toyota, for

fostering her movement up the corporate

ladder.

Firing on all Cylinders

A Q&A with Toyota’s Millie Marshall


AnABBrobotloadsacompletedZRengineontoanautomaticguidedcartfordeliverytotheenginetestingline.


Whether she’s working with Toyota employees, Buffalo community members or her family, Marshall has a way with people, and her leader-ship style, which combines communication and support, puts her role at Toyota into perfect alignment.

WVE: Describe for us your decision to join the Toyota team and your journey to becoming president.

MM: When Toyota came to Kentucky, all my friends and neighbors were saying that it was a different kind of company that believed in respect and developing people. That was very close to my values: not just giving money but going into the community and giving hours of service. At the time, I thought to myself, “That’s a place where I want to work.”

When I started in 1991, I was at the plant in Georgetown, KY, which is the flagship plant in North America. For the first 12 years of my career, I was in a technical role in IS before I started to move toward business solutions. I worked with the entire supply chain, from customer orders to detailed manifest instructions used when assembling the vehicle. The company wanted to be more self-reliant in North America, and they wanted people to rotate. The vice president of HR wanted me to rotate there, and when I finally did in 2003, it was an a-ha moment for me. I moved to HR, and nine months later, I was asked to be the general manager of Administration in Huntsville, AL. Prior to rotating to HR, I would have never considered Alabama, but I was much more open to change and saw that no matter what you do at Toyota, you can contrib-ute and learn something.

“At the time, I thought to myself, ‘That’s a place where I want to work.’”

10 million

powertrains

1,300 team members

$1.3 billion

in infrastructure investment

$127.7 millionin annual payroll

productionTeamMemberJoeAlleninstallsthetimingchain

onaZR4-cylinderengine.


WVE: You were recently honored by The Manufacturing Institute, which recognizes women for excellence in manufacturing. What does receiving recognition as a female leader mean, and how do professional recognitions motivate you?

MM: It was such an honor to be recognized and receive the STEP Award. I think you typically see one person recognized with an award when the achievement is really a team effort. We have a great team here, and I can’t say that enough. I hope that if other females see the women that were honored this year, they can say, “I want a job in manufacturing” or “It’s possible for me to be a president or running my own company.”

To be a role model for other women in business, you must have a desire to positively influence others by your actions and behaviors. As a life-long learner, I am always willing to learn new skills, and I’m open to new opportunities. Being flexible and having perseverance has helped me with my career, which I see as a journey. I want to give back and help other women in business achieve success. I understand the struggles women face as they are trying to develop themselves professionally, and if I can somehow be of help to others, that is exactly what I want to do.

WVE: You have explained that one of the reasons you work for Toyota is its values. Tell us about the Toyota Way.

MM: The Toyota Way is supported by two main pillars: continuous improvement and respect for people. We are never satisfied with where we are and always work to improve our business by putting forth our best ideas and efforts. In 2008-2009, the company faced massive and critical business condi-tions. The Lehman Shock, of course, affected us, and we had additional challenges: we faced recalls, the tsunami hit in Japan right after that and there was flooding in Thailand. That had a tremendous impact on our supply chain.

For our West Virginia plant, we went three months where there was no production, and every single team member was kept on the payroll. The team reported to work for training to improve skills, and we did a lot of community service, working with parks and organizations like the Golden Girls Group Home. It was challenging, but it was one of my proudest moments as a leader. It was also significant to be able to say that I worked for a company that practices what they preach. The biggest thing for all of us was the shared sacrifice; for all the execu-tives and management, we took a base cut to keep our team members employed. Over time, we slowly brought production back in a methodical way, and that time validated the values of the company and what they do for all of the team members.

We knew that by retaining and retraining our team members, we would emerge as a smarter and stronger company, ready to serve our customers. Since that time, we have been awarded three expansions.

AFanucrobotdeliversanoilpancastingtotheZRengineassemblyline.


MM: Toyota’s philosophy is to build where we sell, and the growing demand is in North America. We’ve been fortunate that the market here is strong, but we have to remain competi-tive. It’s not just cost; it’s quality. If we did not have a quality work force, we wouldn’t get the business here. The expansions are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team members who focus on quality and safety, and you can count on the fact that every day, they are going to build the best engines and transmissions.

TMMWV is proud to produce engines and transmissions for nine Toyota and Lexus models: Venza, Avalon, Camry, Sienna, Highlander, Rav 4, Matrix, Corolla and Lexus RX350.

We are one of three powertrain facilities in North America, but the others just build engines. We are the only plant in North America that builds automatic transmissions, and I think we got that additional product line because of the strength and talent of our team members. There’s no doubt that they make us a shining star in terms of manufacturing here. We celebrated the momentous milestone of manufacturing 10 million powertrains last year, and we are the only plant outside of Japan to achieve that. That is more than 1 billion horsepower coming out of one plant since 1996. Teamwork is powerful stuff.

WVE: Tell us about the expansions that have taken place at the Buffalo facility.

8 total expansions

17 years

in West virginia

9 toyota models

$6.4 million in total philanthropy

productionTeamMemberJessicaWeaverperformsthefinalvisualcheckfortransmissionvalvebodiesbeforetheyaresentforassembly.

AnABBrobotloadsatransmissioncasecastinginthecasemachiningline.


WVE: What are some of the other benefits of working for an international company with a significant presence and influence like Toyota?

MM: I feel fortunate working with this company because I’ve gotten opportunities from a business perspective that I never would have received personally. In my role now, I typically go to Japan a couple of times a year, but it’s not just Japan. We’re a global company, and I’ve traveled to China, Korea, Europe and all over the U.S. on business.

We believe in benchmarking, and we say to go and see with your own eyes. You have seen the plant now, so you can tell a story or understand what we do better because of it, and that’s the same thing we actively do. It’s important to see other plants, what they’re doing and what we can bring back to make our plant better. Don’t take someone else’s viewpoint. Go see it on your own.

WVE: How has the business climate in West Virginia affected Toyota’s growth as a company?

MM: Our additional product lines are a testament to the team members and a great work force, but it’s also the proximity to the assembly plants and to Canada, where our products are shipped. Our location in West Virginia makes us closer to the other facilities. I also see Toyota affect-ing the local economy. When we started here, we had 300 jobs, and we received approximately 20,000 applicants; now, we have more than 1,350 team members. Additionally, Toyota’s impact in West Virginia creates more than 900 other local jobs.

We do have challenges in West Virginia, as any state does, but we’re very upfront. We want to make sure that we are not only providing jobs and services for the community today but for the future.

One of the ways that we do that is through corporate partnerships. We work with Appalachian Power (AEP) to put a plan in place to reduce costs. They gave us ideas on how to reduce our energy use with our lighting, resulting in an annual savings of $250,000. I think it’s a win-win situa-tion. If AEP can help us to reduce our costs, we can be more competitive and drive our consumer base while they can continue to produce energy to serve the area and help keep companies like Toyota going.

WVE: You have been quoted as saying, “My job is to remove barriers for our team. In the end, it’s simply about taking care of people.” This was exemplified during the recent chemical spill when Toyota provided clean water, baby formula and useful items to its employees. Why was this an important gesture for Toyota management to make?

MM: My job is about solving problems. If team members have a barrier, it’s my job to eliminate them. The spill occurred on a Thursday. On Sunday night, when team members walked through the door for the first shift after the spill, management was there to greet them. We asked if there was anything that needed done for their families. In addition to distributing bottled water, team members were encouraged to tap the plant’s potable water supply to fill containers they could take home with them. Those things helped bridge the gap until the ban was lifted. In the end, it’s simply about taking care of our people.

100

Angel tree children

$739,000

raised for the special olympics

85 putnam County math field day students

$842,000 contributed to

united Way

17 students in the Amt program

11,331 hours supporting the community

15 years of special olympics golf

Classic sponsorship

$243,000 awarded to local organizations


WVE: Tell us about your experience living and working in the Mountain State.

MM: My husband, Thom, is retired, and we decided to make West Virginia our home. We love to travel; we visit our sons, Trent and Travis, in Georgia where they both live. We are loving life right now.

A key thing for me is that I’m honored to be a part of the team here. I’ve been here for about 16 months, and it’s very motivating to work alongside people that are dedicated and loyal and come to work to build high-quality engines and transmissions. We are challenged in the spirit of continuous improvement for each year to be better than the last. With our talented, dedicated team members, I am confident we will continue to be successful.

Photography by Tracy Toler

AMotomanrobotdeliversacompleted6-speedautomatictransmissiontothe

propershippingmoduleforshipmenttooneofToyota’svehicleassemblyplants.

ConveyanceTeamMemberMarkCunninghampicksupashippingmodulecontainingGRenginestobeloadedontoatruckandshippedtoaToyotaassemblyplant.

Cunningham Energy | 3230 Pennsylvania Avenue, Charleston, WV 25302 | 304.344.9291 | www.CunninghamEnergy.com

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Keith Burdette has been a public servant for West Virginia since the age of 23. He began by serving two terms in the West Virginia House of

Delegates before being elected as the youngest State Senate president in the state’s history at 34.

In 2010, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin named Burdette cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Commerce. Burdette also serves as the executive director of the West Virginia Devel-opment Office and oversees the divisions of Energy, Forestry, Labor, Natural Resources and Tourism; the offices of Economic Opportunity and Miners’ Health, Safety, and Training; Work-Force West Virginia and the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey.

West Virginia Executive had the pleasure of meeting with Burdette to discuss several aspects of the state’s economic outlook, and the conversation inevitably turned to West Virginia’s role in powering not only the nation but the world.

As a proud West Virginian, Burdette has long been aware of the power of energy here. His role with the state enables him to be an expert on many Mountain State topics, and as one of the state’s most powerful advocates, he believes West Virginia is something to brag about.

With an evolving presence in multiple industries, includ-ing a position as a hub for the rebirth of manufacturing, West Virginia has everything to gain in the coming years. One of the state’s emerging assets in industry is the ideal position for distribution for the Northeast market. The Eastern Panhandle, for instance, has proximity to major metropolitan areas along the Eastern Seaboard, making it an ideal site for manufactur-ing development and expansion.

One of the most important steps in the process of creating an industry boom, says Burdette, is getting West Virginians to be involved in their futures, especially through work force training and community development. The Development Office has spearheaded projects this year ranging from the prelimi-nary selection of an ethane cracker site—a potential economic game changer for the state—to the establishment of work force training programs to the expansion of a Wayne County plant that supplies components to nearly all the world’s top automakers.

Though challenges lie ahead for West Virginia, the future is also undeniably promising.

BY AMY ARnEtt

Exploring Our Economic PotentialKeith Burdette

GovernorEarlRayTomblinandCommerceSecretaryKeithBurdettemeetwithBraskemofficialsatthe2013KinternationalTradeFairinDusseldorf,Germany.

WVE: As the executive director of the West Virginia Development Office, what do you see as your role in promoting the state and creating new opportunities, especially in the energy industry?

KB: I always tell people I’m the number two salesman in the state—number one is the governor. My job is to be a liaison and facilitator, and I’m very comfortable in that role.

I’m incredibly passionate about our energy industry. We are at a unique moment in the state’s history, and the decisions we’re making right now will be critical for the next 50-75 years. These decisions will impact generations, and people will hopefully have jobs in this state because of what we are doing: developing in-frastructure that will guide industry and create a re-emergence of manufacturing along the way.

WVE: What can you tell us about the current economic trends of the energy and manufacturing industries in West Virginia?

KB: As you look across the whole sector, the trends are a little mixed.

Coal has had a challenging couple of years. Some of that is cer-tainly caused by increased regulation in Washington, D.C., but there are a lot of purely economic pressures on coal. The long-term trends for coal are not completely negative. We are the second largest exporter of coal in the country and the prime source for metallur-gical coal, which is the key component for making steel. Coal will continue to play a prominent role in the West Virginia economy. It employs more than 20,000 people—and those are direct jobs; the indirect jobs it produces are as many as three to four times that.

Coal’s key role will also impact the nation’s energy economy, like it or not. There are many places in the world that tried desperate-ly to get away from coal, and those efforts have largely failed. It’s cheap, and it’s abundant, so we see a role for coal here.

Natural gas has now become an abundant, cheap energy source. The natural gas economy is evolving as we speak; every day, it’s changing. Five years ago, there was no expectation in this country for a rebirth of manufacturing because the natural resources weren’t here. Now, there is optimism in the country—and our state—with the advent of shale gas, specifically the unique combination of gas and liquids available in the Marcellus region. It has changed ev-eryone’s calculations on both the value of natural gas and the op-portunities associated with liquids and manufacturing.

WVE: Can you expand on the relationship between the natural gas industry and manufacturing and why that is a key component in the outlook of a manufacturing renaissance?

KB: What we have here in a narrow portion of the Marcellus and Utica shale plays is what they call the wet gas zone. It runs largely along the Ohio River from Tyler County through the Northern Panhandle into Pennsylvania and New York. Inside that, there is abundant natural gas, but more significantly, it is thought to have some of the world’s largest deposits of ethane.

I would say more than 90 percent of manufactured goods have an ethane-based component, and that’s why you’re seeing massive infrastructure development across the state and in the region. Inside natural gas liquids, there is ethane, butane, propane, pentane and natural gasoline. Those components are extracted all at once then separated, but the ethane has to be separated through a different set of infrastructure called de-ethanization.

The ethane is then transported to crackers where the molecules are cracked to form ethylene, and ethylene is the motherload for

Keith Burdette enjoys his role as a salesman for the State of West Virginia and has some clear selling points for when he is prospecting new businesses to bring to the Mountain State.

Since 2005, West Virginia has seen more than $22.5 billion in new business investments.

In January 2014, the Business Franchise tax was reduced from 0.2 percent to 0.1 percent and will be eliminated by 2015, saving an estimated $50 million.

In January 2014, the state’s Corporate net Income tax rate was reduced to 6.5 percent from 7.0 percent. According to the latest revenue figures, corporations have realized a total of $48.3 million in incremental tax reductions.

West Virginia removed approximately $165 million of business tax burden in Fiscal Year 2013 and more than $482 million during the past seven years.

According to Kiplinger’s 2013 State-by-State Guide to taxes, West Virginia is one of the most taxpayer-friendly states in the union, imposing a lower tax burden on its citizens than Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 35 other states.

the State of West Virginia’s Rainy Day Fund, which has netted more than $930 million in reserves, is the fourth best in the country.

West Virginia is one of only 18 states that have not had to borrow federal funds to pay unemployment compensation benefits.

Fitch Ratings, an independent credit rating company, has affirmed West Virginia’s rating of AA+ for general obligation debt, with an overall stable rating outlook.

West Virginia’s employee turnover among all industries is 8.8 percent compared to a national average of 9.1 percent.

West Virginia’s cost of doing business is nearly 14 percent below the U.S. average and ranks 12th best in the economic climate category.

West Virginia has, for the 9th consecutive time, reduced workers’ compensation rates. Employers will have saved $250 million since the fund privatized in 2006.

West Virginia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) totaled $56.3 billion in 2012. Annual GDP grew 3.3 percent compared with the national growth rate of 2.5 percent. West Virginia’s GDP ranked 10th highest percent change in the nation. the state’s output represented 0.4 percent of the U.S. total.

West Virginia’s cost of living is 14 percent lower than the national average.


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manufacturing. It’s the key feedstock for manufacturing fabrics, carpets, plastics and several other things.

WVE: Tell us about the history of the natural gas industry in West Virginia and how you are working to create an environment where a manufacturing boom can take place.

KB: West Virginia has been a producer of natural gas for maybe 200 years. The first ethane cracker in the world was patented and developed right here in the Kanawha Valley in the 1920s by what was the pre-cursor to Union Carbide. The first petro-chemical industrial complex was here, too, and it’s all because the feedstock was here.

Once upon a time, ethane was prevalent here, and it just went away. When it went, about 18,000 jobs went with it. It will probably not be the same, but the opportunity to do something similar is very real to us again.

What West Virginia is doing is not only developing the gas fields but trying to create an opportunity where we get to—for the first time in a long time—take those natural resources and create val-ue-added products.

For natural gas, the risk is not doing anything, not moving forward at all. We’re not going to do that. There are certain areas that are paralyzed by that risk, but we have consistently led on several fronts. Fracing is a risk—or at least, people perceive it as one—but we have 50 years of fracing experience in this state. We were one of the first states to draw up, legislate and approve rules for that operation.

There will come a day when they quit drilling, but that doesn’t mean they quit extracting. They will put a valve on there and keep pumping long after the drilling operations are gone, and that’s what we want to be a part of. We have worked hard to attract billions of dollars in infrastructure development to West Virginia through separators, de-ethanization structures and, now, pipeline structures and cracker projects. The next step in the equation is downstream development: companies taking the products from a cracker and turning them into consumer goods.

WVE: With the rapid changes taking place, what role will exporting play in West Virginia as the state evolves with the energy industry?

KB: We have become the exporter of energy for most of the country. The rest of the country doesn’t realize how reliant they are. If West Virginia pulled the plug, there would be chaos without access to coal. It should be an all-of-the-above energy economy, and there needs to be a fair system recognizing that.

Federal government rules on coal are quickly exceeding the tech-nology to meet them, and that’s when it becomes an unfair playing field. Our state has always supported efforts to develop clean coal technologies; in fact, Senator Rockefeller just introduced legisla-tion to force more money into it. But when rules are passed that exceed technologies, the mission is clear, and it’s just unrealistic.

For natural gas, we suddenly have one of the biggest gas field not only in the country but in the world, probably only exceeded by the Persian Gulf. We are target number one on a lot of lists. There are other shale gas plays around the country, but none of them have this expansive area of liquids.

In West Virginia, we see energy as a whole as not only our past but our future long after we’re gone. Our goal is to take those re-sources and create opportunities that go beyond energy creation.

WVE: With so much interest in our natural resources, how can West Virginia use its central role to its advantage?

KB: I’m a West Virginian, and I’ve watched us be an energy ex-traction location all of my life. This is an opportunity. If we can keep just some of our resources here, we can do great things in the long term. There is a place for all of it, but there’s also a place for us.

It’s awfully tempting for those in the industry to just stick everything in a pipeline. There is huge pressure and billions of dollars at stake in the Gulf Coast where there is already a massive infrastructure in place, and they’re just looking for ways to feed it. One ethane cracker will consume between 60,000 and 80,000 barrels of ethane a day, so they want to stick a straw in us and suck it to the Gulf Coast.

One way or another, we have to make it clear that they cannot take all of our resources out of this region to someplace else. We’re just not going to stand for that. We’re not going to simply be an energy colony for the rest of the country; we need to be a part of the economy that is going to grow because of it.

We don’t expect everything to stay in the state; there’s no expec-tation of that, and we don’t think it’s responsible. As I started by saying, the decisions we’re making will have an impact for decades to come. We know that if it’s gone, it’s gone. We’re just a little state trying to compete, but we’re doing fairly well.

WVE: How important is diversification to both the state’s future and its economy?

KB: Our struggle is also our strength in that the history of the state is wrapped up in the energy industry. It’s more than just coal and gas. We’re into wind turbines and hydro and solar power. The largest wind turbine field east of the Mississippi is in West Virginia. We’re doing all of those things, but coal and gas are dominant players.

In the last three to four decades, West Virginia woke up one day and realized we couldn’t just be about one thing. If you look across the state, you’ll see a pretty broad diversification of the economy. We’re into automotive, aerospace, high-tech, distribution and ful-fillment, and we want to continue those efforts. We put our re-sources with companies, many times smaller ones, who have the opportunity to get comfortable in West Virginia and grow here.

WVE: As head of commerce and development for the Mountain State, what do you see as the benefits of doing business here?

KB: West Virginians are sometimes a little self-conscious, almost apologetic. When I go out and tell others about the state, so many of them say, “I had no idea.” When we talk, for the first time in a generation, we get to say we beat a lot of other states on a variety of issues. Our workers’ compensation rates are lower; our corporate tax rates are lower; our unemployment trust funds are stronger. Issue after issue that is important to businesses, we’ve tackled them. Now, guys like me can go say, “Other than flat land, we have everything else.” We can do it cheaper and do it better, and we’ve not always been able to say that.

We didn’t just start yesterday, and that’s the big difference. We started 20 years ago. I guarantee you I won’t be in state government when we’re finished working on some things, but I can tell you we’re halfway through some of it. It’s making a huge difference. One day, when today’s children are running the State of West Virginia, they’re going to have resources that none of us have now because our problems were approached reasonably and intelligently.

Photography by Tracy Toler and the West Virginia Department of Commerce


paulZiningandKevinCrutchfieldcelebrateanewbeginningforthefutureofminesafety.

In the mIdst of one of the most difficult business climates the

coal industry has ever seen, Alpha Natural Resources, a leading

U.S. coal supplier, isn’t just focusing on the challenges of today—

it’s preparing for the realities of tomorrow. One of the company’s strategic

levers is the Running Right Leadership Academy (RRLA), a state-of-the-art,

comprehensive education and training facility for mine safety and operations.

Ahead of the CurveRunning Right Leadership Academy

The RRLA, the first of its kind in the mining industry, is the culmination of years of planning and hard work. The 136,000-square-foot campus, located in Julian, WV, blends classroom learning with cutting-edge technology, from virtual reality theaters and labs to the immersion of mining profes-sionals into controlled conditions that mimic what can occur at the mine. The curriculum is exten-sive and integrates a broad range of subject areas, including technical, safety and leadership skills.

Alpha’s CEO, Kevin Crutchfield, says there’s no better time than now to increase the confi-dence and skills of mining professionals. “We founded our company with the belief that things could get better. The Running Right Leadership Academy furthers this vision and underscores our commitment to miner education, mining safety and an industry that fuels economic and human development.”

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Investing in Safety “Come as you are.” These

four simple words are cut out of a piece of metal that

is bolted onto the front of the RRLA’s classroom building with

the same roof bolts coal miners use. It’s the very first message Cheryl Sta-

pleton, Alpha’s vice president of Learning and Development, wants visitors to receive. “When employees and guests walk into this facility,

they should know we’ll meet them where they are. We built the RRLA to be comfortable yet rugged, open and welcoming. It’s conducive to learning but doesn’t feel like your traditional learning setting,” says Stapleton.

The RRLA’s purpose is to develop mining profes-sionals who enable Alpha to carry out its mission, which is to fuel progress around the world. It is an extension of the company’s employee-driven Running Right safety philosophy, which focuses on eliminat-ing at-risk behavior through employee observations and reporting.

Stapleton says investing in the safety of miners is Alpha’s priority and business imperative. “It’s impor-tant for us to continue to share the best practices that we’ve learned and ensure that miners have access to the best safety training facilities in the industry. It is good for the company, good for our people and good for all of our stakeholders.”

West virginia Coal production

(in short tons)

Total Production: 129.1 million

Underground Production: 89.2 million

Surface Production: 39.9 million

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Developing Mining Professionals The RRLA was built in the heart of coal country

so it could support all of Alpha’s affiliate operations. Partnerships with existing technical colleges and fa-cilities that support the industry provide greater reach through extension services, delivering flexible training location options to serve the entire organization. The framework includes facilities, technology and curricula.

The RRLA campus covers an area of 136,440 square feet. The classroom training building is 26,000 square feet and has large classrooms that can be converted to smaller classrooms via movable walls. There are two electrical and mechanical labs, one virtual reality lab with mining machine operator simulators and one virtual reality theater with 3-D underground cut sequence simula-tors. Classrooms address learning obstacles for both the new gen-eration miner and the more mature miner. There are also underground and surface equipment simulators and electrical training panels.

West virginia Coal

transportation (in short tons)

Rail: 55.6 million

River: 12.9 million

Truck: 30.3 million


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The weld building has 12 student welding booths and a Farr fume extraction system to control weld and cutting smoke. The building is an open bay design that allows two pieces of equipment to be inside the shop. It has a 20-ton overhead bridge crane and secure tool storage area. There is an outside wash-down area with an oil/water separator and an outside storage shed for metal pipes and plates. The building is complete with a fire suppression system. A computer simula-tor scores each student on items such as rod angle, arc length and welding speed, helping to teach good habits before using actual machines.

The Mobile Command Center has a 30-person classroom and a counter area with sinks to bench and clean self-rescuers and breathing apparatuses. There is a mine simulator preparation classroom and an open storage bay that is 55 feet by 65 feet with garage door access. The center is complete with a fire sup-pression system and bunker gear provided to support firefighting training. Air packs are also provided, and the command center includes breathable air compres-sors to fill bottles.

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The simulated mine is 96,000 square feet of space with 9-foot mine roof height to facilitate ventilation changes. They are eight entries wide by seven entries deep at 40 feet by 40 feet centers that allows parallel entry mine rescue scenarios. There are two propane-fueled live fire areas for firefighting training and a variable volume mine fan to ventilate the facility. It is completely reconfigurable for future section layouts such as turning off a section. The gas control stations have power and fuel lines routed to them for outside pad burns and mine simulation building burns inside on two locations. The center uses Argus thermal camera systems.

The RRLA provides comprehensive education offer-ings for all positions including apprentice miner, expe-rienced miner, section management and maintenance.

A Competitive Advantage

Alpha believes the RRLA will help cap-italize on the op-portunities born during the coal industry’s “new normal” by de-veloping an agile and productive work force that will lead Alpha into the future. In addition to miner safe-ty, the blending of new technology with education, mentoring and coaching offers broader improvement opportunities for regulatory performance, industry standards and overall company and industry success.

“We firmly believe the Running Right Leadership Academy will enable Alpha, our miners and others in the industry to improve safety and stay ahead of the curve in an industry that continues to evolve,” says Crutchfield.

Photography by Alpha Natural Resources, Tim Cox and Thorney Lieberman

West virginia Coal economic impactRecoverable Coal Reserves:

51.2 billion short tons

West Virginia Coal Employment: 26,619 jobs

Estimated Average Annual Coal Wage: $68,500

Estimated Production Value, 2012: $7.7 billion

Coal Severance Tax: $490 million


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electricity. It’s the most pervasive feature of modern life. We use it every second of the day, and we depend on it

for virtually every aspect of our lives.It crisscrosses the country through millions of miles

of power lines. It courses through wires embedded in our walls and buried beneath our feet, powering nearly every structure, machine and appliance we use on a daily basis.

Yet, because electricity is so omnipresent and such an indispensable part of our lives, until recently, most of us took it for granted and didn’t quite understand how it all worked.

That has changed in recent years as the energy industry has invested heavily in campaigns to educate the public about how electricity is produced and the media has focused more on the shifting U.S. energy mix.

Despite this growing awareness, other critical pieces of our electrical system remain a mystery to most people. We see power lines and transformers every day of our lives, and we’ve all driven past substations on the outskirts of town, but most of us don’t have a firm grasp on how electricity is delivered from power plants to our homes and businesses.

understanding the GridAs it turns out, delivering electricity to a popula-

tion of 400 million people on a continuous basis is an incredibly complex process, and every step along the way involves enormous feats of modern engineer-ing and ingenuity.

The U.S. power grid is the largest infrastructure network the world has ever seen. Comprised of 3,200 utility companies, 2.7 million miles of power lines and 55,000 electric substa-tions, the grid delivers $400 billion of electricity to Americans every year. It is a vast, interconnected mosaic of wires, steel towers, transformers and substations that connects the country’s 7,000 power plants to roughly 150 million customers every single day.

The grid is divided into three large regions known as the Eastern, Western and Texas interconnections. West Virginia falls in the Eastern Interconnection, which is the largest and encompasses 38 states and parts of eastern Canada.

BY AAROn RUBY

exedgeShould a power outage occur, be prepared with a kit that includes water, nonperishable food, blankets, flashlights, first aid supplies, radios and cell phones.

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For most of the 20th century, power was produced and dis-tributed locally. However, the system has changed dramatically in recent years. Today, power is distributed across wide, multi-state regions of the country. The fuels used to produce power are also changing.

“Wind power has been one of the driving forces behind the need to strengthen the grid,” says Appalachian Power President and Chief Operating Officer Charles Patton. “Wind power needs to be placed where the wind blows, and that’s not necessarily where the population centers are. We need transmission lines to move the power across long distances to where the customers are.”

With such a large, complex system involving thousands of power plant operators, transmission companies and distribu-tors, it takes an incredible amount of coordination and over-sight to make sure electricity is consistently and reliably deliv-ered everywhere it’s needed.

To ensure the reliable transmission and distribution of the U.S. power supply, the federal government has developed a multi-tiered framework of regulatory organizations that monitor the grid, which is broken down into smaller regions.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sits at the top of the chain and oversees a network of overlapping organizations throughout the country. Regional transmission organizations (RTOs) are responsible for controlling electric transmission within roughly a dozen multi-state regions. The PJM Intercon-nection is the RTO for West Virginia and 12 other states, along with the District of Columbia.

These organizations constantly monitor demands on the grid and evaluate the need for new transmission infrastruc-ture to ensure reliability. They periodically make recommen-dations and set guidelines that electric utilities follow to make sure that every piece of the grid is connected, accessible and operating smoothly.

upgrading the GridPower companies, policymakers and regulators are vocal

about the urgent need to upgrade the U.S. power grid to ac-commodate the millions of new customers coming online every year. Most of the nation’s electricity infrastructure was built decades ago, and utilities say significant investments are needed to repair aging transmission lines and build new ones to meet growing demand.

There are also logistical challenges. As new population centers emerge and existing ones expand, new transmission lines are needed to connect them to the grid. New transmission infra-structure is also needed whenever new power plants are built to replace older, retiring plants.

According to the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), U.S. utilities are projected to spend $17.5 billion in 2014 on improvements to

At White Brothers Consulting, LLC, this is more than a motto: it’s how we strive to operate our business every day. As a West Virginia-based company founded by West Virginians, we provide professional engineering and surveying services to both public and private companies. From roadway and bridge design to Marcellus Shale development, we offer the following expertise:

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our transmission infrastructure. EEI says these upgrades are necessary to enhance reliability, relieve congestion, limit weather-related outages and support a more diverse mix of energy sources. Some of those upgrades are coming to West Virginia.

Last year, Appalachian Power announced that it will make $337 million in transmis-sion upgrades in the state to accommo-date the upcoming retirement of several power plants.

“The power grid is dynamic, and it will be affected by the retirement of existing power plants,” says Patton. “These upgrades not only meet the immediate need to strengthen the grid but position the region well for growth in the future.”

Appalachian Power says most of the transmission infrastructure in the state was built from the 1920s through the 1940s, and the last major reinforcement of the Kanawha Valley transmission backbone was done almost 40 years ago.

The Kanawha Valley project will rebuild 52 miles of existing transmission lines

HoW tHe eleCtriCal SyStem WorkSAt a micro level, it’s actually pretty simple.

Once electricity is generated at a power plant, it is first sent to a nearby transmission substation. there, it is converted into higher voltages so it can travel across long distances through transmission lines to cities and towns as far as 300 miles away. transmission lines are carried on large, steel tower-like structures typically seen alongside the highway or interstate.

Once the electricity reaches the area where it will be used, it goes to another substation where the voltage is lowered so it can be delivered to homes and businesses through distribution wires. these are the smaller wires typically seen attached to wood poles in your neighborhood.

TheKanawhaValleyTransmissionReinforcementprojectwillrequirereplacingexistingstructures(right)withstrongerstructures(left).


and make upgrades to several substations along the transmission route. The bulk of the work will take place between Ap-palachian Power’s John Amos Plant and its Turner and Cabin Creek substations along the I-64 corridor, with a key loop in the Cross Lanes area and another in the Kanawha City area. Construction will begin this summer, with the project sched-uled to be complete by 2017.

Adapting to a Shifting electrical Landscape

In 2012, PJM recommended a series of transmission upgrades in the state to address the challenges posed by outdated infrastructure and the changing energy supply mix in the region.

Due to economic conditions and envi-ronmental regulations, the nation’s energy supply mix has undergone a rapid trans-formation over the last decade. Dozens of

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older, coal-fired power plants are being retired, and new natural gas-burning units are coming online.

In West Virginia, Appalachian Power plans to close two of its six coal-fired power plants in 2015: the Philip Sporn Plant in Mason County and Kanawha River Plant in Kanawha County. A third coal plant, Kammer Plant in Marshall County, which is operated by the utility’s Ohio-based sister company, will also close in 2015.

To help replace the power generated by these retiring units, Ap-palachian Power is converting two units of the Clinch River Plant in Virginia from coal to natural gas. It also acquired 867 megawatts of generation at the John Amos Plant in West Virginia from a sister company, making the plant fully owned by Appalachian Power.

Additionally, in 2012, the company added a 580-megawatt natural gas-combined cycle plant to its generating fleet. To serve customers in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle, the company is seeking to acquire a 50 percent share of the Mitchell Plant in Marshall County.

“Taken together, these generating resources mean we will be able to secure a reliable, long-term power supply for our cus-tomers,” says Patton. “Plus, we are continuing to expand our energy efficiency and demand response programs to offset the need for additional generation.”

The company says these developments will also change the way electricity flows on the grid, which is why the PJM has recom-mended transmission upgrades to substations and lines located between the new plants coming online in the next few years.

Appalachian Power says more transmission upgrades will be required in the future as more coal plants are taken offline and infra-structure in other parts of the state reaches the end of its lifespan.

Photography by Appalachian Power

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BUILDING BETTER SINCE 1964


BOB Murray is angry,

and he doesn’t mind letting you know about

it. As one of the country’s most outspoken opponents of President Barack Obama’s administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he’s now turning his words into action. In early April, he filed the first of three lawsuits in an attempt to block the EPA from what Murray says are illegal actions against the country’s coal industry.

Murray is a product of Ohio coal. As the son of a coal miner, he got his start in

the mines at the age of 17. Long hours and cross-country trips eventually paid off; by the age of 29, he was the vice president of Operations at North American Coal Cor-poration. Since then, he has built his own broad-reaching coal company, Murray Energy Corporation.

Throughout his career, Murray has been witness to the positive side of coal mining, like the creation of jobs and the produc-tion of low-cost electricity for families and businesses. He’s also seen the dark side of the fossil fuel: mine fires, explosions and

accidents that change lives—and families—forever; communities suffering from a drastic elimination of coal jobs and overex-tending regulations that can cripple a long-standing American industry. In Murray’s eyes, the single largest, most dangerous threat to the coal industry is the war on coal. He sees this ongoing attack as harsh and unnecessary, and every day, he battles on, speaking out against EPA regulations that he says are killing an entire industry, eliminating good jobs and hurting the families of his employees.

BY JEnnIFER JEtt

Last Man Standing Bob Murray and the War on Coal

“We got a lot of power plants that are going to be shutting down in one year and five weeks, April 16, 2015. Almost all of them were running as best as they could during the cold snap. If that isn’t a sobering wake-up call to policymakers, nothing short of a massive blackout would be.” —Phillip Moeller, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Recently, Murray sat down with West Virginia Executive magazine to discuss his passion for coal. In his executive office, surrounded by his treasured World War II model airplanes, we asked him about his climb up from the Ohio coal mines to the office where he runs Murray Energy Corporation, his decision to purchase five West Virginia mining complexes last year despite the struggling industry, what he sees for the future of coal and why, to him, the war on coal is not an environ-mental issue but a human issue.

Here’s what he had to say.

The Price of LoyaltyFiling lawsuits against the EPA in April

isn’t the first time Murray has stood his ground against authority. In 1987, as the CEO of North American Coal Corpora-tion, he watched as the owners made plans to dissolve the company as an Ohio cor-poration and reincorporate in Delaware, walking away from $110 million in retiring medical benefits for 1,800 United Mine Workers of America pensioners. Murray, who disagreed with the plan, was given a year and a half to change his mind. With the dissolution going to litigation, as the CEO, he would have had to testify that he didn’t agree with the plan. After 31 years of service with the company, he was fired before he could take the stand. “It just wasn’t right to walk away from 1,800 pensioners at a time in their lives when they needed those benefits the most,” he remembers of the choice that cost him his job.

In 1988, Murray founded Murray Energy Corporation. The company has approxi-mately 7,300 employees and operates 13 active coal mines in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Utah and, most recently, West Virginia. In 2013, the company produced 30 million tons of thermal coal.

Murray made a surprising move in December 2013 despite the current struggles of the coal industry: he purchased Consoli-dated Coal Company from CONSOL Energy Inc., which consisted of five West Virginia mining complexes, 23 tow boats, more than 600 barges, additional coal reserves and other assets. Through the acquisition, he also assumed approximately $2 billion in retiree medical and pension liabilities for United Mine Workers of America workers.

Growing up the son of a coal miner and choosing the dangerous field for his own career, Murray can relate to his employees and their families. He has a strong desire

to make sure they are taken care of and that their communities prosper. Penn State University conducts a regular study on the multiplier of coal mining jobs in a commu-nity. For other communities, that multipli-er can reach up to 11:1, which means 11 jobs are created for every one coal mining job. In St. Clairsville, Ohio, the location of Murray Energy Corporation’s head-quarters, that multiplier is always 11:1. “For every coal mining job that we have, there are 11 jobs in our communities that are created. Seventy-three hundred times 11 plus 7,300 is close to 90,000 people in one of the most depressed areas of the U.S. that are depending on me, and I take that responsibility very seriously.”

“No Pound of Coal is Worth Getting Hurt over”

Throughout the year, Murray visits all of his mine sites. During these visits with his employees, he tells them, “My goal for you is that we retire together because if we retire together, you will have worked safely and made it to retirement, and you will have worked—period.” As Murray fights for coal mining jobs on the political front, he’s also fighting to keep his employees safe.

Murray has personal experience with the potential for danger that exists in the mining industry. When he was 9, his father, a coal miner, fell at work and broke his neck. The accident left his father a quadriplegic. At the age of 16, Murray took on the responsibility of supporting both his father and his mother, who had cancer. Murray himself has been in three mining accidents and three mine fires. It’s the first-hand experiences like these that drive him to go above and beyond, even sur-passing state and federal law requirements, to protect his employees.

“We’re mining in a fuel,” Murray explains. “We mine coal because it burns, and when you grind it small enough, it becomes gun powder. It’s explosive. And we’re mining it with human beings a thousand feet deep. At Murray Energy, we operate safe coal mines, and we emphasize fire protection and emergency preparedness.”

He has a saying when it comes to the safety of his employees: “No pound of coal is worth getting hurt over.” To ensure the safety of the miners, he has a group of men who teach fire training at the mines, and he has more than 400 volunteers for the com-pany’s fire brigades in West Virginia alone.

Murray almost lost his life in a mine fire. “When I counted noses, I was supposed

to have 17 men that night. I only had 16,” he remembers. “I crawled back in there to try to get him, and I went down. It’s scary when you’re crawling around on your hands and knees and you can’t see anything. You’re trying to find air to breathe, and the only air is way down on the bottom, and you’re breathing coal dust and rock dust.”

He also remembers standing vigil one night with a mine foreman whose son was trapped in a burning mine. “I stayed with him all night as he watched his son burn up in there. A thousand feet in was all he was. With that man that night—you just don’t forget these things.”

The War Rages onWhile the acquisition of the West

Virginia mining complexes has been a transformative event for Murray Energy, there’s another transformative event taking place that has the company’s CEO up in arms: what he refers to as the deliber-ate destruction of the United States coal industry by Obama and his supporters.

“Thousands of American coal mining and related jobs and the livelihoods of these folks’ families have been brutally stamped out,” says Murray. “This devasta-tion, this destruction of the coal industry, is a human issue to me because these are my employees. I know the names of the miners and their families whose livelihoods are being destroyed for no benefit at all.”

According to Murray, the Obama EPA has, since 2009, issued rules and regulations that are instrumental in the shutdown or scheduled closure of 392 coal-fired power plants in America, which is a loss of about 100,000 megawatts (MW) of the lowest-cost electric power across the country. Murray calls this war on coal “unjustified, illegal and downright evil with virtually no environmental benefit whatsoever.”

The Obama EPA’s claims of global warming are hard to swallow, says Murray, given that the earth’s temperature has cooled over the last 17 years. As for the agency’s plan for carbon capture and sequestration, he says it just can’t be done.

To understand why he thinks this, one must first understand why coal’s carbon emissions are viewed as a threat, what carbon capture and sequestration is and why the theoretical process of controlling greenhouse gas emissions has been deemed a priority of the Obama EPA and environ-mental groups around the world.


Greenhouse gases are gases said to trap heat in the atmosphere, and one such green-house gas is carbon dioxide (CO2). The EPA’s Web site, www.epa.gov, defines CO2 as a gas produced from burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, as well as solid waste, trees and wood products. The release of greenhouse gases like CO2 has been blamed for causing an increase in the planet’s temperature, which, accord-ing to Murray, is the basis for the theory of climate change and global warming.

The EPA’s Web site describes the process of carbon capture and sequestration as the capture of CO2 from power plants or indus-trial processes and the transportation of that CO2, usually through pipelines, followed by the underground injection and geologic sequestration or storage of the CO2 into deep underground rock formations that are often a mile or more beneath the surface.

The first red flag Murray sees with this plan is the use of pipelines to move the captured CO2. “I spent 15 years of my life building the Great Plains Coal Gasifi-cation Project in North Dakota, and our biggest problem was sequestering the carbon dioxide from the plant, even though the oil fields to which we could pump the carbon dioxide underground and improve the viscosity of oil wells were only 200 miles away,” he says. “No rancher would allow us to pump the carbon dioxide under his land, nor would his next door neighbor, because the gas migrates both vertically and horizontally. When that CO2 comes up out of the earth, everybody around dies because there’s no oxygen to breathe. That’s why NIMBY, or not in my backyard, became NUMBY, not under my backyard.

“How can you take carbon dioxide off of a power plant in the East, where there’s

no formation to pump it underground, and pump it thousands of miles? We don’t have the pipelines to do it—it would take more pipelines than the country already has. Carbon capture and sequestration has not been proven; it’s not been done, and yet they’re passing regulations depending on it, and they’re getting away with it.”

Murray is also concerned with what will happen to the reliability of an already fragile power grid with the closing of 392 coal-fired power plants, explaining that renewable energy resources will not be enough to meet the population’s energy demand because energy sources like wind and sunshine are not abundant like coal.

“I worked on the Great Plains project with Mike Morris, the chairman of American Electric Power, the largest coal-burning utility in the country. Mike told me that the Utility Commission of Ohio has him connected to 3,800 MW of wind and solar. We had a cold snap sometime back, and the rivers were frozen. We couldn’t get coal into the coal-fired plants, and he had other difficulties, so he called on his wind and solar energy sources. Of that 3,800 MW that the Utility Commission of Ohio, by law, tells him he has to be connected to, he had 15 MW. The wind wasn’t blowing. And that’s where Obama is taking America.”

In a speech Murray recently gave to the North Carolina Coal Institute, he shared these points with regard to this past winter’s recent polar vortex cold snaps, the resulting higher demand for energy and the impact this had on the power grid: • During the polar vortex cold snaps,

American Electric Power had the coal-fired power plants that are scheduled to be closed in April 2015, a total of 7,150

MW, running at 89 percent to battle the frigid temperatures, raising concerns of what will happen when the reliability and cost of that power supply is not available next year when the plants are closed.

• A New England utility was asked by the regional grid operator to operate its entire generation fleet in order to meet heightened demand. The utility was also forced to employ rarely-used combustion turbine facilities, several of which relied on the use of very expensive jet fuel.

• The PJM Interconnection, which controls electric transmission for West Virginia and 12 other states, as well as the District of Columbia, came within 700 MW of a major system disruption. Around the same time, the interconnection barely avoided a system-wide crisis by offering to pay customers to not use power in certain circumstances, and it even considered rolling blackouts in order to avert grid failure. In his speech, he also quoted Phillip

Moeller, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as saying “We got a lot of power plants that are going to be shutting down in one year and five weeks, April 16, 2015. Almost all of them were running as best as they could during the cold snap. If that isn’t a sobering wake- up call to policymakers, nothing short of a massive blackout would be.”

Coal’s Counteroffensive When it comes to coal and his employ-

ees’ livelihoods, Murray doesn’t pull any punches. The lawsuit he filed in April, which is the first of three, states that the EPA is supposed to take job losses into consider-ation when regulations are promulgated, and, according to Murray, they have not

ThecoalprocessingfacilitiesatAmericanEnergyCorporation’sCenturyMineinBeallsville,Ohio.


done this. “The law is crystal clear that they are obligated to do that,” he says, “and the Obama EPA has not.”

The second lawsuit to be filed will focus on the Data Quality Act. “Under the act, they are obligated to tell the truth, and they are not telling the truth about global warming. They are not telling hardly any truth about the science. The earth has actually cooled over the last 17 years, so under the Data Quality Act, they’ve actually been lying about so-called global warming. This lawsuit will force them to not just take data from the environmentalists and publish it, as they have been doing, but to review that data and make sure it’s accurate.”

The third lawsuit will focus on the green-house gas regulations themselves on the basis that there is no connection between the emissions of carbon dioxide from manmade activity and the so-called heating of the earth, or global warming, especially in light of the earth’s cooling over the last 17 years.

The Future of CoalMurray has already seen within his cor-

poration the results of a fragile and shrink-ing coal industry, and with those, he says, comes a glimpse of the future of coal.

When he purchased Consolidation Coal Company, he assumed approximately $2 billion in retiree medical and pension liabil-ities for United Mine Workers of America workers. In the stock purchase agreement, he also agreed to maintain the medical benefits for Consolidated Coal’s salaried, nonunion retirees for at least one year, a benefit that is not available to Murray Energy’s salaried retirees. The move, Murray explains, was intended to create a window for the former company’s retirees to explore other coverage options.

In April, the corporation announced that the medical benefits will cease at the end of the year. The affected retirees will still get their full pension and will be able to make up more than 80 percent of the lost benefits through Medicare with options for additional coverage. According to Murray, the decision to drop the benefits was driven, in part, by the war on coal’s impact on his company.

Murray Energy Corporation is not the first to feel the backlash of the EPA’s strin-gent and ever-expanding regulations. In fact, Murray believes the war on coal is bankrupting coal companies all across the nation, and this reduction or elimination of benefits will become more common as companies try to stay afloat.

“The Obama administration’s disastrous war on coal has destroyed coal markets and has made it absolutely impossible for us to provide these benefits beyond what is outlined in our stock purchase agreement,” says Murray. “We coal companies are com-peting for a much smaller coal market, which has been referred to as road kill. Virtually no coal companies with which we compete now provide retiree medical benefits. Indeed, this is a sad reality, and it is one of the many reasons that this administration’s war on coal is a human issue to me.”

Even if Obama’s EPA is reigned in, Amer-ica’s coal industry is still in trouble. Ac-cording to Murray, 43 percent of the coal mining industry in Southern West Virginia is now gone, a change that he says is per-manent: those mines and those jobs cannot come back.

What, then, is the future of coal? If the war continues, he believes coal companies will have to turn to exporting in order to find a market for their product and protect the industry’s remaining jobs. Exporting can be a rather tricky endeavor, though. The exportation of coal is not a physical sale but an arbitrage sale in which a good or service is bought in one place for one amount and immediately sold in another place where it’s worth more. This is a lesson he learned quickly.

Last year, Murray Energy Corporation loaded a ship with coal in New Orleans with the intended destination of Spain. When the ship reached the high seas, though, it was sent to Brazil instead. “The broker got the coal out of Russia to fill my Spanish order because, by doing it this way, he could make money on it,” says Murray. “When you get into the international market, you have the railroads to deal with, the ports

to deal with and then you have the broker. Who makes the money on the international sale? The guy who’s doing the arbitrage. Exporting isn’t a perfect solution for the loss to the domestic markets because not everybody can play in the world market. If you want to export coal in the world market, you’ve got to be set up to do so.”

While the transition from domestic sales to international exporting may seem daunting, it appears that the aggressive regulations of the EPA may have left few options for the continued operation of America’s coal mining industry. In order to stay in business and keep Americans working, coal companies may need to reassess their capabilities, ex-panding into areas that will better position them for success in the world market.

Last Man StandingThe odds may seem to be stacked against

the coal industry under the current Obama administration, but Murray isn’t giving up, not by a long shot. You see, coal runs as deep in Murray’s roots as its seams in the mountains of Appalachia. This connec-tion has driven his advocacy of the use of the low-cost fuel source since he began his career in 1962, and as the war on coal continues, he has no intention of backing down from the fight.

“I like producing a product that is good for society, and coal is the key to low-cost electricity in America. More importantly, I like to see people have an opportunity to not just work but work safely and retire. We only go through this life one time. As you get older, there are two words that become more critical and more important than any other two words: credibility and integrity. Nobody is going to get mine. I’ve lost a lot of deals and I’ve lost a lot of opportunities, but I never put my credibility or integrity out there, and I absolutely won’t do it. That’s the legacy I want to leave behind.”

For Murray, the challenges are simply that—challenges, and the 16-year-old Murray who cared for and financially supported two ill parents surely overcame what, at times, must have seemed much more daunting than arbitrage. As for coal, Murray’s long-term strategy is simple: he intends to be the last man standing, and as long as coal is still in demand, whether in the U.S. or abroad, he intends to supply it.

Photography by Tracy Toler and Murray Energy Corporation


BY AMY ARnEtt

Exporting Our Energy ResourcesWest VIrgInIa’s WorldWIde reputatIon has been

built on the image of coal mining and industry,

which comes as no surprise. That reputation has also

served to open the door for economic opportunity

by way of exports. The Mountain State is a driver

in the energy industry, and exporting coal has been

invaluable not only to industry here but even more

so for those countries that require an energy supply.

Certain European countries, for example, have long been densely pop-ulated, and the utilization of their re-sources has led to an exhaustion of their own energy sources, creating a reliance on foreign supply. West Virginia’s most important trade partner is Europe for

reasons not unlike this, but nations all over the globe are also benefiting from the low-cost fuel source that is embedded in our West Virginia hills.

In recent years, the natural gas industry has also flourished in West Virginia, making it a big player in energy for ex-porting. West Virginia’s energy resources come as an advantage to our region, our nation and the world. With other nations relying on energy coming from countries like Russia, strains on international rela-tions could result in undesirable energy options. The numbers are clear: the op-portunity to step into this market is rich for the U.S. Reducing dependence on other nations by exporting our natural resources is just good for business. The global reputation for energy resources already exists here; if regulation allows, the United States could solidify its status as an energy titan in its own right.


the expOrt MarKet was a growth driver for West Virginia coal for the decade ending in 2012. The industry exported nearly 48

million tons of coal in 2012 to 38 countries around the world, a volume that had not been seen since 1992. Europe is the Mountain State’s most important trade partner by continent and the destination for around 60 percent of export value and tonnage from 2008 through 2012. About 15 percent of the state’s coal tonnage went to Asia and the rest to North America, South America and Africa.

In terms of total value of coal exports, the Netherlands and Italy were West Virginia’s most important trade partners in 2012 and 2013, followed by Brazil, India and the United Kingdom. Export volume and value fell in 2013 due to increasing exchange rates for trade partners and coal price declines.

The declining value of the U.S. dollar between 2002 and 2011 increased the purchasing power of many U.S. trade partners and contributed to increased coal exports. Similarly, from 1992 through 2002, the value of the dollar increased, which led to declining imports. Since 2011, exchange rates have been increas-ing for most U.S. trading partners, suggesting another reversal is underway. However, some underlying factors that influence coal consumption are fundamentally different today compared to a decade ago. Primary factors are relative natural gas prices between North America and the rest of the world, cumulative economic development effects and carbon policies.

In 2012 and 2013, an excess supply of coal due to increased competition from natural gas reduced the price of coal available to be exported, including that from West Virginia. Response to this situation was most pronounced in Europe, where gas prices are high and coal represented an economical substitute.

Going forward, the trend toward increasing or decreasing coal consumption is split between developed and developing countries, with a few exceptions like South Korea. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects total coal con-sumption in developed countries to be more or less flat through 2040. Developing countries, however, are expected to increase consumption by about one-third in the same time period, with China alone accounting for 55-65 percent of the total.

The U.K. has a policy of no new coal-fired power plants without carbon capture and sequestration, which will ensure declining coal consumption. Germany and the Netherlands do not have this restriction and completed several gigawatts of new coal plant capacity in 2012 and 2013, with others under construction. Few expect this build-out to continue, and for many European Union countries, total coal-fired electricity genera-tion is still expected to decline as older plants retire.

In Canada, the province of Ontario just shut-tered its last coal-fired power plant, a decision expected to reduce imports of both thermal and metallurgical coal.

In much of Asia, things are different, as large, developing economies simultaneously increase demand for electricity and become more steel-in-tensive. Although Asia is an important trade partner, the U.S. is a small player overall, as most Asian coal imports are from Australia and Indonesia.

In Africa, many countries are also on an increasing curve for total coal consumption, and like much of the world outside of North America, the price of coal is more stable than the price of natural gas. South America is expected to nearly double coal consumption by 2040, with that growth led by Brazil.

The EIA projects U.S. coal exports to decline in the short term but grow steadily from 2020 through 2035, with most long-term growth coming from steam coal, including increases to Europe in spite of flat consumption. Some analysts expect most export growth to come from Wyoming via western ports supply-ing Asian markets. The timing and size of new terminal builds could impact the West Virginia market due to increased supply.

As the state’s most important coal importing region, Europe consumption trends will have a large impact on West Virginia exports for both metallurgical and steam markets. In the short term, increased supply of West Virginia coal is likely to continue to put pressure on price. To the extent that lower prices can support mining operations, this will increase competitiveness and may counter some of the decline caused by less favorable exchange rates.

BY CHRIStInE RISCH

exedgeWest Virginia produced 181.9 million tons of coal in 1997, setting a record for coal production in the state.

Source: www.wvcoal.com

WEst Virginia’s Coal


the crisis in uKraine shines a new spotlight on America’s role as a global energy leader—with numerous editorial boards and policymakers in

both parties calling for a reexamination of export policies, particularly in regard to natural gas. Central and Eastern European nations, which are heavily dependent on Russian energy, have become even more vocal in entreating the United States to enter the marketplace as a stable, secure source of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

An emerging IndustryJust a few years ago, the concept of increasing LNG exports

was moot. Now, the United States leads the world in natural gas production. Recent reports from the EIA project that natural gas production will continue to surge, hitting 100 billion cubic feet per day by 2040. Based on these record production levels, the EIA’s expectations for U.S. LNG exports have jumped by 160 percent since last year. With the right policy decisions, the U.S. will be a net exporter of LNG in 2016.

For now, the U.S. is nowhere to be found on the list of top LNG exporters. Bureaucratic restrictions limiting the opportu-nity to export a portion of our plentiful natural gas resources threaten to squander a valuable chance to create jobs, grow the economy and reduce our trade imbalance. They also prevent U.S. exports from strengthening the global energy market against crisis and manipulation.

The Potential in LNG ProductionMultiple studies show significant economic benefits from ex-

porting LNG. Studies from ICF International project average net job growth of 73,100 to 452,300 between 2016 and 2035 with GDP gains between $15.6 billion and $73.6 billion, de-pending on how much LNG is exported. The findings reinforce those from a study by NERA Economic Consulting for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which found major economic benefits over all of the export scenarios it analyzed.

Due to increased demand for steel, cement, equipment and other goods used in natural gas development, nonproducing states also stand to benefit from LNG exports, with Ohio,

California, New York and Illinois experiencing economic gains as high as $2.6 billion to $5 billion per state in 2035.

The latest EIA projections make it clear that U.S. natural gas reserves are more than sufficient to supply demand at home and expand exports without adversely affecting the affordable domestic natural gas that has fueled a manufacturing renais-sance. The EIA projects that U.S. production will put downward pressure on prices, even as we increase exports, because greater access to overseas markets will stimulate even more domestic production.

West Virginia, the Game ChangerThe game-changing opportunities within our reach are

possible due to advances in decades-old hydraulic fracturing technology. Coupled with horizontal drilling, these innovations have unlocked vast reserves of previously inaccessible oil and natural gas from shale and other tight-rock formations. With its position above both the Marcellus and Utica shale formations, West Virginia is on the frontlines of the shale energy revolu-tion. According to EIA statistics, West Virginia production of dry natural gas more than doubled between 2010 and 2012, jumping from 256,567 to 528,973 million cubic feet.

Economic impacts of energy development in West Virginia extend well beyond the oil and natural gas sector. In Wheeling, for example, the construction sector is seeing significant gains related to hotel construction, along with pipeline projects and natural gas processing facilities. McGraw Hill Construction reports that investments have jumped 2,752 percent over one year, from $60.3 million in 2012 to $1.72 billion in 2013. Bringing the planned ethane cracker plant to fruition in Wood County would create an estimated 10,000 construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions once the petrochemical complex is operational, in addition to potential jobs created by companies drawn to the area because of the plant.

The economic activity generated by shale energy development in West Virginia is replicated in multiple states, contributing to widespread economic benefits. According to a report by IHS, a global information company, American households saved

BY JOHn FELMY

WEst Virginia’s natural gas

exedgeThe first exports

of liquefied natural gas (LNG)

from the U.S. to Asia occurred in 1969, traveling

from Alaska to Japan.

Source: www.dom.com


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$1,200 in 2012 due to higher household wages and lower costs for energy and products. Economic impacts of growth in unconventional oil and natural gas development will expand even further, supporting 3.9 million jobs by 2020, in-cluding 500,000 manufacturing jobs, and increasing individual household dispos-able income more than $3,500.

The U.S. has the resources and technol-ogy to make these projections reality. Self-imposed bureaucratic limitations are the only obstacle to realizing our full potential as an energy superpower. While competi-tors around the globe race to dominate the world LNG market—with more than 60 non U.S. facilities planned or under con-struction—our DOE has approved only six export applications since 2011; more than 20 still await approval. It should not take a geopolitical crisis to accelerate the LNG export approval process. The DOE should quickly approve all pending permits so we can begin expanding infrastructure and claim the economic benefits associ-ated with LNG exports.

MOVING FORWARD THROUGH INNOVATION

Mountaineer Fabricators Inc. in Charleston, WV was a small company formed when

Robert Hammack took a chance and purchased the manufacturing division from

McJunkin Corporation. After 10 years in business and a growth rate of several

hundred percent, a bright future lies ahead for Mountaineer Fabricators Inc.

Originally starting with around 26 loyal employees from the previous business, it

has now grown to more than 70 employees, several expansions, new innovative

technologies and several new facilities including a new stainless bay, tank/skid bay

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Mountaineer Fabricators has experience working in the oil and gas industry and

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during his tiMe as governor, Senator Joe Manchin famously declared

West Virginia “Open for Business.” However, some groups believe that West Virginia should be the opposite when it comes to the natural gas industry. Forsaking the traditional avenue to policy change through Charles-ton, these groups have turned to local government to advocate additional regulation, moratoria and even bans. Use of this tactic to oppose natural gas develop-ment is hardly unique to West Virginia. Numerous local governments in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio have sought to regulate, suspend or ban natural gas develop-ment within their jurisdictions.

The local government regulation of natural gas de-velopment raises the important question: Is it legal? The answer to this question is of great interest to the natural gas industry and should also be of interest to the business community in general. Businesses considering a capital investment project, such as the development of a Marcellus Shale well, expect—if not demand—stability and predictability. Ambiguous or inconsistent rules and regulations reduce stability and predictability, increase

risk and diminish a project’s attractiveness. Addition-ally, any rule that permits local government to regulate, suspend or ban natural gas development would apply equally to almost any other industry.

Northeast Natural Energy, a Charleston-based oil and gas development company, experienced firsthand local government attempts at regulation when, in 2011, the City of Morgantown passed an ordinance that banned horizontal drilling and fracing within city limits and a mile thereof. Although written to apply generally, the Morgantown ordinance was clearly intended to prohibit two wells that Northeast had planned to drill in an industrial park that existed outside city limits and in which the company had a significant financial investment. Accordingly, despite having obtained all necessary permits, Northeast’s plans were blocked by Morgantown’s ordinance, and it was forced to file suit.

Northeast’s case was decided in late summer 2011 by Judge Susan Tucker of the Monongalia County Circuit Court. Tucker determined that the Morgan-town ordinance was invalid and, in the process, reached important conclusions regarding local government authority. The City of Morgantown had argued that it was given the right of self-gov-ernment by a 1936 Home Rule Amend-ment to the West Virginia Constitution.

BY F. SCOtt ROtRUCK AnD JOSEPH SCHAEFFER

exedgeA study from America’s Natural Gas Alliance reveals that if natural gas was an actual U.S. state, it would rank 12th in gross domestic product—just behind Virginia.

Source: www.spectraenergy.com/natural-gas-101/natural-gas-facts/

The local government

regulation of natural gas

development raises the important question:

Is it legal?

Energy and the Economy

How Local Regulation May Impede Business Development


Tucker, however, concluded that munici-palities are creatures of the state and only have those powers that are granted by the legislature or that are necessarily or fairly implied, essential or indispensable. In fact, if any reasonable doubt exists as to whether a municipality has a power, the power must be denied. Just as sig-nificantly, if there are any inconsisten-cies between a municipal ordinance and state law, the municipal ordinance must yield. In Northeast’s case, because West Virginia has a comprehensive, statewide scheme for the regulation of natural gas development, the Morgantown ordinance was inconsistent and invalid.

Tucker’s decision in the Northeast case was not appealed, and so the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, as the final authority on West Virginia law, has not had an opportunity to address this issue. Nonetheless, Tucker’s decision is consistent with more than 100 years of West Virginia law, and since Morgantown’s ordinance was declared invalid, no other West Virginia municipality has attempted to ban or regulate oil and gas development.

The natural gas industry cannot always rely on precedent and prior victories, though. In Pennsylvania, for instance, which has approximately 10 times as many municipal and local governments as West Virginia, the natural gas industry was presented with a patchwork of local government regulations despite two 2009

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decisions defining its limits. Those local government regulations increased costs and delays, and the natural gas industry accordingly sought a legislative solution. This solution came in the form of House Bill 1950, which was signed into law in 2012 as Act 13. In addition to enhancing Pennsylva-nia’s environmental regulations, Act 13 placed express limitations on the ability of local government to regulate natural gas. In exchange for those limitations, the natural gas industry agreed to an impact fee that would provide local governments with millions of dollars in revenue. Fol-lowing a legal challenge from Pennsyl-vania local governments, however, those limitations were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in December 2013. Pennsylvania's natural gas industry now must contend with both the impact fee and the local government regulation against which it was intended as an inducement.

Colorado, like West Virginia, is home to a thriving energy industry and has similarly experienced attempts at local government regulation. Several Colorado local govern-ments have passed bans or moratoria on natural gas development despite a 1992 Colorado Supreme Court decision pre-serving regulation with the state. The most well-known of these Colorado local gov-ernments is Boulder, which passed a five-year moratorium, but the most significant

are the bans of the cities of Fort Collins and Lafayette. Both Fort Collins and Lafayette are currently being sued by the Colorado Oil & Gas Association in state trial courts. In the interim, an organization called the Colorado Community Rights Network is advocating a constitutional amendment that would permit local government to regulate any for-profit business entity.

Even in Ohio, where the legislature passed successively stronger bills between 2004 and 2010 to preserve sole and ex-clusive authority over natural gas devel-opment with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, local governments have sought to impose additional regula-tion. The most prominent example is the City of Munroe Falls, just north of Akron, which passed ordinances that warrant ad-ditional performance bonds and permitting and public hearing requirements. Munroe Falls then sued Beck Energy Corporation, an Ohio-based company, to enforce its re-quirements. The case is now before the Supreme Court of Ohio, and a decision is expected in late spring or summer 2014.

Attempts at local government regulation in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio are part of a broader trend, and it is only a matter of time before another West Virginia local government considers taking part. The natural gas industry—and the business community in general—must be prepared to directly confront these challenges and keep West Virginia “Open for Business.”

STATEgovernance and

regulatory measures

ENERGY SECURITY

ECONOMIC GROWTH

ENVIRONMENTAL qUALITY

FEDERALLaws and regulations

OIL AND GAS

REGULATION

LOCAL

ordinances, bans

and moratoria

Local government regulation upsets the well-considered balance between strong state and federal regulations, on the one hand, and environmental quality, energy security, and economic opportunity, on the other.

a Delicate Balance

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Construction of the MarkWest gas processing plant in Majorsville, WV.


in West Virginia and across the country, the transition to a renewable-based energy economy is at hand. According

to Richard Sassoon, the Global Climate and Energy Project director at Stanford University, more solar energy reaches Earth’s surface in one year than will ever be obtained from all of the non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas and mined uranium combined. While the sun does not always shine, electrical energy demand is continuous, and the limitless potential of solar energy will be realized once the pairing of energy production with energy storage has been perfected.

Energy storage also holds the opportunity for great economic growth, as its market is expected to grow from $500 million today to around $12 billion in 2023. In the states neighboring West Virginia, the availability of this electric energy resource is much the same as that in the Mountain State, but these states have made moves to increase their solar capacity, which has enabled them to create jobs and expand

their economy. The opportunity to increase West Vir-ginia’s solar capacity exists, and some of the state’s solar energy developers are poised to take advantage of this opportunity in order to grow residential solar energy and energy storage.

The Power GridIn order to understand the process and benefits

of storing solar energy, one must first understand the power grid and the flow of energy from the grid to consumers.

The energy that flows through electrical outlets to power consumers’ homes and businesses comes from a power generating station operated by the local electric utility company. The turbines in a traditional power generating station can be turned by water that is diverted from a river or from steam that is produced by burning coal. The network of wires, substations and transformers that distrib-utes electricity from generating stations to homes and businesses is known as the power grid.

Increased consumer demand for elec-tricity has produced the need for a more effective grid known as a smart grid. The controls and automation of the evolving smart grid are digital technol-ogy that allows for two-way communi-cation between the utility company and its customers. This technology—both on the demand side, like the consumer’s home, and on the response side, like the energy generator—will work with the power grid to respond to consumers’ rapidly changing electric energy demands.

BY LAnCE MCCOY

exedgeSolar technology isn’t new. It’s been around since the 7th Century B.C., when the sun’s heat was used with glass and mirrors to light fires.

Source: www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/solar_timeline.pdf

The harnessing

and storage of solar

energy is still in its

infant stage, making this the

prime time to explore

opportunities.

Here Comes the Sun

Solar Energy and Residential Energy Storage


Home-Grown energyToday, a small but growing part of the electricity delivered to

consumers’ homes comes from renewable sources such as solar energy. This energy is harnessed by solar panels that are wired together. Known as an array, the panels can be attached to a roof or other structure. Once installed, arrays provide a silent, motionless and harmless source of electric energy.

Consumers who use their own solar-produced energy see benefits in their utility bills, which is a good incentive for making the investment in rooftop solar panels. When the solar energy system begins to produce power, the local utility company uses net metering and a bidirectional meter to measure how much power is being generated from the house versus how much power the house is using. If the consumer is producing more energy than he is using, he will get a credit on his bill.

Storing Solar energy In the Mountain State, solar installers offer off-grid, grid-tied

and bimodal solar energy systems. The most common residen-tial installation for capturing solar energy is a grid-tied pho-tovoltaic (PV) system in which the electrical power produced is first utilized on the premises and excess power flows back through the meter to the utility’s distribution network. This transfer is made possible by West Virginia’s net metering law, which allows consumers to become prosumers—or simultane-ous energy producers and consumers—and export excess solar electric power seamlessly to the grid. In this way, solar PV in-stallers in the state are taking advantage of the existing power grid as storage.

According to Chip Pickering, Ph.D., founder of Pickering Energy Solutions in Parkersburg, WV, solar PV designers are using conventional battery technology tied to sophisticated elec-tronic controls to offer bimodal systems. Bimodal systems—systems that have the ability to operate in two modes: grid-in-teractive when the grid us up and off-grid when the power is out—allow for the benefits of a grid-tied system while combin-ing the availability of continuous power during outages. These systems currently have the ability to use demand-side smart grid technologies that are able to use power from the power grid at specific times. When West Virginia’s utilities begin to offer response-side smart grid flexibility, the economic power of these systems will be more fully realized.

Milestone Solar, located in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhan-dle, specializes in bimodal solar PV systems. “In 2013, more than half of our installs were bimodal systems,” says President Bill Anderson. “Bimodal systems have many of the features of a whole-house generator but with advantages such as no fuel to buy and no engine maintenance. Best of all, on a day-to-day basis, they provide a high percentage of your annual electricity needs; no generator does that. ”

Leveling the Playing FieldIn West Virginia, the solar resource available for generating

power is very similar to that of the neighboring states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Mountain State, however, lags all three in installed solar capacity, and this has been attrib-uted, in part, to the need for more supportive public policies. For instance, where the State of West Virginia is metering solar


energy at approximately 2 megawatts (MW), its neighboring states are metering about 200 MW, or 20 times the amount of solar energy. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland don’t have more sunshine; they have more supportive policies.

Earlier this year, The Mountain Institute and Downstream Strategies released “Using Solar PV to Create Economic Oppor-tunity and Energy Diversity in West Virginia: Five Policy Rec-ommendations.” The report, authored by Aaron Sutch, M.A., the Energy Program manager for The Mountain Institute’s Appalachia Program; Jeff Simcoe, M.S., the Energy Program project manager at Downstream Strategies and Evan Hansen, M.S., president of Downstream Strategies, details the benefits of solar energy and provides an overview of the policies needed to expand solar deployment in the Mountain State. The authors’ five policy recommendations consist of: • A binding renewable portfolio standard

with a solar carve out;• Tax incentives for individuals and businesses

to implement solar on-site;• Third-party financing to benefit nonprofit

and local government projects;• Expansion of net metering to allow virtual net

metering for off-site solar projects and• Other policy options that include a feed-in

tariff and time-of-use pricing.According to the report, increasing solar energy use in the

Mountain State would result in job creation, provide protec-tion against rising fuel costs and create diversity within the state’s energy economy.

“We look at the significant growth taking place in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, which can be attributed to supportive public policies, and wonder why West Virginia hasn’t taken advantage of this enormous opportunity,” says Simcoe. “We found that there were close to 9,000 jobs associated with the solar industry across those three neighboring states, while West Virginia ranked 51st in total solar jobs per capita at just under 100 jobs.”

Power of the FutureThe harnessing and storage of solar energy is still in its infant

stage, which makes this the prime time to explore the opportu-nities this energy source possesses. Opportunities may exist in the future for solar PV installers to pair storage as a separate service with residential and small commercial solar systems to lighten the load of the power grid and provide economic benefits to both consumers and the State of West Virginia. In order to reap the full benefits of solar energy and smart grid efficien-cies as its neighboring states do, though, West Virginia’s policy-makers must first make solar energy deployment a priority.

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the appalachian regiOn

encompasses 13 states, stretching from southwest New York to

northeast Mississippi. Characterized by its reliance on the conservation, exploration and utilization of natural resources, especially coal, the region has struggled for decades to improve its quality of life and build a sustainable economic climate. Between 1950 and 1960, more than 640,000 coal and agriculture-related jobs were lost to technology improvements. This economic exodus has continued today, exacerbated by poverty, joblessness and a relentless regulatory campaign against the use of fossil energy by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Several attempts at economic diversification for Appalachia have occurred over the last few decades. Many of these ideas have focused on the develop-ment of surface-mined land. Except for a minority of sites that are near small towns, these ventures have achieved limited success. The old adage “If you build it, they will come” does not necessarily hold true for remote sites without good roads and infrastructure, such as electricity, sewer and water. Many multi-

million-dollar industrial parks now sit underutilized or completely abandoned. In most cases, there never was enough capital available to adequately build out large sites with infrastructure to attract major companies to support de-velopment. There was no base industry available to be the anchor for sustain-able and innovative solutions.

The answer to the economic stabil-ity of the Appalachian region is, and always has been, a program that enables this section of the country to play to its strengths, building steady progress and

sustainability from inside the region. An economic re-naissance of sorts is underway now, with a resurgence of oil and natural gas markets from the Marcellus and Utica shales and the renewed spark of potential energy exports led by horizontal drilling and hydrau-lic fracturing. How can this revival enable a path for prolonged, integrated resource management, engaging more of the region’s energy supplies and reserves to impact the creation of jobs, environmental steward-ship and economic development? This is a question posed to the Southern States Energy Board, a regional think tank whose members are governors and state legislators from throughout the South who all have vital interests in a revitalized Appalachia. The vision before the board is a new cooperative spirit, a model that engenders a collective response from a broader resource base to take full advantage of innovative energy and environmental solutions to build a strong future.

BY KEnnEtH nEMEtH

The answer to the economic stability of the Appalachian region is, and always has been, a program that enables this section of the country to play to its strengths, building steady progress and sustainability from inside the region.

Diversifying Appalachia

Building Sustainability from the Inside Out

exedgeAppalachia is the region named for the Appalachian

Mountains, whose name was derived from the

Apalachee Indian tribe of Florida.

Source: http://users.

fred.net/kathy/at/word.html


A New Model for Sustainable Progress

At the heart of this model are energy farms, processing centers that can provide for a diversity of energy production and value-added enterprises. The envisioned centers will be comprised of modular, stacked systems, utilizing locally-produced fuels and resources. Solid fuels, such as carbon neutral and biomass; clean liquid transportation fuels; biofuels; chemicals and electricity are produced to power the diversified centers and supply energy to the regional power grid. To provide enhanced environmental stewardship, the centers will be designed to enrich and rebuild soil structure, clean the water, capture potential pollutants and byproducts and recycle or sell commodities such as carbon dioxide.

The initial processing plants built in the energy farms will be designed to produce low-ash biomass fuel pellets for export to in-ternational and domestic markets. Pellet plant feedstock will include energy crops grown on surface-mined land, waste wood and residues from logging or sawmill operations.

The heart of these farm complexes will be the deployment of standardized, modular gasification plants powered by waste wood, natural gas or coal. The feed-stock materials are prepped to conform to moisture and particle size specifications then injected into an oxygen-deprived, fluidized chamber where they are heated up to 1,300 C. Because combustion is restricted by the low-oxygen environ-ment, synthesis gases, or syngas, is given off and can be used in a variety of ways. The useful portion of this gas consists mainly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can directly fire an internal com-bustion engine or generator for electric-ity production or serve as feedstock for the synthesis of various liquid fuels and value-added chemicals. Gasification of coal and biomass has been around for more than a century.

The clean syngas feedstock can also produce Fischer-Tropsch fuels and chemi-cals, including cleaner and cheaper diesel and jet fuels for the aviation, mining, trucking and railroad industries, as well

as the general public. Other syngas re-forming methods can lead to produc-tion of methanol, butanol, propane and additional chemical products. Useful commercial applications of other ben-eficial products such as carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery, waste heat, sulfur and slag constitute multiple revenue streams for the complex.

Appalachian ResourcesThe Appalachian region is blessed with

diverse and abundant natural resources. Timber covers over 80 percent of the area, amounting to hundreds of millions of tons of renewable biomass potential. Planning, careful harvesting and replanting can ensure that this enormous benefit is infi-nitely protected and utilized in the future.

The production and use of coal has proven to be a stellar economic advantage to Appalachian states, powering productiv-ity, investment and manufacturing across the region for many decades. West Virginia and Kentucky have dominated U.S. coal production, but federal regulations and guidelines have mitigated coal’s immedi-ate future as the nation’s dominant energy resource. To remain a major component of our energy mix, new technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and sequestra-tion must be demonstrated at large scale and deployed across the nation.

Underlying the entire Appalachian range is the Devonian Shale, one of the world’s

largest hydrocarbon reserves. The prolific production of oil and natural gas will provide feedstock for energy farms and boost opportunities for energy exports and products. Natural gas is today’s fuel of choice, and its expansion throughout the Appalachian region and beyond has led the way to high-paying jobs and down-stream businesses to support the industry.

Solar and wind can be outstanding com-plements to other power sources and add to the electricity mix. Renewable energy crops such as industrial hemp; algae fed by carbon dioxide from the gasification systems; fast-growing, short rotation trees and non-invasive energy grass plantings can prove beneficial to ecosystem management. Supplying high-quality biomass yields can contribute to the success of the energy farms while creating a diverse wildlife habitat.

Agroforestry and Agricultural Advantages

Industrial hemp is a particularly ben-eficial feedstock to energy farms for gas-ification and biofuel production. The oil-rich seeds can be harvested and used to produce biodiesel, and the stalks can be pelletized. Alternatively, the stalks could be used for fiber production in an on-site, value-added facility, and the oil could be processed for human consump-tion or for use in other products such as soaps. Hazelnuts are another possible feedstock proven to grow well on mined

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Various fruits and nuts have been shown to grow well on surface-mined lands and can be processed into value-added products.


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lands, though it performs much better on deep-ripped ground. Other oilseeds, such as soybeans and canola, may produce viable yields on mined lands.

Fast-growing grain sorghum could be an important energy crop if an anaerobic digester system is installed at the process-ing centers. Combined with grasses or exotics to be eradicated such as lespede-za, a mix of silage vegetation could add to the energy and value-added products mix, although a manure source would likely be necessary for efficient digestion.

Other forms of agriculture could occur at energy farms as well and can be comple-mentary to the energy processes. Various fruits and nuts have been shown to grow well on surface-mined lands and can be pro-cessed into value-added products. Examples include jams made from berries and fruits like blackberries, blueberries, elderberries, persimmons and pawpaws; wine made from berries and grapes and nut butter made from hazelnuts and various other nuts that could be sold fresh or processed into snack foods, including walnuts, beech nuts, hickory nuts and pecans. Fruit and nut-bearing trees would require deep ripping to be viable, but berry plants would not.

Greenhouses can make use of the heat from gasification, as well as piped-in, residual carbon dioxide, and they could utilize the organic slurry produced by an-aerobic digestion for vegetables or other crop production. Animal manure can be trucked into the site and composted to create a rich soil substitute, and this could come from nearby sources such as local horse, swine, cattle or poultry operations.

Finally, a variety of livestock is well-suit-ed to mined lands and can be integrated into this agroforestry scheme. Goats, sheep, cattle, bison and other browsers and grazers can make use of the same native grasses planted for bioenergy, and value-added dairy products, such as high-end goat cheese, would benefit from the gasification system for pasteurization. Local farmers may grow biofuel crops and other farm waste streams and market them at the processing centers.

Moving the Concept ForwardGovernors and state legislators in the

Appalachian region are already aware of the potential that can be achieved through the development and deployment of energy farms. The concept provides a win-win for government and industry collaboration with

jobs, economic development and environ-mental sustainability as drivers. Early targets for the development of the energy farms and processing centers are Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia due to their proxim-ity to natural resources and their opportuni-ties for new jobs and economic development. Because of the interest in this concept, explor-atory measures are underway to find the best locations to implement a successful model that will demonstrate all phases of a diver-sified energy farm. This will be followed by a feasibility study that will better define the costs and sources of capital for the venture.

The way to move forward on Appa-lachian redevelopment is to build sus-tainability from the inside out, using the strengths and advantages of the states to empower the region toward prosperity and a bold new future. Achieving success will require the stewardship of innova-tive statesmen and business interests that can envision the advantages before them and make the decisive choices necessary to lead a renaissance of progress through integrated resource management.

Photography by Southern States Energy Board

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Natural Gas Power Plant to Be Built in Moundsville

A natural gas combined-cycle power plant with a nameplate capacity of 549 megawatts will be built on a 37-acre site in Marshall County, with construction planned to begin in mid-2015.

Moundsville spokesman Andrew Dorn, Jr. says Moundsville Power LLC is de-veloping the project, which will cost ap-proximately $615 million. According to an economic impact study performed by Witt Economics LLC in Morgantown, the project will average more than 400 construction jobs during the estimated 30-month construction period.

The plant will utilize $105 million of natural gas annually, sourced from West Virginia producers and processors. Ron Witt, Ph.D., the chief economist at Witt Eco-nomics, has projected the annual economic impact during construction would be in excess of $815 million, and the plant will have an annual operating impact of more than $283 million. Once operational, the plant will employ 30 skilled workers.

Moundsville Power LLC believes that the plant will be a catalyst for continued economic growth and maintaining reli-ability throughout the PJM grid.

“What we are building is a facility that will bring living-wage jobs and long-term investment to Marshall County and the surrounding region,” says Dorn. “We are also creating an operation that demon-strates responsible use of West Virginia’s natural resources and produces electricity in an extremely clean manner.”

Antero Chosen as Anchor ethane Supplier for Proposed Cracker Plant

Antero Resources has signed an agree-ment to become the anchor ethane supplier for the proposed Appalachian Shale Cracker Enterprise (ASCENT) petro-chemical complex in Wood County.

In November 2013, Odebrecht an-nounced it will explore the development of the new petrochemical complex. The ASCENT complex would include an ethane cracker, three polyethylene plants and as-sociated infrastructure for water treatment

and energy co-generation. A purchase option on the anticipated project site in Parkersburg has already been secured.

The ethane supplied by Antero will be used by ASCENT to manufacture poly-ethylene, one of the key resins used in the production of plastics products.

Chemical Alliance Zone Launches New Incubator

The Chemical Alliance Zone (CAZ), in conjunction with TechConnectWV, launched the nation’s first business incubator focused solely on commercializing chemistry-based technology in April at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park (WVRTP).

The new incubator, named ChemCep-tion, will be an innovation hub for any technology involving chemistry—from traditional to green, water to plastics, biotechnology to energy and more.

Dr. Kevin DiGregorio, executive director of CAZ and the director of ChemCep-tion, says, “We are excited to assist en-trepreneurs and small companies to not only get their technologies to market but

Around the StateEnergy Overview COMPILED BY AMY ARnEtt

to also create wealth and jobs in our community, our region and even the nation.”

Although CAZ is spearheading the initiative, working closely with TechConnectWV, nine other strategic partners are key collaborators: WVRTP, Charleston Area Alliance, MATRIC, INNOVA Commercialization Group, West Virginia Small Business Development Center, West Virginia University, Marshall Uni-versity, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing.

“We are pleased that the new incubator is taking flight,” says Anne Barth, executive director of TechConnectWV. “This is an important project for the state’s innovation economy and a key vehicle for launching new technologies from our entrepreneurs, start-ups and small companies.”

Marshall university Receives Grant to Support energy and Power outreach Program

Marshall University’s Weisberg Division of Engineering has received a grant from Alpha Natural Resources to support an energy and power outreach program for high school students.

According to Dr. Richard Begley, a professor of engineer-ing who is directing the project at Marshall, the funds will be used to help develop high school classes focused on energy and power and will be implemented in cooperation with the West Virginia Department of Education and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB).

“Last year, Marshall was selected to participate in SREB’s Advanced Career initiative with this program, which is designed to increase the number of students who leave high school

prepared for advanced study, further training and, ultimate-ly, careers in energy and power,” says Begley. “This generous grant from Alpha Natural Resources will allow us to enhance the program and will give us the opportunity to visit some of the participating schools.”

Woodford oil expands to Better Serve Customers

Woodford Oil Com-pany has ramped up ex-pansion to better serve customers in West Vir-ginia and across its sev-en-state service territory. Recent activity has in-

cluded expanding and upgrading its service station footprint, growing its fleet of delivery vehicles and boosting hiring to serve oil and natural gas drilling companies in the booming Marcel-lus and Utica shale region.

“Woodford Oil is a service-focused company,” says Vice Pres-ident Scott Kiser. “We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to do business with us, whether that’s adding new retail fueling stations, remodeling existing ones or investing in technologies and infrastructure that boost our ef-ficiency and expedite customer response time.”

Woodford’s oil field services division has been growing steadily as business activity increases in the Marcellus and Utica shale fields. “We provide turn-key solutions and on-site fueling support teams so the oil and gas companies can focus on their drilling operations,” says Kiser. “We’ve been hiring site managers and crew coordinators, and we’ve tapped independent contractors who’ve done their own hiring to support our growth. That’s probably created 40-50 new jobs.”

enerVest Announces New President and PromotionsEnerVest, Ltd. has named Ken Mariani president of the

company. John Walker, founder of EnerVest, will retain the position of CEO and will also continue as executive chairman of EV Energy Partners, L.P.

“Ken’s leadership skills have enhanced our operations and provided strong direction for our employees,” says Walker. “We are blessed to have a strong management team, and I look forward to working closely with Ken in his new role.”

In addition, EnerVest Operating Company announced that Stephen McDaniel has been named president and CEO, and Jud Walker has been named executive vice president and chief operations officer.

Governor Tomblin Announces Grant Funding to Support Displaced Mine Workers

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has announced that WorkForce West Virginia will receive supplemental funding in the amount of $5,639,376 in National Emergency Grant funds from the U. S. Department of Labor to continue providing services to workers affected by layoffs and mine closures occurring within West Virginia’s coal mining industry. The supplemental funding is in addition to the $1.8 million allotted to serve displaced mine workers in 2012.



“Layoffs and mine closures are frustrating for our miners and their families—they depend on their jobs to keep food on the table and a roof overhead,” says Tomblin. “This additional funding, combined with the original grant award, will allow us to provide re-employment services and job training opportuni-ties to 700 mine workers.”

Dawood engineering Moves to New LocationDawood Engineering, Inc. is pleased to announce their move to a

new location in Bridgeport to accommodate their growing number of employees. The company’s Bridgeport office opened in October of 2013, and the staff quickly outgrew available space. Dawood has 14 full-time employees in Bridgeport and continues to hire.

“We knew when we opened this office that West Virginia would be an important part of our growth,” says Bony Dawood, president. “The Bridgeport community has welcomed us with open arms, and we are excited to continue our expansion here in West Virginia.”

The new office is located at 102 Cambridge Place in Bridgeport.

West Virginia State university Announces New energy Concentrations

West Virginia State University (WVSU) has announced a new con-centration in energy management for its Bachelor of Science degree in business administration that is designed to support the state’s growing oil and gas industry. The energy management concentra-tion will provide WVSU graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to excel across various aspects of the oil and gas industry.

“Oil and gas industry leaders have shared with us the need for individuals who possess the knowledge and skills to communicate

with geologists and engineers in operations, as well as possess-ing the business expertise to properly manage personnel and accounts in the office,” says Dr. Katherine Harper, dean of the WVSU College of Natural Science and Mathematics. “This new program will bridge these two vital aspects together for the next generation of business leaders in the energy industry.”

A collaboration between the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the College of Business and Social Sciences, the energy management concentration will incorporate existing science and business courses with newly-developed curriculum beginning in January.

Mountaineer Industrial Services Announces Service expansion

Mountaineer Industrial Services has announced that the company is expanding its repair capacity for ventilation fans to help mining and energy companies keep their components operating longer and with greater efficiency.

According to David Gallaher, manager of the facility in Beaver, Mountaineer has developed a process to rebuild worn high- and low-velocity ventilation fans and coat them with tungsten carbide, thereby improving their durability. “We are hearing reports of service life improvements from two to three times better compared to OEM parts,” says Gallaher. The company also offers repair and hardening of the fan cowl areas, further improving the performance of the rebuilt fans.

Gallaher says that mining companies previously had no options other than to replace their ventilation fans with new fans each time motors went in for repair. The OEM fans have


long delivery lead times, forcing motor repair groups to carry additional inventory and raising costs for mining operations.

Mountaineer Industrial Services also repairs all types of pumps, shafts and rotating equipment, typically finishing the bearing and seal areas with tough, wear-resistant coatings. The company also supports most major mining, electric motor and pump services companies throughout West Virginia.

Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day odyssey Returning in october

The National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium (NAFTC) will conduct the seventh installment of National Alternative Fuel Vehicle Day Odyssey in October 2014. The event, created by the NAFTC and best known as Odyssey, has spread knowledge about alternative fuel vehicles and their benefits to more than 400 million individuals since its beginning in 1992.

“The 2014 event will kick off on October 17 with an event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. serving as the heart of the nationwide and international events taking place,” says Judy Moore, NAFTC assistant director of Communications and Outreach. “This event will be only one of more than 100 events, all working together to promote alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles.”

Ryan environmental Continues Industry GrowthRyan Environmental, LLC has experienced numerous changes

over the past year, including the transition of company ownership in October 2012 and a recent expansion of its service capabilities.

“I’m proud to be leading a new, exciting chapter in our com-pany’s history,” says Clayton Rice, president and CEO. “Now 18 months into our transition, we have been very successful in maintaining our quality services and competitive pricing while instituting changes that will position us for continued stabil-ity and growth.”

In 2013, the company created a well services division to support the ongoing activity in the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions. With new hires, Ryan Environmental can offer their customers more than 75 years of combined experience in working with exploration and production companies, provid-ing services such as hydro-pressure testing, well testing, well hook-ups and welding.

Appalachian Power Partners with Habitat for Humanity in energy-efficient Build

Habitat for Humanity of West Virginia and Huntington WV Area Habitat for Humanity recently received a $50,000 donation from Appalachian Power.

“Our employees are proud to support the communities in which they live and work, and all of us are thrilled to embark on this partnership with Habitat for Humanity,” says Charles Patton, Appalachian Power’s president and chief operating officer.

“The partner family that will benefit from our partnership will not only have a new place to call home but will also gain from energy-saving features that will increase comfort and provide utility cost savings for years to come,” says David Michael, executive director of Huntington WV Area Habitat for Humanity. “Moves toward energy efficiency are Habitat for Humanity’s future, and it is paying off for families who live on a tight budget.”


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Appalachian Power’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity is in support of the inaugural Capitol Build. The construction of the Habitat home will begin on World Habitat Day 2014 with the walls being constructed on the West Virginia Capitol lawn in a one-day event on October 6.

West Liberty university Receives $25,000 for Campbell Hall of Health Sciences

The American Electric Power (AEP) Foundation recently presented a check for $25,000 to West Liberty University (WLU) President Robin Capehart to support the construction of Campbell Hall of Health Sciences.

“This gift will impact the health care of our entire region and state,” says Capehart. “We are grateful to the AEP Foun-dation for its support and funding of higher education at West Liberty University.”

Campbell Hall will house six programs of study: chemistry, dental hygiene, medical laboratory sciences, nursing, speech pathology and audiology and the university’s newest health science program, physician assistant studies.

“AEP is pleased to support education, particularly in the sciences, and we are happy to assist West Liberty in this health sciences effort,” says Carmen Prati-Miller, AEP Community Affairs manager.

Campbell Hall is named in honor of Dr. Clyde Campbell, who graduated from WLU in 1953 and later served as presi-dent of the institution from 1984-1995. Campbell also taught at the university for many years as a professor of chemistry and was a patented research scientist in the field of biological chemistry and plastics.

Bethlehem Farm Turns to Solar Hot Water Bethlehem Farm, near Hinton, WV, is a Catholic commu-

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The solar collector used for the project is six times more ef-ficient than standard solar panels and costs roughly 10 times less. Unlike traditional solar panels, this system, known as the Sunbank, doesn’t produce electricity. Instead, it offsets the use

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of electricity by directly heating the residence’s domestic water and radiant heating systems.

“There are several good things about this system,” says James Richards, the owner of Sunbank Solar. “It is a reliable and affordable system that is easy to install and saves tens of thousands of dollars that otherwise would have gone to burn electricity or gas.”

Richards says the system costs $1,499 and is usually installed by do-it-yourself home owners or a local plumber. As opposed to other solar systems, the installation does not require previous experience with solar panels.

Noble energy Partners with Community Colleges for Degree Programs

Noble Energy, Inc., an independent energy company engaged in worldwide oil and gas exploration and production, has become a founding partner of the new petroleum technology program being offered at West Virginia Northern Community College in Wheeling and Pierpont Community & Technical College in Fairmont.

Noble Energy has invested $250,000 as a one-time donation in the institutions’ one-year certificate and two-year degree programs focused on shale exploration and production. Coordi-nated through the Community and Technical College System of West Virginia, the program is one of only 14 in the United States.

The partnership was announced at an event on March 26 in Charleston attended by West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin; Gary Willingham, senior vice president of Noble Energy’s Onshore Region and administrators and students of Northern and Pierpont.

“Education and work force development are essential when com-peting for economic development opportunities,” says Tomblin. “Our community and technical colleges have stepped up to the task of giving to companies that are investing in West Virginia the opportunity to grow with a skilled work force. Collaborations between industry and education like this one are essential in pre-paring our students with skilled training to meet the needs of new business in the Mountain State. These partnerships and the edu-cation reforms underway in West Virginia are vital to continued work force development programs.”

Renewable energy Conference to be Held in Flatwoods in June

The West Virginia Division of Energy (WVDOE) and the Marshall University Center for Business and Economic Research are partnering to host the Renewable Energy in West Virginia Conference on Thursday, June 5, 2014. The conference, in Flat-woods, is free and open to the public.

The Renewable Energy in West Virginia Conference will bring together organizations and individuals with experience implementing and managing renewable energy projects in the Mountain State. While fossil fuels dominate West Virginia’s energy resources, renewable energy also employs many West Virginians and generates significant tax revenues.

“West Virginia is a state with abundant energy resources and a skilled work force that enables our nation to benefit from our resources,” says Jeff Herholdt, director of the WVDOE and con-ference sponsor. “While coal and natural gas lead our energy mix, renewable energy also provides us jobs and economic de-velopment opportunities.”

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When you turn on the tap, it’s easy to see what your water bill buys. What’s not as easy to see is what it takes to bring that water to your home. The miles of pipeline hidden below the ground. The facilities that draw water from the source. The plant where it’s treated and tested. The scientists, engineers, and maintenance crews working around the clock to make sure that water is always there when you need it. Your water payments are helping to build a better tomorrow by supporting needed improvements that will keep water fl owing for all of us—today and well into the future. All for about a penny a gallon.

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if yOu Watched the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, you may know that America’s own Noelle Pikus-Pace took

home the silver medal for women’s skeleton. What you may not know is that her former teammate, Lea Ann Parsley, with whom Pikus-Pace was in a devastating skeleton accident in 2005, has deep, West Virginia roots.

Parsley was born in Logan, WV to two native West Virginians, and she is a descendant of the McCoy family of the famed Hatfields and McCoys. When she was 2, her father received a job opportunity that moved the family to the small town of Granville, Ohio. Parsley returned to West Virginia for college; she graduated from Marshall University with a degree in adult health education.

“I chose Marshall because it was and still is a great university, and it gave me the opportunity to return to my home state,” she says. “I worked with a great coach there, Judy Southard, and I was close to family.”

After her time at Marshall, she continued her edu-cation at several institutions, completing a doctoral degree in community nursing. She has also spent several years working as a public speaker, sharing her experiences about her faith and every facet of her diverse career.

Ready to RaceHer academic and post-graduate career is remark-

able on its own, but Parsley is also a born athlete. “It’s hard to put into words,” she says. “I have always felt the most like myself when I am running, jumping, swimming, hiking or doing any other physical activity. I want to be in motion.”

Her passion for sports led to achieve-ments in basketball and track and field in high school and college, and her in-volvement and passion for athletics put her in position for a life-changing expe-rience in skeleton racing. She tried out for the Pan American team for Women’s Handball, but she didn’t make it after her thumb was injured. “I was invited to serve as the team manager instead, which turned out to be a huge blessing,” says Parsley. “While browsing the Internet for potential team sponsors, I came across a winter sports page about skeleton. I called the number on the screen for more information, and the rest is history.”

Parsley went on to train in skeleton, and in 1998, she became a part of the U.S. women’s skeleton Olympic team. She competed for six years on the World Cup circuit. In 1999, she earned a silver medal, making her the first to ever receive a women’s World Cup medal for the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams. In 2002, Parsley competed in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, where she added another silver medal to her collection.

BY AMY ARnEtt

exedgeA design team from the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics developed a new type of skeleton sled for the Sochi Olympics, used by three U.S. athletes.

Source: www.uc.edu

In 2002, Parsley

competed in the Salt Lake

City Winter Olympics, where she

added another silver medal to her

collection.

Fighting Fire and IceLea Ann Parsley

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Throughout her competition years, she was a successful con-tender, but to her, the experience meant more than the accolades. “I may have been the first woman to win a World Cup medal, but I was not the trailblazer in the sport. There were women ahead of me, like Julie Walker and Fallon Vaughn, who cleared the way for my success long before I even started,” she says. “The most enjoyable part has been traveling and meeting so many fantastic people. It has expanded my view of the world in ways that would have never been possible otherwise.”

olympic Medalist, Community Hero“Leading up to the Olympics, I had been training with the

same group of coaches and athletes for three years, so it was a fantastic time for all of us and the opportunity to see all of our hard work pay off, together on the biggest stage in sport,” she says. The games were held in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2002, which meant that Parsley’s family and friends were able to attend her events. “The best moment of the Olympics was seeing my family after my race. I remember seeing my brothers and sister running toward the finish line, and it was then that it all started to sink in.”

That dedication to her family and the sense of community she values has led Parsley throughout her career as an athlete, a nurse and a firefighter for the town of Granville. In 1985, she followed in the footsteps of her two older brothers by becoming a firefighter. “We lived just three blocks from the station, and it became a great way for us to be involved in our community as we got older,” she says. “It was also a lot of fun hanging off of the back of a speeding fire truck.”

United States Medals Won at Sochi2014

GOLD: 9SILVER: 7BRONzE: 12TOTAL: 28


“The Tamarack Foundation’s new website is a brilliant way to showcase artists in West Virginia to not only the artist and business communities, but to visitors as well.”

—Kara D. DenseExecutive Director, Greenbrier County

Convention and Visitors Bureau

Explore the many artisans who draw inspiration from our ancient mountains, fl owing rivers, and warm communities. Their works tell stories that begin in the heart and then fl ow from the hands.

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“The Foundation asked what artists needed for their businesses to grow. The website created by the Foundation is a valuable opportunity for an artist like me to expand my business.”

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Though she began as a volunteer firefighter, she eventual-ly graduated from the Ohio Fire Academy. In 1999, she was named the State of Ohio Firefighter of the Year for her work saving lives, particularly a mother and daughter in a residen-tial fire. Her service with the department played a role in her being chosen to carry the World Trade Center flag during the 2002 Olympic opening ceremonies.

“Representing my fellow firefighters and athletes was an in-credible privilege,” she says. “It was an honor to meet the men and women from the New York honor guard who brought the flag to Salt Lake City and to walk with them as we entered the stadium that night. It will always be one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in sport.”

A New CourseIn 2005, while training for the 2006 Winter Olympics, Parsley

and several of her teammates were struck by a runaway sled in Calgary during a training session. The sled hit Parsley in the leg, causing severe bruising and swelling; it also hit Pikus-Pace in the leg, causing a compound fracture. The injuries both women sustained were enough to keep them from qualifying for the Olympic team. “The accident was on a Wednesday afternoon, and I had to race for my team position on Saturday morning, which just wasn’t enough time to heal,” says Parsley. “I did the best I could, but it was just too soon.”

Parsley went to the 2006 games as a coach instead of an athlete. “I’m so grateful for that opportunity,” she says. “I learned a lot by taking on a different role, and it allowed me to share my experiences with the other athletes.”

While the accident was career-ending for Parsley, Pikus-Pace came back to the sport with a vengeance, taking home the silver this year in Sochi. “I remember lying on the ground with her just seconds after we were hit by the bobsled, and we both knew how devastating her injury was the instant it happened,” says Parsley. “Watching her fight her way back to the team and then back to the top of the world standings was truly inspirational.”

In addition to coaching at the 2006 games, Parsley worked as a TV broadcaster for the 2010 games. Today, Parsley con-tinues her supportive role with the U.S. skeleton team as a jury member for the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation.

Parsley never envisioned the paths that she’s taken over the years. “What did I want to be when I grew up? I honestly never gave that question any thought. I guess I was just too busy enjoying my time as a kid,” she says. “Now, I have never thought of skeleton as a career choice because I never made any money. When I made my first trip to the Olympic training center, I was 30 years old. Most of the people told me I was too old and slow to compete. It was simply something that I loved to do in between my other jobs, and the doors kept opening up to other possibilities.”

Photography by Lea Ann Parsley and U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation

in 2004, a small group of city leaders in Charleston, WV met with Mayor Danny

Jones to develop an idea for a citywide arts and entertainment festival. The concept was different from past events the city had hosted, such as its long-running Charleston Sternwheel Regatta, which took place on the riverfront and focused on music. Instead, these city leaders envisioned a more comprehensive festival, one that would include music, theater, fine art and dance.

Enter Larry Groce, longtime host and producer of West Virginia Public Broad-casting’s Mountain Stage, who was invited to expand on the idea. Groce suggested combining and building upon events the city already offered by arts groups in the summer, a concept called pyramiding.

“Rather than re-invent, we re-imagined,” says Groce. “Existing summer festivals such as Blues, Brews & BBQ and Wine & All That Jazz already had established identities and audiences. Theater groups such as the Charleston Light Opera Guild already produced summer shows. What we strived to do was use some of those events as anchors and add new events to them.”

BY MOnICA OROSz

[realwv]

FestivALL Marks 10 Years

A City Becomes a Work of Art


All the Arts, All over TownThe name selected for this new venture,

FestivALL Charleston, emphasized its goal of including diverse art and entertainment offerings, as well as presenting them in a wide range of venues throughout the city.

FestivALL Charleston debuted for three days in June 2005 thanks to financial support from Jones and the Charleston City Council. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people participated in one or more of the FestivALL events that first year.

Its original slogan, “All the Arts, All Over Town,” evolved into “A City Becomes A Work Of Art.” Both of these slogans emphasize the twin goals of cele-brating the arts and celebrating Charleston.

“With major support from the City of Charleston and further help from private individuals and businesses, the State of West Virginia, the Kanawha County Com-mission, the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and more, along with positive feedback from attendees, we knew we had an event worth expanding,” says Groce, who now serves as FestivALL’s executive director.

Groce credits FestivALL’s active steering committee for continuing to drive the event’s development. By 2013, FestivALL had grown to the point of offering 130 events and more than 360 performances, exhibits and presentations. Attendance was estimated at more than 60,000 people, a number that was based on ticket sales and head counts.

In 2013, the festival joined forces with West Virginia’s state sesquicentennial cel-ebration, a pyramiding event that included a dramatic multimedia presentation and fireworks display at the state capitol along with historically themed productions such as the “The Civil War,” a musical produced by the Charleston Light Opera Guild.

“Our steering committee is always open to new ideas for developing FestivALL,” says Groce. “In the early years, we found ourselves working to persuade artists, per-formers and organizations to join Festi-vALL. Now, they come to us.”

Showcasing Charleston’s CharmThe result of this collaborative effort

showcases the charms of West Virginia’s capital city. Events range from mainstream to quirky. You can hear rhythm and blues great Aaron Neville in Charleston’s 1,800-seat Clay Center or listen to the North Indian jazz of Red Baraat on the expan-sive lawn of the University of Charleston. Head over to a local middle school and watch wiener dog races or meander up the city’s scenic and historic Carriage Trail to hear street musicians and see scenes from a play. A family favorite and a FestivALL tradition is an elaborate balloon sculpture that takes shape each year at the Charleston Town Center Mall, thanks to the artistry of Columbus, Ohio’s Dizzy Doc.

While some events, such as Friday night Live on the Levee concerts at Charleston’s Haddad Riverfront Park or the Smoke on the Water Chili Cook-Off, may draw thousands of visitors, not all FestivALL events are designed with the “more is better” philosophy. Some attractions are more intimate; FestivALL guests can find themselves taking in an art exhibit with just a handful of other people.

10 Years and CountingNow taking place over 10 days,

FestivALL will celebrate its 10-year an-niversary June 20-29. For this milestone, FestivALL will include its now-traditional anchor events such as Live on the Levee; the Mayor’s Concert; Blues, Brews & BBQ; Wine & All That Jazz; Mountain Stage; the Capitol Street Art Fair; Taste-of-ALL food festival and The Dance Gala and Art Parade. In their ongoing efforts to tweak and freshen up the schedule and

forge new bonds in the arts community, organizers continue to add events.

New this year is FestivALT, a concert fea-turing alternative rock and country bands that will take place at Appalachian Power Park; West Virginia Writer’s Roundtable; a juried children’s art exhibition; a religious icon exhibit; “WV Squares,” starring Holly-wood Squares host Peter Marshall and Pitts-burgh’s Attack Theatre performing original pieces in conjunction with public artwork.

“FestivALL is both easy and difficult to define because of our philosophy to stay open to new partnerships,” says Groce, “and that’s the legacy we hope to maintain moving forward.”

For information on this year’s FestivALL events, visit www.festivallcharleston.com.

Photography by Chris Morris, Chase Henderson, Josh Saul and Greg Sava


Once upOn a tiMe, castles were the things of fairytales, found only in enchanted forests or in lands far,

far away. Mineral springs and mountainous terrain in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, however, lay home to one historic castle that dates all the way

back to the 1800s.The English-Norman Berkeley Springs

Castle, a national and West Virginia reg-istered historical landmark, is located in Berkeley Springs, WV. The town is known for its warm mineral springs, which have been drawing crowds for cen-turies. Native Americans believed these springs could cure ailments; Thomas Jef-ferson’s father called the area “Medicine Springs” in 1747 and George Washing-ton and his friends even purchased land in the town because of their love of the spa waters.

BY CAnDACE nELSOn

Living in HistoryBerkeley Springs Castle

exedgeBy order of William the

Conqueror, the Normans built

castles to create an atmosphere

in which they were feared

by the English, minimizing the

possibility of an English uprising.

Source: www.historylearningsite.co.uk/castles.htm

[realwv]


Andrew Gosline, the current owner of Berkeley Springs Castle, was unaware of the lure of the springs or even the town in which it was located when he purchased the castle in 2002. Retired and living on Florida’s Jupiter Island, he learned about the castle’s auction in a Wall Street Journal ad. Gosline had taken an interest in real estate years before, and he already had property investments in New Jersey, Florida and North Carolina.

“I went to see the castle with my two sons, Andrew and Matthew, and I was impressed with the structure and history,” Gosline remembers of the day he bought the castle. “As a boy, I was always fasci-nated by castles, but the idea of owning one never occurred to me until that moment.”

While he hadn’t gone to the auction be-lieving that he would be the owner of a castle at the end of the day, the purchase happened quickly, and he walked away with the keys. He had no plan for what he was going to do with the property and its 19th century silica stone structure, so he began learning about the area and the property’s history.

The Samuel Taylor Suit CottageThe Berkeley Springs location once at-

tracted the attention of Colonel Samuel Taylor Suit, who had the castle built in the late 1800s. The home was also known as the Samuel Taylor Suit Cottage.

Samuel, a wealthy businessman who fought in the Civil War, fell in love with Rosa Pelham, the 17-year-old debutante daughter of Congressman Charles Pelham of Alabama. The 46-year-old businessman tried to persuade her to marry him, but she declined his requests.

When the two met again five years later, Samuel successfully won her over by vowing to build her a castle in the town of Bath, the official name of Berkeley Springs. The duo climbed the hill to Warm

Springs Ridge that afternoon and marked off the location for what would become the Morgan County landmark that now overlooks the town. Three days after the proposal, Samuel and Rosa wed.

When it came time to construct the castle, Samuel hired A.B. Mullett, an American architect who is often best known as the designer of the State, War, and Navy Building in Washington, D.C., which is now named the Executive Office Building. The architect laid the castle’s foundation in 1885, and he, along with 100 German masons, constructed the im-pressive display of silica sandstone with hand-cut stones from the local area.

“As a boy, I was always

fascinated by castles, but the idea of

owning one never occurred to me until that moment.”


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Samuel died just before the castle’s completion in 1891. To inherit her late husband’s fortune, as laid out in his will, Rosa was required to see the castle to its finish. She abided and carried forth with a life of luxury, hosting elaborate sunset-to-sunrise parties with friends from around the country. She was known to rent entire railroad carts to haul friends from Washington, D.C. and other areas to Berkeley Springs for weeks at a time. Every party was lavish, complete with orchestras and caterers.

By age 50, Rosa had exhausted her inheritance, and in 1909, the castle was sold at a public auction. Rosa moved to a small home and raised chickens until her son took her to live out West.

The castle has since changed hands several times. From 1938 to 1954, Dr. Ward Keesecker used the castle and the surrounding land for Monte-Vita, a summer camp for boys. In 1954, Walter Bird purchased the castle and opened it to the public as a museum, where it remained until 1999 when its contents were sold. After extensive renovations, the castle was back on the auction block once again in 2002, at which time Gosline took ownership.

A Modern Day CastleGosline and his family live in the castle the majority of the

year, fleeing to Florida during the winter months to escape the chilly temperatures in the stone palace.

Since taking ownership in 2002, Gosline’s major renovations have involved the restoration of the gardens and general landscap-ing, including extensive stonework, fountains, yard sculptures and plantings. “At the time of the acquisition, the castle was sitting on only five acres of property, and since that time, I have expanded it to over 60 acres and three guest cottages,” he says. The grounds include an arched bridge over a waterfall and forest paths.

Over the years, the castle was open to the public when it served as a museum, and tours of the structure were available when the property was owned by the Bird family in the late 1990s. Today, public access is limited to the first floor, which is available for weddings, fundraisers and private and corporate events.

“There have been so many unique events and beautiful weddings, traditional and nontraditional. It’s amazing,” says Pamela Unger, the castle’s curator. Unger, who has worked at the castle for more than 20 years and through three owners, helps coordinate operations and events.


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“I've seen all kinds of photo shoots from the History Channel and the Travel Channel, and George Bush was here," she says. The family from England who owns the castle after which the Berkeley Springs Castle was supposedly modeled once flew in to scope out the landmark as well.

When Gosline purchased the castle, it was unfurnished, and through the years, he has worked to acquire unique pieces to furnish the castle to support its history. Its interior decorations harken back to Rosa’s era.

“As you walk into the great room of the castle, you see a magnificent red-carpeted central staircase,” says Gosline. “On either side of the room there are two stone fireplac-es. To the right is an elegant Victorian dining room with three crystal chandeliers, and at the foot of that room is another fireplace.”

The castle consists of 9,200 square feet of living space with a large ballroom and an elegant stairway leading to a second floor atrium, nine bathrooms, eight fire-places, six furnaces, one master suite and four guest bedrooms. Of course, no castle would be complete without a dungeon.

And like other historic English castles, legends of spirits dwelling within the cen-tury-old home abound.

“Over the years, there have been many reported sightings of ghosts,” says Gosline. “I personally believe that if there are any ghosts here, they are friendly and welcome us to their castle.”

Whether or not ghosts have taken up residence, Gosline’s home has a rich history that continues to draw attention from all over the world.

Photography by Tracy Toler and Berkeley Springs Castle

TRA

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1210 Smith StreetCharleston, WV 25301

800.292.6984www.cgwv.com

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CONTEMPORARY

The saying “Disaster strikes when you least expect it” has recently rung true for the State of West Virginia. According to a preliminary investigation from the Center for Business and Economic Research at Marshall University, roughly $61 million has been lost by local businesses as a result of the chemical spill that tainted the Elk River in early January 2014.

Residents and business owners of the affected area have found assistance in different forms, one being the disaster program offered through the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). On January 31, 2014, an Economic Injury Disaster Declara-tion was issued to small businesses in West Virginia due to the chemical spill. Eligible entities may qualify for loans up to $2 million. The SBA offers Economic Injury Disaster Loans to help meet working capital needs caused by disasters. Terms for these loans are up to 30 years with interest rates of 2.625 percent for nonprofit organizations and 4 percent for small businesses.

The disaster program is the SBA’s largest direct loan program and the only SBA program for entities other than small busi-nesses. The SBA is responsible for providing affordable, timely and accessible financial assistance to homeowners, renters, busi-nesses of all sizes and nonprofit organizations.

Disaster LoansThe SBA is authorized by the Small Business Act to make two

types of disaster loans: economic injury and physical. Economic injury disaster loans, which are applicable to inci-

dents like the recent declaration for the chemical spill, provide necessary working capital until normal operations resume after a physical disaster. The law restricts economic injury disaster loans to small businesses, small agricultural cooperatives, small businesses engaged in aquaculture and most private, nonprofit organizations of all sizes.

Physical disaster loans are a primary source of funding for the permanent rebuilding and replacement of uninsured or underinsured disaster damages to privately-owned real and personal property. The SBA’s physical disaster loans are avail-able to homeowners, renters, businesses of all sizes and non-profit organizations.

Loan TermsDisaster victims must repay SBA disaster loans. When disaster

victims need to borrow to repair uninsured damages, the low interest rates and long terms available from the SBA make recovery affordable. Because the SBA tailors the repayment of each disaster loan to the borrower’s financial capability, un-necessary interest subsidies paid by the taxpayers are avoided.

The need for SBA disaster loans is as unpredictable as the weather. In Fiscal Year 2012, the SBA approved 15,324 new loans for more than $689 million. Since the inception of the program in 1953, the SBA has approved more than 1.9 million disaster loans for more than $50 billion.

Another way the SBA provides assistance is through disaster preparedness. Roughly, 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never reopen their doors following a disaster, which is why the SBA has partnered with Agility Recovery Solutions to offer business continuity strategies at its Prepare My Business Web site. Visit www.preparemybusiness.org to view a training schedule, access past webinars and find preparedness tips.

Planning for a disaster is the best way to be prepared. If disaster does strike, contact the SBA to see what recourses are available for you or visit www.sba.gov for more information.

By Nikki Bowmar

When Disaster StrikesThe SBA’s

Disaster Program Provides Financial Relief for

Businesses

[disasterpreparedness]


We all KnOW that disasters can occur at any time, and we all understand the impact a disaster can have on a business and the importance of having a plan in place for responding to—and recovering from—a crisis. Understanding the many different types of crises that threaten a workplace, its employees and their productivity is critical to ensuring that your company is prepared for anything.

One of the most important steps in recovery can be preparation, which is necessary for creating a business environment that is resilient to life’s surprises and mishaps. While natural disasters like flooding and tornadoes are some of the most common types of crises, the ones that are less common are just as important. Do you have a plan in the event of a product recall? What will you do if your employees go on strike? What is the protocol for a hardware malfunction or injuries obtained on-site?

RQA Inc. offers a list of the different types of crises that can impact a business. By reviewing this list and establishing emergency, communications and business continuation plans, your business and your employees will be prepared for anything.


Prepared for Anything

HAZARDouS MATeRIALS

Spills, leaks, build up of toxic materials, etc.

oRGANIZATIoNAL MISDeeDS

Deception, management misconduct,

misrepresentation, illegal actions, etc.

HuMAN eRRoR Mistakes that cause

significant damage or loss to the company.

PRoDuCT ReCALLMisbranded, adulterated

or violative product in the market.

MALeVoLeNCe Product tampering,

sabotage, kidnapping, terrorism, malicious

rumors, etc.

TeCHNoLoGICAL BReAKDoWNS

Software failures, hardware failures,

infrastructure collapse, computer viruses, etc.

MeDICAL eMeRGeNCIeS

Heart attacks, broken bones, lacerations, etc.

uTILITIeS FAILuRe Power outages,

gas, water, sewer, garbage, etc.

NATuRAL DISASTeRS tornadoes, earthquakes,

hurricanes, floods, droughts, severe

storms, etc.

WoRKPLACe VIoLeNCe Violent actions against

others in the workplace.

CoNFRoNTATIoN Boycotts, picketing,

protests, ultimatums, etc.

SoURCE:www.rqa-inc.com/newsletters/Catlin_US_U0110.pdf

”WELCOME TO OUR WORLD”

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chronometer-certified by the COSC – the highest official benchmark in terms

of reliability and precision. Welcome to the sphere of extremes. Welcome to

the Breitling world.

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SUPA Joyces_WVExecMag (8.5x10.875)B_Layout 1 3/17/14 4:46 PM Page 1

117 s p r i n g 2 0 1 4

When the alert comes in that an incident—an industrial accident, a natural disaster or

any other event that can affect a business—has occurred, the immediate actions a business takes to respond will set the stage for how communications will be handled: successfully by following a well-designed plan or hastily by grabbing for any and all support that can be found. One approach creates openness and engagement while the other builds fear and frustration. Both are commonly used; only one provides success.

Before a crisis occurs, businesses should have a planned process designed to meet the information needs of media, elected officials, neighbors, employees and their families and the public. Companies benefit when they communicate quickly and candidly with stakeholders to inform them of what is happening.

BY Ann GREEn

Preparing for the Worst Why Businesses Need a Crisis Communications Plan



By Paige Johnson “Once we received the call that evening saying we were under a ‘do not use’ order for our water, both campuses immediately went into our Emergency Operations Plan and set up command centers,” says Brian Ulery, vice president for thomas Health System.

“When you practice disaster drills, you think you know how you’re going to put everything into motion, but nothing totally prepares you because of the unknowns and uncertainty,” says Dan Lauffer, thomas Health System’s

chief operating officer. “However, because we had been routinely practicing different scenarios for drills, we all knew our places and our responsibilities.”

the purpose of the hospitals’ Emergency Operations Plan is to ensure the continu-ation of hospital operations in order to keep the patients safe if a disaster occurs. Under the plan, employees are assigned specific duties and roles, and staff members are educated on proper responses through participation in training and practice drills.

During this specific disaster, the first concern was sanitation for patients and steril-ization of equipment. Bottles of water and hand sanitizer were distributed to patients and staff. Realizing very quickly the urgency for sterilization of equipment and laundry needs, both thomas and Saint Francis worked with other hospitals that were outside the affected areas. Multiple phone calls, emails and conversations about alternative ways to get to the end result of safety and care for the patients was the staff’s focus in the days that followed.

On January 14th, five days after the spill, thomas and Saint Francis were given the word to start flushing their systems.

“that’s probably the longest that our command centers have ever been active,” says Lauffer. “Our managers, employees and staff members went into place, followed the plan and took care of our patients without delay.”

“the bottom line is that teamwork is what got every single one of us through,” says Ulery. “Planning, practicing and tabletop drills are what kept both command centers from panic, and it’s what kept minds clear so that practicing medicine with seamless care was top priority.

“Our employees, our physicians and our vendors showed amazing teamwork to get through this external disaster. Without fail, our teams did a phenomenal job in execut-ing our Emergency Operations Plan.”

Practice Makes PerfectJanuary 9th put all

of the practice drills and emergency

preparedness planning that Thomas Memorial

and Saint Francis hospitals had worked

on for years into reality. That evening, the

chemical MCHM spilled into the Elk River,

contaminating water for more than 300,000

West Virginians.

119 s p r i n g 2 0 1 4

Structuring a Communications PlanA crisis communications plan—a struc-

tured, well-defined roadmap for managing the communications process—provides the process for successfully sharing important information. The plan is a living document that guides all aspects of managing com-munications during an emergency. Com-panies that design their plan in advance of an issue do so without pressure and are more successful at communicating impor-tant, and oftentimes sensitive, information.

Just as an emergency response plan outlines response actions, a crisis com-munications plan guides all aspects of managing communications during a crisis. Although many tend to focus communi-cations concerns on the media, many au-diences need and deserve to know what is happening and what is being done in response. Neighbors of a chemical plant need to know immediately should there be an airborne release. Coal miners’ families must be the first to be informed of an en-trapment or other underground emergency. Local elected officials should be given the necessary information so they can deter-mine how and when to respond if disaster strikes in their community. All these au-diences should be considered when con-structing a crisis communications plan.

West Virginians have seen examples of both positive and negative results of communications efforts. Both within the Mountain State and beyond its borders, people are familiar with the sad outcome of the 2006 Sago Mine disaster in which 12 of the 13 trapped miners perished. Beyond the tragic loss of life, misinformation sent families into euphoria one minute, thinking their loved ones had survived, and to the depths of despair the next, when the dismal truth became known. Clearly, there was a breakdown in communication, which was probably due to a lack of a structured com-munications strategy.

In contrast, the airline industry generally gets it right. One specific example is the 2009 US Airways miracle on the Hudson River. After losing both engines right after taking off from LaGuardia Airport, Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the river. One difference, of course, was the preservation of life in what was a life-threatening situation. Beyond that, airline executives knew exactly how to organize their communications. The CEO was on the air within minutes. A hotline for families to get information about their loved ones was established immediately.

Regular public briefings were provided. The media was asked to get their informa-tion from official sources and not specu-late. The CEO quickly went to the site of the incident and provided support. Those affected on-site were provided counseling if they wanted it. Information about the investigation and cause of the crash was communicated in a timely manner, and all audiences received the necessary informa-tion in a prompt and organized way.

Putting the Plan in PlaceSuccessful communications in the time

of an emergency doesn’t just happen. It is the result of a well-crafted plan, a trained team and time spent rehearsing.

Elements of a crisis communications plan include:• The designation of official spokesper-

sons and crisis communications team members with backups, which is crucial. In addition to the primary spokesper-son, this team includes a secondary spokesperson, a social media liaison, a media host and a human resources liaison. All team members have a role to fill and are critical to the success of the plan’s execution.

• The establishment of an emergency communications center (ECC), which is the center for communications at the facility and focuses on coordination and management of communication with the media, employees and family and community members. The plan outlines the ECC’s organization and manage-ment, including primary and secondary locations, dedicated communications equipment, maps and contact lists and data sheets about the company and its operations, as well as the specific tasks to be managed within.

• The creation of a prepared response manual that includes business and site-specific background information, templates for response statements, generic press releases, basic questions and answers about site and industry-specific issues, fact sheets and other resources that provide quick access to facts, support materials and personnel.

Test It, Drill It, Challenge ItOnce the crisis communications plan is

developed and the team is organized, the plan should be tested. In addition, crisis team members should receive specialized training to be able to execute the plan effectively. A realistic tabletop drill can assess the effectiveness of the crisis plan and the skills of the participants. Those who will be tasked with responding to media inquiries should receive specific media interview training. The team should then be tested on its plan to ensure all roles are understood and no gaps exist. Once the plan, team and support system are in place, it’s time to start the continu-ous evaluation process. The team should gather on a regular basis to review the elements and brainstorm potential issues.

Nothing in a crisis is predictable. However, preparing for a crisis through development of a structured plan can reduce stress and ensure a team is prepared. A well-executed crisis communications plan not only helps a company deal with a barrage of negative front-page stories in the local newspaper or unflattering tweets, but it also helps prevent damage to stock prices and reputation as well as legal en-tanglements. Just as an insurance policy protects against loss, the right plan helps protect a company’s future.


Throughout West Virginia, the oil and gas industry boom, which has been generated by the exploration and production of the state’s natural gas plays, has fueled company growth and employment opportunities. As the industry develops and expands, its participating companies are realizing a greater need for capital and the

requisition of resources, including an increased demand and opportunity for independent contractors. While upstream, midstream and downstream companies within the oil and gas industry each have their own specializations, all of West Virginia’s businesses face the same issues in the classification—or, perhaps misclassification—of independent contractors. Prompted by Vice President Joe Biden’s Middle Class Task Force, created in 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has developed an initiative to determine whether companies have misclassified workers as independent contractors when they should actually be considered company employees.

Press releases on the DOL Web site confirm that its Wage and Hour Division has begun to focus significant effort in the oil and gas sector. The DOL has already cited numerous oil and gas-related employers in the Texas and Oklahoma fields and is devoting an increased amount of resources to advancing the audits into the northern shale plays.

The impact of the DOL’s efforts can be significant. In one recent Texas case, the DOL determined that oil field gate guards were employees rather than independent contractors and assessed that the employer owed $6 million in back pay and overtime. Though a federal court eventually reversed the DOL’s determination, the case clearly demonstrated the DOL’s aggressive approach and risk of significant liability in these cases.

The DOL determines whether a contracted worker is economically dependent on the company for which he or she works by using an economic realities analysis.

This analysis considers the six following factors: 1. The extent to which the worker’s services are an integral

and essential part of the employer’s business. 2. The permanency of the relationship. 3. The amount of the worker’s investment in facilities and

equipment. 4. The nature and degree of control by the principal. 5. The worker’s opportunities for profit and loss. 6. The level of skill required in performing the job and the

amount of initiative, judgment or foresight in open market competition with others required for the success of the claimed independent enterprise. The fine lines between the classification of a contract worker

and an employee make it critical for employers to understand how the DOL determines workers’ status and the repercussions to both parties if workers are mislabeled. If, upon evaluation of a worker, the DOL determines that the contractor relies upon the employer for his or her livelihood, the economic reality is that he or she will probably be considered an employee who is entitled to the same wages, overtime and benefits as employees. This freshly classified employee may now have a claim for unpaid wages and other damages that could result in months of litigation and high costs for the employer.

The challenges to employers who use independent contractors make it vital for each employer to review his or her arrangements with each contractor. This review ensures that the DOL would not classify these workers as company employees if subjected to the economic realities test. If there is any doubt, it may be advisable to consider the cost justification of bringing the worker on as an employee or terminating the arrangement and locating a truly independent service provider.

By Joseph Price

The Fine Lines of Employee Classification

[economy]

What Can Happen When

Independent Contractors

are Categorized

as Employees


internatiOnal inVestMent, ownership and operation of local companies in a community can create

high-income jobs, increase exports and usher in new research, technology and work force skills. The strategy of encouraging and attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) is practiced by every country and state and even many cities. Simply put, FDI is an investment made by a company or entity based in one country into a company or entity based in another country.

Inward FDI is an essential component of the U.S. economy. As the world’s largest economy, the United States is positioned to participate in the increasingly competitive international environment. The U.S. is an attractive investment destination for FDI due to its economic strength and low-risk profile compared to other global economic leaders. According to the In-ternational Trade Administration (ITA), “The United States is the largest recipient of foreign direct invest-ment in the world. It is also the world’s largest source

of direct investment. In 2012, the stock of direct in-vestment into the United States totaled nearly $2.7 trillion, equivalent to nearly 15.4 percent of all for-eign-owned assets in the United States.” With regard to the direct economic impact of these investments nationally, according to the ITA, this translates to majority-owned subsidiaries of multinational firms with U.S. opera-tions employing more than 5.6 million workers and paying an average annual compensation of $77,600.

Statewide, West Virginia has been the beneficiary of significant and growing international investment. Two examples would be NGK Spark Plugs and Braskem. NGK, which was the first Japanese company to invest in West Virginia in the mid-1990s, has expanded its Sissonville plant, which remains a globally strategic location for the company. Braskem, a Brazil-based chemical company, recently announced its intentions to build an ethane cracker in Wood County. The project, which is expected to be an investment of approximately $2 billion, is, in part, a result of the discoveries of the Marcellus and Utica shale developments and represents a major new investment from a Brazilian company into the Mountain State.

BY MAttHEW BALLARD

exedgeSince 2010, Japan, Canada, Australia, Korea and seven European countries have accounted for more than 80 percent of new foreign direct investment flowing into the U.S.

Source: www.whitehouse.gov

The U.S. is an attractive

investment destination

for FDI due to its economic

strength and low-

risk profile compared to other global

economic leaders.

Foreign Direct Investment

Job Growth Opportunities for West Virginia

[economy]

ARGENTINAUnitan

AUSTRALIAALS Environmental FL Smidth Ludowici USA Incitec Pivot Ltd./Dyno Nobel Minova

AUSTRIAANDRITZ Separation Inc. Virginia Crews Coal Co.

BELGIUM Proviron IndustriesRavago

BRAZILBraskem SA Gerdau Ameristeel Madem Reels USA

BRITAINAFAC Alamo Energy Corp. BG Group Caledonian Alloys Elementis Elementis Specialties Ferguson/Wolseley International Power PLC ProLogic Randox Laboratories Rio Tinto Ruskin Mfg. Smallbone Thistle Processing

CANADABombardier ServicesBrook�eld Power

Chrome Deposit Cobalt Coal Hercules, Inc. H Q Aero Management Irving Crane Kent Cartridge of America Leveltek MAAX Mott ManufacturingNorth American Ventures Quebecor Printing SFK Pulp Recycling Stella-Jones Trimac Western Inventory

CHINA GT Global/The Daniels Co. Phillips Machine Service, Inc.Terramite Construction Equipment

FINLANDMetso Power Service

FRANCE Constellium GDF Suez Energy Saint-Gobain/CertainTeed Saint-Gobain/Corhart Saint-Gobain/NorandexSonepar/Hagemeyer NA Veolia Environmental Services

GERMANYBaum America Corp.Bayer Crop ScienceBayer Material Science Becker Mining SystemsBrenntag Mid-SouthCentury LubricantsFasloc Fontaine EngineeringFLYTEG North America LLCKaeser CompressorKlöckner-Pentaplast Marco North AmericaMato Prebena N. American Fastener Co. Schauenburg Flexadux Corporation Siemens Medical Siemens Water TechnologiesSeebach Seetech Stockmeier Urethanes Inc.Tiefenbach ThyssenKrupp ElevatorThyssenKrupp SafwayVossloh Track Material, Inc.

INDIA Essar Group Novelis

IRELAND Ardagh Group CRH/Oldcastle Precast

ISRAELICL/Clearon ICL/IP

ITALY

American Agip Co., Ltd.Allevard Soge� USA, Inc. DPR, LLCEntsorga IMI Fabi Italcementi/Arrow Industries Italcementi/Essroc M & G Polymers Pietro Fiorentini USA Tecnocap LLC

LUXEMBOURGArcelorMittal/ Concept Group Flint Group

MEXICO Grupo Bimbo

NETHERLANDS Impress USA Royal Ahold Shell WindEnergy Shell/East Resources, Inc.

KINGDOM OF BAHRAINArmacell

SWEDENABB Process Analytics ABB Service Metso Power

SWITZERLANDAggregate Industries EuropTec USA Holcim Novartis/Alcon Research, Ltd. SGS Sulzer Pumps/Sturm

UKRAINEFelman Production Metinvest/Carter Roag Coal Metinvest/United Coal

NEW ZEALAND Rank Group/PWP

NORWAYStatoil Energy

REPUBLIC OF KOREA Gastar Exploration

RUSSIAMechel OAO Mountain State Carbon

SAUDI ARABIASABIC

SPAINGestamp Maxam North America

JAPANDiamond Electric Mfg.Feroleto Steel Co., Inc.Green Metals Hino MotorsKurarayKureha PGA K.S. of West VirginiaMeiji Corp Mitsubishi Rayon/ Lucite InternationalNGK Spark Plug Mfg.Nippon ThermostatNippon Tungsten USA Okaya Okuno InternationalSanko DenkiTaiyo Nippon SansoTeikoku USA/ChempumpToyota Motor Mfg.Toyota TsushoWheeling-Nisshin Inc.

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Foreign direct investment creates jobs in the Mountain State. More than 24,000 West Virginians are currently employed by international businesses, approximate-ly half of which are in the manufacturing industry. FDI also benefits local suppli-ers, enhances global perceptions of the Mountain State and helps diversify its economy and strengthen its communities. From Toyota and Hino Motors to Kureha, Allevard Sogefi and many more, these in-ternational companies have truly made tremendous investments in West Virginia.

When an international business makes a decision to locate or expand into the U.S. market, there is not a uniform recipe for how or where a company decides to locate. That said, West Virginia has the basic foundation for being competitive in FDI recruitment. With an abundance of necessary raw mate-rials, as well as the recent shale discoveries, a community and technical college system that is more nimble and responsive to em-ployers’ needs than ever before and the state’s established transportation systems, it is no wonder that West Virginia is home to more than 100 international companies.

One of West Virginia’s best attributes when it comes to attracting FDI is its ability to provide personalized assistance. Unlike larger states, West Virginia provides an en-vironment where connecting with business, community and government leaders takes less time than almost anywhere else in the country. Specifically for smaller and mid-sized businesses that come to the U.S., the state’s local economic development orga-nizations, the West Virginia Development Office and regional and local leaders are well positioned to assist the company as it transitions into the U.S. market and operations in West Virginia.

Foreign direct investment attraction and expansion is vital to continue building a robust and resilient economy. With hundreds of billions of dollars of capital investment decisions being made annually that cross international boundaries, economic developers in the United States must look beyond their city limits, county lines and state borders for new opportunities. West Virginia can continue to diversify its economy, insulate the state’s economy from the ebbs and flows of economic downturns and create a more sustainable job market for its citizens by continuing to pursue and develop its competitiveness as a leading destination for companies worldwide.


Climbing Kilimanjaro


When it cOMes to family vacations, why not go on the ultimate adventure

vacation: a trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro, followed by an African safari on the Serengeti Plain? That was how my wife, Mary Kay; my son, Jared, and I spent our family Christmas vacation. Why this destination? It’s something I’ve wanted to do since high school when I read Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” I also knew it would provide a personal challenge, as well as a chance to commune with nature, experience exotic cultures and conquer one of the seven summits.

This is not a vacation for the faint of heart. Although climbing Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the world, does not require technical skills or equipment, ascending to its peak at 19,341 feet is considered an extreme altitude climb during which every climber experi-ences altitude symptoms like headaches, nausea and vomiting. One-third of those who attempt the climb fail to summit, and about 10 people die each year on the mountain. Tanzania, the African country where the mountain is located, requires all trekkers to hire locally licensed guides.

Unfortunately, Tanzania has not fully capitalized on its majestic, natural wonders. A young country of 48 million that only gained its independence from Great Britain in 1961, it is one of the poorest countries on earth, where the average income is only $50 per month. It is into this exotic world of mystery, possibilities and danger that my family and I arrived to begin our African adventure.

BY MICHAEL MARSHALL

[lifestyle]


The ClimbOn day one of our climb, the drive from

our hotel to the trail head was idyllic. We passed through miles of agricultural land and small towns. It seemed like everyone had banana trees growing in their yards. There are six main routes up the mountain. We chose the Lemosho Route because it is the longest, which improves the odds of summiting because it provides more time for climbers to acclimate to altitude. Three other climbers joined our group: a young, married couple from New York City and a 45-year-old, female engineer from Minneapolis. They were all great company, and we got to know them well.

Climbing a 19,000-foot mountain is not easy. We spent most of our eight days in physical discomfort—the cold, wet, hard, hurting and tired type. The first

leg of the climb was in the tropical zone, which was wet and muddy. Mary Kay slipped and broke her thumb 45 minutes into the climb. Since there’s no medical care on the mountain, she had to make a decision—abort a year worth of prepara-tion and the expense of the trip or wrap up the appendage, pop some ibuprofen and continue on. Bravely, she chose the latter. Four hours into the muddy mess, I began to feel faint. I somehow found the reserve to keep going, and from that point on, it was a mental stamina game. Once we tamed the physical demons, though the psychological rewards were immense.

The CrewThe African climbing support crew for

our six-member climbing team consisted of 21 African guides, cooks and porters

who were essential in getting us to the summit. Our lead guide was Seraphine, and he hand-picked the others, which included relatives and close friends. They mostly spoke to us in Swahili, the national language of Tanzania. They seemed very proud of their language and used every opportunity to teach us the essentials, which included the phrase hakuna matata.

The climbing crew did their best to make the experience as pleasant as possible. The porters would race ahead of us to have the camp set up before we arrived. If the day’s climb was difficult, they would even walk back to meet us on the trail with freshly prepared juice and snacks. They brought us hot water upon arrival in camp as well as every morning when we woke up so we could drink hot tea and wash up. They also prepared hot meals for breakfast and dinner.


The experienceClimbing Kilimanjaro was not a

comfortable experience. A typical day involved waking up at 6 a.m., dressing and packing our bags while cramped in a very small tent, eating meals in the dining tent, trekking for eight hours to the next camp, forcing ourselves to drink five liters of water daily to minimize the effects of altitude sickness, trying des-perately to keep warm and rearranging bedding that slid downhill to the foot of the tent each night. In a word, it was grueling, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy the experience in a sacrificial type of way. The harder you work for some-thing, the more you value it.

The first three camps broke in our climbing legs, but it was Barranco Camp that tested our resolve. At 12,500 feet, it

faced the daunting Great Barranco Wall, an 800-foot-tall vertical escarpment we would scale the next day. I asked Seraphine how many climbers had slipped and fallen to their death. His answer, “Not many,” failed to comfort. Sleep was fitful that night, but with the exception of slipping a little on some ice, our guides expertly got us to the top by showing us exactly where the best handholds were and even grabbing our arms and pulling at times to get us up the toughest parts.

Base camp, at an altitude of 15,000 feet, was prime star-viewing territory. After dinner, we lay outside the tent to gaze up at the heavens. For the first time ever, I was able to fully comprehend the billions of stars of which astronomer Carl Sagan spoke. When a meteor streaked across the sky, a peace and calm swept over me. All my trepidation and misgivings about the wisdom of undertaking such a risky adventure vacation with my family vanished, and I knew we were destined to safely reach the top.

The PeakThere is nothing like the experience of

climbing and summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro. Climbers essentially walk through every climate zone on earth from the equator to the North Pole—tropical farm lowlands, rainforests, moorland and heath, alpine desert and arctic—all in a single week. Not only do you achieve the satisfaction of conquering one of the seven summits, but you literally see the world in a different way from the roof of Africa. It’s the only spot on the planet where you can see the curvature of the earth with the naked eye. You can also see Mt. Kenya, 214 miles to the north, which is the furthest distance on the planet the eye can see from one point to another.

Someone asked me if we celebrated at the summit after our successful ascent. The answer is no. We were so focused on just getting to the top in one piece that we never gave it a thought. Instead, we just had an overwhelming sense of relief at having survived our final day, in which we ascended and descended a total of 13,000 vertical feet in a 20-hour climbing marathon. It took every ounce of courage we had to continue forcing our beaten bodies to keep putting one foot in front of the other. That left the celebration responsibilities to our climbing company.

It’s a tradition for crews to sing the Kili-manjaro song to their climbers at the final camp. It was a wonderful way to cap off the completion of our great family Kili-manjaro adventure.

We rewarded ourselves for a successful summit with a three-day African safari on the Serengeti Plain. We saw all the African plain animals, including the largest mammal migration on the planet consisting of 2 million wildebeest and zebras. It was the perfect way to decompress, relax and relish the glory of conquering Kilimanjaro.

Photography by Michael Marshall


in 1976, the former Jefferson Security Bank in Shepherdstown, WV was purchased for space as a restaurant. The new owner

named it the Yellow Brick Bank and opened for business before discovering that the bricks resisted paints and glazes, yellow or otherwise. The name has remained, however, and today, the Yellow Brick Bank (YBB) is an Eastern Panhandle institution that has served a notable list of guests that includes First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Executive Chef Jeff McGee heads up the kitchen staff at YBB, where the menu is a combination of dishes that have been mainstays at the restaurant since the beginning and fresh takes on American cuisine, inspired by McGee’s experience in the culinary world that began more than 30 years ago.

Originally from Romney, WV, McGee joined YBB four years ago. In 2006, Ken Lowe, Jr. purchased the restaurant, which is now owned and operated by Lowe and his wife, Mary, who have a vision of keeping the classic atmosphere and evolving menu that has defined YBB. “I have known Mr. and Mrs. Lowe since I was a teenager,” says McGee. “When

the opportunity to work at the Yellow Brick Bank presented itself, I was thrilled to join the staff.”

McGee brings with him experience that began during his college years; he has worked at Piccadilly’s Brew Pub and Restaurant in Washington, D.C. and the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown, where he won the AAA Four Diamond Award multiple times. At YBB, he puts his experience to work, creating a menu that includes lunch, dinner and dessert options that focus on fresh ingredi-ents elevated by cooking techniques and complementary sauces, all paired with a large wine selection from the original bank vault, repurposed as the YBB’s wine cellar.

The dinner menu has a list of delicious appetizers that includes shrimp and cannellini beans, mussels and the pizzette, a thin-crust pizza cooked in the YBB’s wood-fired oven and topped with cheeses, herbs and olive oil. Following up an appetizer, the entrées feature salads, salmon, shrimp with a rose cream sauce and grilled hanger steak with a sesame-orange marinade, among others. Finishing desserts range from a classic brownie with ice cream to pumpkin bread pudding with a ginger crème anglaise for the more adventurous.

The atmosphere of YBB is one of notoriety, with outstanding service provided by the wait staff and Mary Lowe herself, who is often seen in the dining room chatting and seeing to the needs of diners. The dining room and kitchen work together to efficiently prepare and deliver dishes, making for a loyal list of returning clientele and a reputation in the area as a must for hungry visitors to Shepherdstown.

“It encompasses a family atmosphere,” says McGee. “When you work the hours that a chef works, it is nice to feel as though you are working with family, and it enables us to develop relationships with one another and with our guests.”

The Yellow Brick Bank is located on East German Street in Shepherdstown and is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and closed on Sundays and Mondays. Reservations can be made by calling (304) 876-2208.

Photography by Tracy Toler and Jim Wassel/Wassel Photo and Design

[lifestyle]

BY AMY ARnEtt

In the Chef ’s Corner

Yellow Brick Bank

JeffMcGee,executivechef


4 chicken breasts, skinned and boned¾ lb chanterelle mushrooms, sliced2 cups heavy cream½ cup brown sauce4 tbsp flour4 shallots, minced2 tbsp butter2 tbsp olive oil3 oz emmentaler cheese, dicedSalt and pepper

Salt and pepper the chicken and dust in flour. Add the oil and butter to a sauté pan, and cook the chicken breast, browning on both sides for three minutes. Remove the chicken and set aside. In the same pan, add the shallots and chanterelle mushrooms and cook down. Add the heavy cream, brown sauce and cheese and bring to a simmer, stirring until the cheese has melted. Add the chicken and cook for 10-12 minutes or until the chicken is tender. The sauce will thicken while cooking. (Serves 4)

Mussels in White Wine

2 lbs mussels, cleaned and debearded3 shallots, minced2 cups white wine4 tbsp butter4 cloves garlic, minced½ cup flat-leaf parsley, choppedJuice of ½ lemonSalt and pepper to taste2 slices bread, grilled

Melt the butter in a large stock pot over medium heat and add the shallots and garlic. Sauté for about 30 seconds, then add the white wine, parsley, lemon juice

and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and stir in the

mussels. Cover immedi-ately, cooking until all the shells open, about four minutes. Serve with grilled bread. (Serves 2)

Chicken Chanterelles


Baked Crab Cakes

1 lb lump crab meat, picked clean of shells

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce1 tsp Old Bay seasoning1 tbsp sweet onion, finely minced2 tbsp mayonnaise2 eggs, beaten2 slices white bread, crust removed

and diced

In a large bowl, mix the eggs and bread together. Add the crab meat, Worcester-shire, Old Bay, onion and mayonnaise and fold together. Form the mixture into six patties; if needed to form better, add a small amount of mayonnaise. Place the patties on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees or until golden brown. (Serves 3)

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Regional FocusCOMPILED BY AMY ARnEttPHOtO BY AMBER nICHOLS


Secretary of State unveils BIG Advance in Tracking of Business Growth

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant unveiled a comprehensive and easy-to-use database to measure the expansion of business in West Virginia at events in Princeton and Charleston in January.

It is called the BIG Map—the Business Industry Growth Map—and it was developed by the Information Technology Division of the Secretary of State’s Office.

The BIG Map is an interactive application on the Secretary of State’s Web site that displays comprehensive business filing data. It allows users to compare business openings and closings in all 55 counties, dating back decades. Users can also compare business filing data between cities.

The information can be used by entrepreneurs, journalists and citizens to track the expansion of West Virginia’s economy.

TerraVault, Inc. to open Global Administrative office in Mercer County

TerraVault, Inc. has announced plans to open its global admin-istrative center in Bluefield, WV. TerraVault is a West Virginia corporation serving the environmental and energy sectors of the global economy. According to Link Murray, TerraVault CEO, “We are poised on the brink of a major expansion, and Bluefield offers a unique set of qualifications that are neces-sary to our growth.

“As a company that is addressing a critical need in the en-vironmental and energy fields, we were looking for a location that gives us access to mining technology, robotic expertise and equipment design and manufacturing. A major factor in

the choice has been the presence of Bluefield State College and its superior program of technical training in robotics. When I add the readily available work force, suitable training site, low cost of living, genuine friendliness of the population and the enthusiasm of the area banks and businesses to our selection formula, Bluefield was an obvious choice. We look forward to partnering with this entire region in the realiza-tion of our goals.”

Grant from eQT Foundation Helps Get Clay Center Mobile exhibit on the Road

EQT Foundation presented a two-year, $500,000 grant to the Clay Center for its Power Your Future project. This energy-fo-cused, educational initiative will facilitate 21st century learning and strengthen skills in the STEAM disciplines of science, tech-nology, engineering, art and math.

“EQT is thrilled to support innovative, local programs and initiatives like the Power Your Future mobile exhibit,” says Charlene Petrelli, president of EQT Foundation. “By engaging and inspiring students through a dynamic, hands-on experi-ence of the natural gas production process, this exhibit will take their understanding of a possible future in this exciting industry to the next level.”

Geared toward middle and junior high school students, the Power Your Future mobile exhibit—a bus with 11 different stations for students to explore—is expected to hit the road later this year. Using game-based software, this self-guided, interactive exhibit on wheels will educate students on the ex-ploration, extraction and use of natural gas.

Wheeling Hospital Among First in the u.S. to Insert World’s Smallest Cardiac Monitor

Wheeling Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the U.S. to adopt the world’s smallest, long-term, insertable cardiac moni-toring device for patients with recurrent fainting, heart palpi-tations, unexplained stroke or atrial fibrillation.

Dr. Maninder Bedi, a cardiac electrophysiologist, successfully completed the first implant at Wheeling Hospital. The technol-ogy was launched on February 19 with clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The Reveal LINQ™ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) from Medtronic is more than 80 percent smaller than other ICMs currently available. The entire procedure takes less than a minute, and patients can usually leave the hospital in less than an hour afterward instead of nearly four hours when using the larger device.

The device is part of a powerful system that allows physi-cians to continuously and wirelessly monitor a patient’s heart for up to three years. In addition to its continuous and wireless monitoring capabilities, the system provides remote monitor-ing and notifies physicians if patients have significant cardiac events between regular medical appointments.

West Virginia Wesleyan College Receives Major GiftWest Virginia Wesleyan College has received an unrestrict-

ed gift in excess of $2 million through the Mary B. Albinson Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust. The Albinson family has enjoyed a long association with the college since 1972 when their son, Thomas H. Albinson II, enrolled as a student. Wesleyan


will name its school of business in honor of Tom during the college’s homecoming weekend celebration in October.

The gift will provide funds that will allow for significant upgrades to all business classrooms in the Lynch-Raine Admin-istration Building, establishment of endowments for business faculty development and career-related internship experience opportunities for business students. A portion of the gift will also be used to address campus restoration projects and support the purchase of new equipment for the college’s media studies program and campus radio station.

Governor Tomblin Announces Changes in Tourism Administration

In April, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced the retire-ment of Tourism Commissioner Betty Carver, effective May 31.

“Betty has dedicated nearly 40 years to public service in the Mountain State, and for the past 11 years, she has led efforts to show the world the many things that make our state great. In fact, under her leadership, travel and tourism revenue topped $5 billion in 2012, contributing $5.1 billion to West Virginia’s economy—the first time in the state’s history,” says Tomblin. “I sincerely appreciate Betty’s service to the Mountain State and wish her well in her future endeavors.”

Tomblin has appointed Amy Shuler Goodwin as deputy sec-retary of Commerce and the commissioner of Tourism for the State of West Virginia. For the past two years, Goodwin has served as the director of Communications for Tomblin.

Charleston Lawyer opens engineering Design and environmental Consulting Firm

Charleston lawyer Elliot Hicks has opened Ellerbee Envi-ronmental + Technical, a business that will provide engineer-ing design and environmental consulting services. The firm will absorb the personnel of the design and engineering firm AE As-sociates, Inc., and it will continue to pursue the work in which AE has been involved, most particularly designing bridges, highways, landscapes and transportation modes.

In addition to the services AE’s designers and engineers have traditionally offered, Ellerbee will strongly pursue opportunities in West Virginia’s burgeoning oil and gas industry. By partner-ing with other expert engineering firms and employing engineer and design personnel of different disciplines, it will now offer design for well pads, access systems to well sites and regula-tory permitting services and advocacy to assist the oil and gas producers in the area.

“West Virginia is in the midst of a very important shift that changes its place in the energy world,” says Hicks. “The oil and gas industry will provide a cleaner source of energy for our future, and our company will take a leading role in helping the industry meet these important energy needs in the most eco-nomical and environmentally responsible ways.”

The Thrasher Group, Inc. Acquires Blackwood Associates, Inc.

The Thrasher Group, Inc. is pleased to announce the recent acquisition of Fairmont-based architectural and planning firm Blackwood Associates, Inc. Blackwood is known for their leadership in the design of state-of-the-art educational, gov-ernmental, medical, residential, recreational, commercial and

historical adaptive reuse facili-ties. Blackwood has success-fully completed 600 projects in excess of $600 million in the last 20 years.

This acquisition will help form the cornerstone of Thrasher’s growing archi-tectural division, which has worked very hard to obtain work in the education facilities arena.

Craig Baker, principal in charge of Thrasher’s architectural de-partment, says, “Our goal is to have the broadest and best port-folio of successful projects the industry has to offer. Blackwood is a perfect fit. They are proven leaders in educational design and bring an impressive body of work with them. Together, we will continue to serve their existing clients.”

Matheny Motors Named KMe Dealer for the RegionMatheny Fire & Emergency, the newest division of Matheny

Motors, was most recently named the KME Fire and Rescue Division’s authorized dealer for Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. KME is a leader in American-made, custom-built fire apparatuses.

Tim Matheny, president, says, “As a family-owned business, we are excited to join KME—another successful, family-owned business. Our companies share a combined 160 years of expe-rience, and this partnership will give fire departments a solid trust in our customer service and fire apparatuses from KME.”

CraigBaker,TheThrasherGroup,inc.,andKentonBlackwood,

BlackwoodAssociates,inc.







The Schoenbaum Center is a special place located in the heart of Charleston, West Virginia where services and resources for children and families can all be found under one roof!

Hope grows here through a variety of community programs and family-centered services.

1701 5th Avenue, Suite 1Charleston, WV 25387

(304) 414-4411www.schoenbaumcenter.org

[email protected]

Training rooms are available to rent!

• Child Care Services• Educational Opportunities• Job Training, Referrals & Placement• Child Abuse Prevention• Financial Advice• Home Healthcare

• Emergency Assistance• Nutrition Education & Resources• Support for Pregnant Women• Social Service Agency Networking • Developmental Services for Young Children


West Virginia’s Newest Zip Line opens at River expeditions

West Virginia’s newest zip line and canopy tour adventure was completed earlier this spring at River Expeditions in Fay-etteville. This exciting, two-hour course, named The Ridges, is located on-site at River Expeditions and is now open for business.

This new zip line adventure offers a unique perspective of nature that only comes from being immersed in the treetops. The course allows guests to zip from platform to platform through a canopy of trees more than 100 feet above the ground and featur-ing four zips and one bridge, plus a thrilling rappel at the end.

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College Signs Apprenticeship Agreement

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College is pleased to announce a new agreement that offers an approved apprenticeship for students.

The agreement was signed with Unilin NA, LLC, Robert C. Byrd Institute and the U.S. Department of Labor/Office of Apprenticeship. The program was planned to enhance the skill level of employees and offer education options to enhance their employment goals.

“Everyone knows the importance of designing and imple-menting multiple educational pathways for students, and today, there are no one-size-fits-all approaches to meet the needs of students or business,” says Joanne Jaeger Tomblin, West Virginia first lady and president of Southern. “More of these partner-ships will need to be created and developed to build the work force that West Virginia and this region need.”

Southern will provide Unilin employees an occupational de-velopment program with an emphasis on mechatronics. Upon completion of the job training and educational requirements, an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Occupational De-velopment in Mechatronics may be obtained.

uniCare Health Plan of West Virginia Names New Government Relations officer

UniCare Health Plan of West Virginia, Inc., a subsid-iary of WellPoint, Inc., has named Brenda Nichols-Harper director of Government State Affairs.

“We are delighted to have Brenda join our team in West Virginia,” says Meredith Delk, WellPoint vice president of State Affairs. “She brings more than four decades of experi-ence to her position and a true understanding of the advocacy needed in West Virginia to help those who otherwise may not get the care they deserve.”

Nichols-Harper most recently served as vice president and general counsel for the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and previously served as vice president of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association.

New River Gorge Welcomes Festival Amphitheater The New River Gorge has a new amphitheater. Set to open

with an inaugural concert June 6-7, the new, 12,500-person amphitheater at ACE Adventure Resort has been designed as a festival ground for the New River Gorge region, according to its developers.

Hosting the resort’s first Mountain Music Festival, the venue is intended to support year-round programming, according to resort President Ernie Kincaid.

“We recognized some years ago that there was a need for a festival venue in the New River Gorge region, and ACE’s resort has all the space necessary to make that happen,” says Kincaid.

BrendaNichols-Harper


Kincaid says the new stage and its parking area have been developed in part of the resort’s 40-acre mountaintop camp-ground, though its installation still leaves the resort with the largest camping facilities in the New River Gorge region.

The two-day Mountain Music Festival, being promoted as a music festi-vacation, will feature bands billed loosely as jam, punk and alternative bluegrass.

The Arnold Agency Joins the Asher Agency

After 25 years in business, The Arnold Agency, a marketing communications firm with offices in West Virginia, Montana and Washington, D.C., has been acquired by the Asher Agency and joining other marketing and media firms under the umbrella of Eastport Holdings.

“This move will catapult our company to the next level,” says Arnold Agency Founder, Chairman and CEO Linda Arnold. “We’re excited to offer our clients a vast array of additional services while still maintaining the high level of client service they’ve always enjoyed.”

“We’re thrilled to have The Arnold Agency join our group of companies,” says Asher Agency President Tom Borne. “We’ve known and respected them for a long time through our mutual association with the Subway organization over the years. Altogether, we’ll be working with Subway fran-chises in 22 states across the country, as well as our digital delivery company in California and their public health clients in Montana and Hawaii.”

The new company structure took effect on April 15, 2014, and The Arnold Agency will be rebranded as the West Virginia office of the Asher Agency.

West Virginia Nonprofit Association Named New emerging State Association

At its most recent meeting, the National Council of Nonprof-its’ board of directors designated the West Virginia Nonprofit Association (WVNPA) as a new emerging state association.

As a Nonprofit Ally member of the Council of Nonprofits for more than a year, WVNPA brings 125 new charitable non-profit organizations into the national network.

“The West Virginia Nonprofit Association is honored to have been approved as an emerging state association with the National Council of Nonprofits,” says WVNPA Executive Director Laura Lee Haddad. “During our first one and a half years, we have worked hard to lay the foundation of an association dedicated to strengthening and serving West Virginia’s nonprofits.”

Membership in the WVNPA is open to all 501(c)(3) West Virginia nonprofit organizations, and it seeks to strengthen nonprofit organizations individually and the sector as a whole, catalyzing innovation and fostering the collective voice of its members who make up a valuable part of the state’s economic and community fabric.

The WVNPA began as a collaborative initiative led by Phi-lanthropy West Virginia and the West Virginia Community De-velopment Hub to engage all nonprofits across the Mountain State. Since its establishment in 2012, the WVNPA has been working to provide a statewide and regionally-delivered training platform that is developed based on the needs of the nonprofit sector and each region of the state.

HospiceCare opens Peyton Hospice House in LewisburgHospiceCare is pleased to announce the opening of the much-

anticipated Peyton Hospice House, a new, free-standing, eight-room inpatient hospice facility, which will be the first of its kind to serve patients and their families in need of end-of-life care in the Lewisburg area. A ribbon-cutting and open house is planned for the first week in June with the facility set to open for patient care immediately thereafter at 1265 Maplewood Avenue in Lewisburg.

Representing a capital investment of more than $2 million to the Lewisburg area, HospiceCare has created 20 new jobs with total payroll and benefits estimated at $800,000 annually to serve six to eight acute care hospice patients daily while gen-erating $1.1 million in additional hospice revenue annually. This will be in addition to HospiceCare’s existing in-home care program with 25 employees and 35 volunteers who serve nearly 200 patients and their families annually while generat-ing nearly $2 million in revenues in the Greenbrier Valley.

LindaArnold

TomBorne


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ACT Foundation 86

America’s Natural Gas Alliance 5

American Red Cross 97

AMSOIL 66

Appalachian Log Structures 111

ArcelorMittal 43

Armstrong Telecommunications 71

ArthurHenry LLC 139

Babst Calland, Attorneys at Law 13

Best Home Medical Inc. 6

BrickStreet Insurance 28

Bridgeport Conference Center 81

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Chapman Technical Group 64

Chesapeake Energy 11

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Copper Ridge Realty, LLC 67

Cunningham Energy 56-57

Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston 136

Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP 7

Eagle Manufacturing Company 43

G&G Builders Inc. 94

GEF Incorporated 39

Girls Night Out 104

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield 92

HSC Industrial 38

Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, Inc. 35

Jackson Kelly PLLC 62

Jefferds Corporation 96

Jimco Equipment Corporation 46

John A. Carr, Attorney at Law, PLLC 99

Joyce’s Jewelry Boutique 116

King Coal Highway Authority 72

Komax Business Systems 125

Mark A. Hunt & Associates 110

McCutcheon & Company LLC 94

Mountaineer Fabricators, Inc. 82

My Bank! First United Bank & Trust 100

New River Community and Technical College 120

Nitro Electric Company 98

Omega Commercial Interiors 67

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PetRecon, LLC 47

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The Media Center 88

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Thomas Health System 3

Toyota Motor Manufacturing, West Virginia, Inc. 93

United Bank 1

University of Charleston 36

USI Insurance Services 15

Welding, Inc. 65

WesBanco 68

West Virginia American Water 101

West Virginia Army National Guard 115

West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services 58

West Virginia Manufacturers Association 43

West Virginia State University Inside Back Cover

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White Brothers Consulting, LLC 70

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304-760-8991 3959 Teays Valley Road • Hurricane, WVwww.ArtisanInteriorsAndBuilders.com

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Combining TALENT & EXPERIENCEto get the job done.

Harper Engineering, PLLC provides innovative engineering design services to architects, owners and contractors throughout the state. Since 2008, our goal has been to create optimized systems that meet all of our clients’ performance, energy use and budgetary needs.

With a combined 97 years of experience, we have fused eager young talent and proven experience in order to serve your building systems design needs, including HVAC, plumbing, lighting, electrical, fire alarms and sprinkler suppression systems. We have worked with clients in a variety of fields such as K-12 schools, hospitals, offices, airports, manufacturing and water treatment plants.

52 B Street | St. Albans, WV 25177 | 304.722.3602

HVAC Design

• HeatingandCoolingLoadCalculations

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Electrical Design

• ElectricalLoadCalculations

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Plumbing Design

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Construction Documents

Jason E. Harper, PEJason Harper brings 12 years of design experience to our firm. He has experience with HVAC and piping design. His projects include educational facilities, health care facilities, office buildings, banks, emergency services facilities, postal facilities and government buildings.

Kevin Mark King, PEMark King has 10 years of electrical design experience and more than 11 years of electrical construction/maintenance experience. His projects include educational facilities, health care facilities, office buildings, emergency services facilities, government buildings and industrial projects.

Richard M. StandishRichard Standish’s 43 years in design have involved HVAC, plumbing and electrical design, with a specialty in the electrical design of water treatment and wastewater treatment plants. His projects include educational facilities, health care facilities, office buildings, banks, emergency services facilities, postal facilities and government buildings.

Scott D. PhillipsScott Phillips has been designing for 32 years. He has experience with plumbing and fire suppression system design. His projects include educational facilities, health care facilities, office buildings, banks, emergency services facilities, postal facilities and government buildings.

Phone: 850-333-2128Fax: 304-206-3135

P.O. Box 425 Inwood, WV 25428

www.jsdpropertiesllc.com

John Davis II [email protected]

JSD Properties LLC. is a West Virginia-based Limited Liability Company that has

its total focus on the real property class of investments including buying, selling,

and managing residential properties in and around the Eastern Panhandle of

West Virginia and the surrounding Washington, D.C. market.

If you are buying or selling a home in or around the Eastern Panhandle of

West Virginia or the surrounding Washington, D.C. market, we want to talk to you.

WE ARE A GROUP OF REAL ESTATE INVESTORS THAT ARE LOOKING TO BUY

AND SELL HOMES IN YOUR AREA.

261 Aikens CenterMartinsburg, West VirginiaPhone: 304-263-3303

Visit our website: martinsburgcenter.info

Now is the time to earn your M.B.A.

Shepherd University’s Martinsburg Center offers M.B.A. classes conveniently scheduled using the latest technology.

Our instructors are skilled business leaders with extensive experience in the areas in which they teach.

Shepherd’s M.B.A. offers concentrations in: • Accounting• Health Administration • Public Management• Sport Management

Your Message. Big Results.At Tammy Lynn Outdoor, our employees make a BIG difference.

John Mayo Mayo, a former sports writer for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, has been an Advertising Sales Executive for 42+ years. He is the winner of the Sales Executives Club’s prestigious Top Sales Award. Contact John at (304) 320-7610 or [email protected].

Maura Harvey Harvey is a former account representative for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph and has 20+ years of experience as a top Sales Executive achiever in the Outdoor industry, where her customers love her. Contact Maura at (304) 320-0302 or [email protected].

Laura Acken ColeCole is a graduate of Marshall University’s accounting program and has several years of experience in the Banking, Finance and Customer Service industries. Contact Laura at (304) 887-3740 or [email protected].

Tammy Lynn Outdoor, locally owned and headquartered in Bluefield, is West Virginia’s 5th largest outdoor advertising company, with locations in Mercer, Raleigh, Greenbrier, Fayette, Berkeley, Wood, Braxton, Summers, McDowell, Wyoming and Nicholas counties. Virginia locations include Tazewell, Giles and Carroll counties.

Bud and Tammy Lynn Acken, founders, have a combined 75+ years in the Advertising industry. Exceptional locations and unequaled customer service are the contributing factors for Tammy Lynn’s continued growth and loyal customer base.

Tammy Lynn Outdoor provides only the best in outdoor advertising to each and every customer. When you need outdoor, contact Tammy Lynn because “WE ARE OUTDOOR.”

(304) 324-7610TammyLynnOutdoor.com

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Whether it is for business or pleasure, traveling has never been easier. Huntington Tri-State Airport offers nonstop flights to your favorite destinations.

Charlotte | Orlando/Daytona Beach | Myrtle Beach | St. Petersburg/Tampa

To plan your next adventure, visit www.tristateairport.com.

Treat yourself to low air fares. Nonstop flights to your favorite leisure destinations.

Discover the top 5reasons to visit Woodridge Golf Club!

#1. Beautiful 18-Hole Golf CourseThis Links-style golf course is a par 71 with 6,830 yards from the championship tees. Frequently used for outings and tournaments, this venue has a 2-tier driving range, beautiful white sand traps, a pro shop, and a snack bar.

#2. Wonderful Banquet Facilities for Your Next Business Meeting, Wedding, Reception or EventComfortable seating is available for groups up to 300. The facility includes a full-service kitchen, catering and delicious menu options.

#3. Separate Meeting Space with Scenic Views for Corporate Functions, Retreats and LuncheonsOur meeting space is available 7 days a week for your convenience. Amenities include audio and visual equipment.

#4. Convenient LodgingMore than 500 hotel rooms are located within 1 mile of Woodridge Golf Club.

#5. Easy Access to the Interstate and Retail ShoppingWoodridge is located 1 mile off of Exit 170 on Interstate 77, just minutes from Parkersburg, WV.

301 Woodridge DriveMineral Wells, WV 26150304.489.1800woodridgegolfclub@hotmail.comwww.woodridgegolfclub.com Bill Neal

West Virginia State University

Energy Institute

The mission of the West Virginia State University Energy Institute (WVSUEI) is to enhance State’s capacity to participate in the evolving opportunities in energy and environmental research, teaching and outreach by facilitating collaboration across disciplines and engaging stakeholders at the local, state, national and international level.

Leading State’s energy and environmental initiatives through interdisciplinary research, education and outreach.

wvstateu.edu/research/Energy

West Virginia Executive - Spring 2014

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