The following article was published by Charleston Gazette-Mail on August 3, 2022.
Congress is preparing to vote on a sweeping spending package designed to accelerate the nation’s transition to and create thousands of jobs in clean energy. A new report suggests that West Virginia has a lot of ground to make up in that category. The report from Environmental Entrepreneurs, a nonpartisan group of business leaders and investors, finds that West Virginia had the third-lowest share of its workforce employed in clean energy in 2021.
West Virginia’s clip of 1.4% was higher than only New Jersey and Oklahoma, according to the seventh annual Clean Jobs America report produced by Environmental Entrepreneurs based on the U.S. Energy and Employment Jobs Report. West Virginia had 9,540 clean energy jobs, more than only three other states (North Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska).
West Virginia should learn soon by the end of next month where an influx of at least 350 clean energy jobs eagerly anticipated by the White House and West Virginia leaders will be located in the state. Sparkz, a California-based battery supply startup, will announce the site of its West Virginia plant by the end of September, company spokesman Paul Tencher told the Gazette-Mail Tuesday. Sparkz announced in March that the company would build a battery plant in an unspecified location in West Virginia that would employ at least 350 people.