By: Emmy Rinehart
The proposed $100 million budget cut for WV is still up in the air. The Justice administration suggested this cut because of falling numbers associated with coal and gas tax collections. On the flip-side, while the coal and natural gas industry is losing money, small businesses in WV are showing that they can thrive regardless.
Last year, Small Business Saturday in Bridgeport, WV brought in a whopping 108 million consumers, generating $12 million in revenue. These types of events in WV are crucial for the economy, but many small businesses currently require natural gas to simply remain open.
This September, the utility that serves the Rockaway Beach section of Queens, Natural Grid, refused to turn on natural gas service for a soon-to-be local business owner. The company instituted a moratorium on new natural gas hookups after an application for a new pipeline was denied this May.
Other states like New Jersey and Massachusetts have also instituted moratoriums on natural gas hookups, stating that the current pipelines cannot handle the demand.
Environmental groups in New York beg to differ, stating that NY is meeting its demand just fine, and it will need even less natural gas if the state is able to reach the legally mandated target to producing no greenhouse gas emissions whatsoever by 2050. These groups also worry that a new pipeline could cause tons of polluted sediment to return to the waters in Raritan Bay and undo decades worth of work to improve the environmental damage in this area from pollution.
In WV, similar environmental concerns are present along with the prospect of even worse ones as the state tries to fill the void coal left with natural gas.
The local resident in NY had been planning to open a BBQ restaurant along the water, but he needed natural gas to fuel his fryers. Without it, over a year of hard work seemed to be down the drain, but does it have to be this way for small businesses in the wake of the push towards renewable energy sources? Is there a way to prevent this from happening in WV?
By 2035, it is predicted that renewable energy will be more cost-effective than oil and natural gas. By 2045, a mere 3 percent of expected fuel use from future gas-fired power plants will be economic in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast and New York, according to reports released in September of this year by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).
To off-set the move to renewable energy for small businesses, The Department of Energy, has released info on a Small Business Vouchers pilot program. This program would give access to the Department of Energy’s labs for small businesses working on alternative energy source projects in the U.S.
These intellectual and technical resources would allow these businesses to tackle important technology challenges for advanced energy products and secure a global competitive advantage. Eight of these national labs have gotten funding to join with 38 small businesses across the States.
This program and these partnerships could help feed small businesses that fuel economies worldwide, including in our beloved state of WV. By encouraging small sustainable energy companies to use this resource, renewable energy will become more affordable for all small businesses. This presents a unique opportunity for WV to jump into the world of renewable energy and help their small businesses thrive too.
Almost Heaven, Almost Hell 